PrivacyHub is an open-source project dedicated to promoting transparency and understanding of privacy policies across various websites and apps. By crowdsourcing evaluations based on a clear rubric, we aim to provide users with a comprehensive score that reflects the privacy practices of different online services.

The primary objective of PrivacyHub is to display a score derived from the evaluation of privacy policies of various websites and apps. This score is based on a predefined rubric that assesses different aspects of a privacy policy, such as data handling, transparency, and data collection practices.

Our rubric will evaluate privacy policies based on the following criteria:

• Handling

  • Personally-targeted or behavioural marketing: 4/10
  • Permanent deletion of personal data: 5/5
  • Third-party access to private personal data: 0/10
  • Law enforcement access to personal data: 3/5

• Transparency

  • General security practices outlined: 2/3
  • Policy's history availability: 5/5
  • Notification requirement in case of a data breach: 0/7
  • Notification to users when policy is meaningfully changed: 0/5

• Collection

  • Collection of personal data from third parties: 0/10
  • Clarity on why personal data is collected: 7/10
  • Control over non-critical personal data collection or use: 3/10
  • Listing of personal data collected: 7/10

For the development and deployment of PrivacyHub, we are utilizing a lightweight and efficient technology stack:

• Backend: Conversion from TOML to HTML. This allows us to maintain structured data in TOML format and then dynamically generate the corresponding HTML content.

• Frontend: The user interface is built using standard web technologies:

  • HTML for structuring the content.
  • JavaScript for dynamic interactions and functionality.
  • CSS for styling and layout.

• Hosting & Deployment: The entire project is hosted on GitHub, leveraging the simplicity and efficiency of GitHub Pages or Netlify for deployment. This ensures easy collaboration, version control, and seamless updates to the live site.

We invite developers, privacy enthusiasts, and users to contribute to PrivacyHub. Whether you're interested in evaluating privacy policies, improving our codebase, or spreading the word, your help is invaluable. Join us in making the digital world more transparent!

We're calling on student developers to join us for real-world exposure in the privacy domain. This is a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience, work on a meaningful project, and make a tangible impact in the field of online privacy. By joining PrivacyHub, you'll not only enhance your technical skills but also gain a deep understanding of privacy-related challenges in the digital age.

We're actively seeking sponsors to support our mission at PrivacyHub. Sponsoring our project will not only help in accelerating the development and reach of PrivacyHub but also showcase your commitment to online privacy and transparency. If you or your organization believes in a transparent digital world and wishes to contribute, please reach out to us for sponsorship opportunities.

In the future, we aim to integrate Machine Learning and NLP to parse and analyze the privacy policies of any website or app in real-time. Users will be able to input a URL, and our system will evaluate the privacy policy based on our rubric, displaying the results on our website for future reference.