Privacy Preference Settings

The Privacy Preference Settings panel allows you to configure Privacy Bird® according to your personal privacy preferences. When Privacy Bird encounters a web site that does not match your privacy preferences, a red warning icon will appear in your browser title bar.

Open the Privacy Preference Settings panel by clicking on the bird icon and selecting My Preferences from the menu. Then select Privacy.

You may use this panel to select one of the pre-configured settings, select custom settings, export your settings, or import settings.

Pre-configured Settings

The simplest way to select privacy preference settings is to select from one of the pre-configured settings -- low, medium, or high. When you select one of these settings, check marks will appear next to the specific items that will trigger warnings under that setting. The low setting will result in warnings only at web sites that may use or share your health or medical information, or keep marketing or mailing lists from which you cannot be removed. The medium setting includes additional warnings when sites may share your personally identified information or if a site does not allow you to find out what data they have about you. The high setting triggers the maximum number of warnings, and will trigger warnings at most commercial web sites.

Custom Settings

If you are not entirely satisfied with one of the pre-configured settings, you can click on the check boxes to add additional warning triggers or to remove warning triggers.The table below provides more detailed information about each of the warning triggers. Note that you will not be warned at sites that have opt-in policies. For example, if you ask to be warned at sites that my market to you, and you visit a site that will market to you only if you sign up for their mailing list, no warning will be triggered. Also, regardless of your settings, you will also be warned at sites that say they collect data for an unknown purpose (other-purpose in the P3P vocabulary).

