User

An individual who interacts with a website, application, or service, potentially as a customer, visitor, subscriber, or account holder. In privacy contexts, 'user' often refers to any natural person whose personal data is collected or processed through the digital property. Users may include: registered account holders, anonymous visitors, prospects who haven't purchased, current customers, past customers, and employees accessing internal systems. Privacy policies typically address how 'user' data is handled, but organizations should recognize that users have different relationships and expectations—visitors expect less data collection than registered users, and employees have different privacy interests than customers. Organizations should: clearly define in privacy policies who qualifies as a 'user,' tailor privacy practices to different user types, implement appropriate consent mechanisms for each relationship type, and recognize that all natural persons interacting with systems may be data subjects with rights. The term 'user' in privacy documentation should encompass anyone whose personal information is processed, not just registered account holders.