Goodies to Go ™
July 8, 2002–Newsletter #188
This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
Goodies Thoughts – Privacy Policies
How important is your privacy to you?
On a scale of 1 to 10, the vast majority of web surfers would rank their privacy
up near a 10 in importance. Unfortunately, too many websites rank a user’s
privacy much closer to a 1. Those are the sites that leave that ever-lingering
bad taste in the users’ mouths. Because of this "bad taste", more and more
user’s are paying much closer attention the Privacy Policies provided by the
websites that they visit.
So, what is a Privacy Policy?
I’m sure that most of you have viewed
a privacy policy at some point in your web surfing adventures. Basically, a
privacy policy lets the user know how the information the user provides will be
used. It can also provide additional information on things like encryption of
data, how privacy disputes are handled and many other privacy related issues.
There are also different ways that
sites implement and publish their policies. Many sites will implement a blanket
policy that covers the entire site. Others will implement different policies for
each section of their sites. For example, a site may have a Privacy Policy in
place for their discussion forums that is completely different from the policy
on their shopping cart system. Others take yet another approach by combining the
two methods above. This is done by creating a blanket policy that covers all
areas of the site and then adding in special sections that cover specific areas
of the site.
So, when should I use a Privacy
Policy?
As a general rule, a website should
have a Privacy Policy in place if they are accumulating and/or displaying any
user provided information. This means that if your site has a shopping cart, a
newsletter subscription form, a survey, discussion forums or even a simple
guestbook, you should be providing a Privacy Policy. Simply put, if you gather
any information at all about the user, you should provide a Privacy Policy.
So, what is usually included in a
Privacy Policy?
If you look around the web much you
will find a very wide variety of policies in place. The most important items to
include in your policies are the types of information that you collect, what you
intend to do with information collected and what options the user has in the
collection of data. You can also include secondary information like how to
handle disputes and special contact information. Here is some more specific
explanation on the three most important items outlined above:
Types of information –
Policies should state exactly information will be gathered. This could be in the
form of specific user input entered via a form. It could also be information
that is not "volunteered" like information on the type of browser they are using
or their IP address.
Your intent – This
should specifically outline what you will be doing with any data collected. Will
the data only be used on your site? Will it be included in market statistical
survey report? Will it be sold or rented to third parties?
User options – This
would include things like whether a user has the option of not having his
information sold to third parties, what personal information will be required to
complete certain forms/sections, and information on unsubscribing or removing
their information.
So, do I need to get legal advice
before making a Privacy Policy?
Well, that depends on the size and
type of site that you are implementing your Privacy Policy on. For the most
part, just including a detailed explanation of the items above will be quite
sufficient. If you take a look at Privacy Policies on other sites you should be
able to get a pretty good idea of how you would like to word your own Privacy
Policy. Take a look at the internet.com Privacy Policy (http://www.internet.com/corporate/privacy/privacypolicy.html)
and the VeriSign Privacy Policy (http://www.verisign.com/truste/index.html).
They should help get you started.
If you are implementing a policy for
a larger business or corporation, though, you may want to consult an attorney
before publishing any policy. Larger businesses have much more to lose, so it’s
always a good idea to run your policy by an attorney first.
So, is there anything else I should
know?
The role and standardization of the
Privacy Policy is ever-evolving. In December of 2000, the W3C published P3P.
If you remember, the W3C is the World
Wide Web Consortium. They are the folks that "guide" the web with the goal of
making it a more standardized and user-friendly place. The P3P publication
stands for Platform for Privacy Preferences specification.
The P3P is intended to make it easier
for the average user to define their own Privacy Policy. The policy that they
create is then automatically checked against the policies of the sites they
visit. If the site requires more information than the user wishes give, the user
is alerted and then has the option to over-ride their own Privacy Policy
settings.
The idea is a very sound one. By
automating the Privacy Policy process, users will be able to easily know what
information a site will require as well as what a site intends to do with any
information provided. In most cases, it will eliminate the need for user’s to
read through the sometimes lenghty Privacy Policies of the sites they visit.
The whole process is implemented
through an XML file. The XML file contains specific pre-determined tags that
define all of the major components of a site’s Privacy Policy. It also has the
flexibility to add non-standard policies as well as a traditional written
Privacy Policy.
While this is not by any means a
requirement for websites that gather data, it is most likely the wave of the
future. Only recently, with the release of Internet Explorer 6.0, has P3P
actually been implemented in a browser. This implementation will probably signal
the beginning of wide-spread use of this new standardization method.
The specific structure of the XML
file, how to make it public and all of the other facts regarding the P3P
specifications can be found at
http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/CR-P3P-20001215/.
Thanks for reading!
Quiz Goodies
Here’s an easy one for
you this week. Using DHTML, how do you turn a hyperlink red when you hover over
it?
Read answer below.
Q & A Goodies
Questions are taken from
submissions to our Community Mentors. You can ask a Mentor a question by going
to
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors/.
Q. I have a VERY
VERY basic knowledge of HTML and I’m completely lost. My friend Amanda made the
new layout for my site. I can figure out everything except how to make the
navigation at the bottom work. It was put in as part of the design. The design
was saved as a JPG. I can’t figure out how to make links out of the graphic that
she made. I’m really desperate cause I don’t want to go back to my old boring
layout.
