California wants to make the long-winded, frequently confusing privacy policies of internet businesses easier for you to understand. Attorney General Kamala D. Harris released a guide on Wednesday outlining how companies can make their practices more transparent to consumers after a new state privacy law went into effect on January 1st. The 28-page document includes recommendations to use straightforward language, avoid legal jargon, and provide full disclosure about who is collecting a user's personal information and why.

Entitled Making Your Privacy Practices Public, the guide was issued to assist companies in complying with the recent changes. The response to Harris's publication has been generally positive. "HP commends the work of California in establishing expectations-based guidance for privacy as it strikes the right balance between innovation and the protection of legitimate consumer rights," said Hewlett-Packard's vice president, Scott Taylor, in the press release. In a statement to the New York Times, Microsoft echoed this sentiment saying, "We appreciate the willingness to engage industry in developing some of the thinking."