process

No one likes to read legal terms, but they're important. To make the documents more accessible, I worked with the legal and policy experts to write the updated document. I also helped shape the messaging for how to introduce the updated policy.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

There were plenty of legal considerations, so I worked with the team to find a balance of using precise legal language and user-focused explanations.

For example, I recommended things like:

  • Group similar concepts and use headings, white space, and bullets to aid readability

  • Use everyday words (instead of legal jargon) whenever possible

  • Go from general to specific and include a lead-in statement before diving in to the details

  • Make it sound friendlier with contractions, active voice, and other plain language best practices

 

Outcome

A more user friendly legal document
I was happy with how much we were able to get done given the constraints, timing, and number of stakeholders.  Is the final document written exactly how I would have wished? Well, not exactly—but legal writing projects always involve a lot of compromise. I like this type of work, but it's definitely not easy.

Positive feedback
We heard from users that they appreciated that Facebook was trying to be more transparent, and the press reaction was good too.

My favorite headline:

"Facebook turns its data policy into something a human can actually read."

I'll go ahead and take some credit for that! 

FACEBOOK DATA POLICY UPDATES

 

CHALLENGE

Help people understand how their information is used on Facebook.

SOLUTION

Develop a more streamlined, user friendly version of the Facebook data policy.

HOW I HELPED

  • Content strategy and plain language writing

  • Message development and prototypes for testing

  • Wrote UI notifications and emails seen by all users of Facebook—1.6 billion people

Team: Facebook