As part of creating a Facebook app you have to come up with a Terms of Service and a Privacy Policy. Facebook insist – although a fair few apps don’t seem to have them.

The privacy policy says what data you collect and how you store and use it. The terms of service is who gets the blame if something goes wrong.

To get inspiration I took a closer look at some policies that are out there on the net. Here are some of the more interesting ones I found:

Zynga (makers of FarmVille) aren’t closing any doors on future data sources:

We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, Zynga games and other users of Zynga, to supplement your profile.

Christopher Penn’s blog takes a less formal approach but it is at least crystal clear:

… Don’t ever submit to me anything you wouldn’t put up on a public bulletin board …

And finally JavaRanch has one that is short and sweet:

Be nice.

I suppose I’ll tread the middle ground  – trying to avoid the pointless legalese but also trying to be a little more specific.