Zynga makes privacy a game with PrivacyVille
The social gaming giant turns its privacy policy into a game tutorial with redeemable points for those who play along.
(Credit:
Zynga)
Zynga is ditching the usual fine print of a privacy policy for, what else, a game.
That game, called PrivacyVille, is launching today. And it's not really a game as much as a tutorial on the social gaming company's privacy policies. The reward is that players who follow along and learn about the company's practices for protecting users' personal information get redeemable points.
PrivacyVille is modeled after Zynga's most popular game, CityVille. But unlike Zynga's other games you don't have to register with Zynga or be connected with Facebook to play. But if you do happen to be a registered Zynga player, playing PrivacyVille gets you access to reward points, called zPoints. Those can then be exchanged later for virtual items in some other Zynga games.
Zynga cautions that the PrivacyVille game is supposed to be educational, and is "not a substitute" for the company's official privacy policy or Privacy Center, which details how Zynga deals with your personal information.
(By the way, my colleague Edward Moyer all but predicted this gaming approach in a recent post about a Facebook experiment with interactive fine print.)
Last week, Zynga announced its plans to go public. The company is expected to raise about $1 billion through its IPO.
