Technical Communication Quarterly Apr 2005

The Rhetoric of Misdirection in Corporate Privacy-Policy Statements

Mike Markel

Abstract

U.S. businesses wish to continue to profit by collecting personal information from their website visitors, yet they fear that the practice both alienates visitors and exposes them both to legal problems from U.S. authorities and business sanctions from data-privacy authorities in Europe and Canada. This dilemma is reflected in the typical corporate privacy-policy statement, which is full of misleading and deceptive rhetoric intended to cover up the gap between the company's privacy policy and the image it wishes to project.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2005-04-01
DOI
10.1207/s15427625tcq1402_5
Open Access
Closed

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (7)

  1. Hope et al. (2025)
    Investigating Cookie Banners and Mitigating Complacent Clicking With Informed-C…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Stone et al. (2025)
    The Material-Discursive Realities of Mobile Menstruation Tracking Apps in a Pos…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Jordan et al. (2025)
    Queer Potential in Professional Communication: “Queer Use” & Terms of Service
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Bennett (2025)
    Ableist Archives: Challenging Technoableism in Workplace Mental Health Applicat…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Beck et al. (2021)
    Critical digital literacy as method for teaching tactics of response to online …
    Computers and Composition
Show all 7 →
  1. Novotny et al. (2019)
    Data Our Bodies Tell: Towards Critical Feminist Action in Fertility and Period …
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Markel (2009)
    Anti-Employer Blogging: An Overview of Legal and Ethical Issues
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

Also cites 2 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.1145/359205.359241
     ↗
  2. Lucent Technologies. "Privacy Statement. Lucent Technologies.2003. 8 July 2004 <http://www. lucent.com/privac…
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 21 View in citation network →