A. You are going
to have to use an image map to finish the links on your site. There are a couple
of tutorials on the HTMLGoodies site. I suggest using this one:
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/cs_imap.html
It has links to image map editors that I suggest you use instead of hand-coding
it.
*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community. The answer was provided
by Bob Conley, one of our Web Design Mentors.
Q. Hi, I was
wondering if there was a way for me to remove a bottom scrollbar, but not the
side one.
A. You can’t. If
you prevent scrolling, you lose both. All you can do is try to make your pages
fit into standard size windows. If you get horizontal scrollbars when the window
is full size at 800×600, it’s too wide and you need to fix the code.
*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community. The answer was provided
by Eric Ferguson, one of our HTML Mentors.
Q. I’m using
Dreamweaver to make my website and I’d like to make the image on the opening
page constantly change like a slide show while viewers look at the page. Right
now there is a different image each time the viewer visits the page (or each
time they refresh the page). I’d simply like it to change every few seconds all
on it’s own. I have about 11 images or so, all the same size but I can’t figure
out how to do it. I’ve tried the tutorial in the program as well as a book I’ve
got for Dreamweaver and they explain it some but I still can’t figure it out.
There’s stuff about Layers, Creating Layers……etc. I just want to know step
by step how to do it. I’m hoping you can help me, I’m lost on this one.
A. You will have
to use an editor to manually go in and modify the document to add the code
necessary to do this. Here is some sample code that might be of help:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Image and Link Slide Show</TITLE>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
var a=0
var count=0
// Set this variable to the speed at which you want the images to change. The
speed is in milliseconds.
var speed=10000
// Enter your images Here along with the directory if need be.
var imgs=new Array()
imgs[0]="owls3.jpg"
imgs[1]="hawks2.jpg"
imgs[2]="pic221.jpg"
imgs[3]="eagle1.jpg"
// Enter your URLS and what you want to go in the ALT property. This is so when
they mouse over the image
// There will be a small description of the Image or URL. Make sure you separate
them with an
// ampersand "&" so that the script can separate them out before writing out the
link.
var urls=new Array()
urls[0]="http://www.requestcode.com&Requestcode"
urls[1]="http://www.javascriptkit.com&Javascriptkit"
urls[2]="http://www.dynamicdrive.com&Dynamic Drive"
urls[3]="https://www.htmlgoodies.com&HTML Goodies"
// Array used for preloading
var myimages=new Array()
// Preload First Image
myimages[a]=new Image()
myimages[a].src=imgs[a]
count++
// This is the function that rotates the images and links. You should not have
to modify it.
function Doimglink()
{
// window.status=a
newurls=urls[a].split("&")
if(document.layers)
{
document.mydiv.document.write("<A HREF=’"+newurls[0]+"’><IMG SRC=’"+imgs[a]+"’
BORDER=’0′ ALT=’"+newurls[1]+"’></A>")
document.mydiv.document.close()
}
if(document.getElementById)
{
elm=document.getElementById("mydiv")
elm.innerHTML="<A HREF=’"+newurls[0]+"’><IMG SRC=’"+imgs[a]+"’ BORDER=’0′
TITLE=’"+newurls[1]+"’></A>"
}
a++
if(a>imgs.length-1)
{a=0}
// Preload the next image
if(count<imgs.length)
{
myimages[a]=new Image()
myimages[a].src=imgs[a]
count++
}
setTimeout("Doimglink()",speed)
}
// In the DIV below you may have to add the top and left properties to the style
tag to position it
// correctly in the window. You must keep it positions as absolute for it to
work in NS4.0+ browsers.
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY onLoad="Doimglink()">
<CENTER><H1>Slide Show With Links</H1>
<DIV ID=’mydiv’ STYLE="position:absolute;top:120;left:200"></DIV>
</BODY>
</HTML>
*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community. The answer was provided
by Jim Young, one of our JavaScript Mentors.
News Goodies
eBay dropped a cool $1.5 to pick up
PayPal.
Click here to read the article
Pop-up ads getting on your nerves?
Here’s a little read that might make you grin.
Click here to read the article
Have you been interested in learning
about web services? Here’s an article that might help guide you through the
maze.
Click here to read the article
Quiz Answer
Adding this simple hover feature to
your pages only takes about 3 lines. Here they are:
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
A:HOVER {COLOR:
#FF0000}
</STYLE>
That’s all there is to it. This tells
the browser to apply the hover effect throughout the page. The "A" in "A:HOVER"
refers to the <A> tag for hyperlinks. The "HOVER" tells the browser what effect
to apply to the hyperlinks. Everything in the brackets {} defines what is to
happen when the user hovers over the link. In this case, it is turning the text
red.
You can also apply other effects like
changing the size of the font or making it bold instead of changing the color by
separating the effects within the brackets with a semicolon. You can even
combine effects.
And Remember This . . .
Did you know that on this day in
history two interesting events in U.S. history occurred?
Even though the Declaration of
Independence was signed on July 4th, Independence Day, it was not until today
that the document was first read in public in Philadelphia. It took two more
days to get copies sent on their way to the colonies and a month to get all of
them signed.
Coincidentally, this was the last day
the Liberty Bell was heard ringing. In 1835, it was ringing for the recently
deceased Chief Justice John Marshall when it cracked, never to be heard again.
Thanks for reading Goodies to Go!
