Social news darling Reddit has announced and released a preview version of its new privacy policy affecting all users. The policy, which goes into effect May 15th, is designed to be simpler and more straightforward than Reddit's old privacy policy, using more plain English and less legalese. It claims to offer similar protections to users — such as sharing no personal data with third-parties except in cases of emergency — but also addresses more specific Reddit features than the previous policy did, such as Reddit Gold and Reddit's third party advertiser partner Adzerk.

The new Reddit privacy policy was written primarily by Lauren Gelman, a San Francisco lawyer who previously worked at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Stanford. In characteristic Reddit fashion, Gelman herself has appeared in the comments of the official Reddit thread on the privacy policy change to answer questions from users ("Redditors"). She's even gone so far as to say she will change parts of the new policy based on their suggestions. "The old policy was written very broad," Gelman wrote in a comment explaining the key differences. "This was written specifically to apply to reddit. The goal was to be clear and specific. Especially about data retention." So far, Redditors appear to be supportive of the changes, but as with most Reddit threads, there is a fair share of dissenting voices.