Preference Setting Explanation P3P statements that trigger warning
Warn me at web sites that use my health or medical information for analysis, marketing, or to make decisions that may affect what content or ads I see, etc. Some web sites may collect information from you about your physical or mental health, sexual orientation, use or inquiry into health care services or products, or purchase of health care services or products. A warning is triggered if they use this information to build a profile about you. This profile might be used in ways that don't impact you directly, for example to help the web site better understand the types of people who visit. Or the profile might be used to make decisions that do impact you, for example to provide advertisements that are customized based on your health conditions. A warning is also triggered if the site may use this information in order to contact you to market products or services. health category in combination with any of the following purposes when they have the "required" attribute set to always or opt-out: pseudo-analysis, pseudo-decision, individual-analysis, individual-decision, contact, telemarketing
Warn me at web sites that use my health or medical information to share with other companies (other than those helping the web site provide services to me) Some web sites may collect information from you about your physical or mental health, sexual orientation, use or inquiry into health care services or products, or purchase of health care services or products. A warning is triggered if the site may share this information with anyone other than those helping the web site provide services to you. Examples of parties that may help the site provide services are the site's Internet Service Provider, or a company the site hires to fulfill any product orders you might place on the web site.These parties must treat your personal data according to the site's privacy policy. In addition, if you have asked that something be shipped to you, the postal service or shipping company will receive shipping information. health category in combination with any of the following recipients when they have the "required" attribute set to always or opt-out: same, other-recipient, unrelated, public
Warn me at web sites that use my financial information or information about my purchases for analysis, marketing, or to make decisions that may affect what content or ads I see, etc. Some web sites may collect information from you about your finances including account balance, payment or overdraft history, stock portfolio, or information about your loans or credit cards. At web sites where you make purchases, the site may keep information about what you purchased and how you paid for it. A warning is triggered if they use any of this information to build a profile about you. This profile might be used in ways that don't impact you directly, for example to help the web site better understand the types of people who visit. Or the profile might be used to make decisions that do impact you, for example to provide advertisements that are customized based on your past purchases. A warning is also triggered if the site may use this information in order to contact you to market products or services. purchase or financial category in combination with any of the following purposes when they have the "required" attribute set to always or opt-out: pseudo-analysis, pseudo-decision, individual-analysis, individual-decision, contact, telemarketing
Warn me at web sites that use my financial information or information about my purchases to share with other companies (other than those helping the web site provide services to me) Some web sites may collect information from you about your finances including account balance, payment or overdraft history, stock portfolio, or information about your loans or credit cards. At web sites where you make purchases, the site may keep information about what you purchased and how you paid for it. A warning is triggered if the site may share any of this information with anyone other than those helping the web site provide services to you. Examples of parties that may help the site provide services are the site's Internet Service Provider, or a company the site hires to fulfill any product orders you might place on the web site.These parties must treat your personal data according to the site's privacy policy. In addition, if you have asked that something be shipped to you, the postal service or shipping company will receive shipping information. purchase or financial category in combination with any of the following recipients when they have the "required" attribute set to always or opt-out: same, other-recipient, unrelated, public
Warn me at web sites that may contact me to interest me in other services or products via telephone A warning is triggered at sites that may contact you to interest you in other services or products via telephone. Sites that only contact you with information about your order or to answer questions you may have asked them do not trigger this warning. telemarketing purpose with "required" attribute set to always or opt-out
Warn me at web sites that may contact me to interest me in other services or products via other means (email, postal mail, etc.) A warning is triggered at sites that may contact you to interest you in other services or products via email, postal mail, or any other channel other than telephone. Sites that only contact you with information about your order or to answer questions you may have asked them do not trigger this warning. contact purpose with "required" attribute set to always or opt-out
Warn me at web sites that may contact me to interest me in other services or products and do not allow me to remove myself from marketing/mailing lists A warning is triggered at sites that may contact you to interest you in other services or products but may not provide an "opt-out" mechanism that allows you to request to be removed from their marketing or mailing lists. telemarketing or contact purpose with "required" attribute set to always
Warn me at web sites that use information that personally identifies me to determine my habits, interests, or other characteristics Some web sites collect a variety of information that may personally identify you such as your name, address, phone number, or government-issued identification number. A warning is triggered if they may use any of this information to build a profile about you. This profile might be used in ways that don't impact you directly, for example to help the web site better understand the types of people who visit. Or the profile might be used to make decisions that do impact you, for example to provide advertisements that are customized based on your profile. individual-analysis or individual-decision purpose with "required" attribute set to always or opt-out
Warn me at web sites that use information that personally identifies me to share with other companies (other than those helping the web site provide services to me) Some web sites collect a variety of information that may personally identify you such as your name, address, phone number, or government-issued identification number. A warning is triggered if the site may share this information with anyone other than those helping the web site provide services to you. Examples of parties that may help the site provide services are the site's Internet Service Provider, or a company the site hires to fulfill any product orders you might place on the web site.These parties must treat your personal data according to the site's privacy policy. In addition, if you have asked that something be shipped to you, the postal service or shipping company will receive shipping information. physical, online, or government categories in combination with any of the following recipients when they have the "required" attribute set to always or opt-out: same, other-recipient, unrelated, public
Warn me at web sites that do not allow me to find out what data they have about me Some web sites allow you to contact them to find out what personal information they collect about you. This allows you to find out what sorts of records are being kept about you, and it gives you an opportunity to find erroneous information. A warning is triggered at sites that may collect your personal information but do not provide a way for you to find out what information about you is in their files. access none
Warn me at web sites that use my non-personally identifiable information to determine my habits, interests, or other characteristics Some web sites collect a variety of information that does not personally identify you such as information about the computer you are using to visit the web site, information about what parts of the web site you have visited, demographic information, or your answers to opinion survey questions. A warning is triggered if they may use any of this information to build a profile about you. This profile might be used in ways that don't impact you directly, for example to help the web site better understand the types of people who visit. Or the profile might be used to make decisions that do impact you, for example to provide advertisements that are customized based on your profile. pseudo-analysis or pseudo-decision purpose with "required" attribute set to always or opt-out
Warn me at web sites that use my non-personally identifiable information to share with other companies (other than those helping the web site provide services to me) Some web sites collect a variety of information that does not personally identify you such as information about the computer you are using to visit the web site, information about what parts of the web site you have visited, demographic information, or your answers to opinion survey questions. A warning is triggered if the site may share this information with anyone other than those helping the web site provide services to you. Examples of parties that may help the site provide services are the site's Internet Service Provider, or a company the site hires to fulfill any product orders you might place on the web site.These parties must treat your personal data according to the site's privacy policy. A common reason for sharing non-personally identifiable information is to help advertising companies display the ads to you that you are most likely to be interested in. any of the following recipients when they have the "required" attribute set to always or opt-out: same, other-recipient, unrelated, public

For more information about the P3P statements that trigger these warning, please refer to the P3P1.0 specification, available from the W3C P3P web site. Note that Privacy Bird ignores the "optional" attribute of data elements -- thus, the warnings are triggered regardless of whether a site indicates that a data element is optional.

Exporting Settings

Privacy Bird allows you to save your privacy settings into a file so that you can take them with you when you use another computer. In addition, these settings may be used with any P3P tool that is able to read files written using the APPEL 1.0 language.

Importing Settings

Privacy Bird allows you to import settings files that you have created previously or that you have gotten from other people. You may be able to download these settings files from the web sites of privacy-related organizations. The files must be written using the APPEL 1.0 language. Privacy Bird does not support all of the features of APPEL 1.0, however, so only use files that say they are compatible with Privacy Bird.

Related Information

APPEL support
My Preferences Menu
Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)