I understand the privacy aspect, but I simply would not feel comfortable purchasing a (paid) product if I don't even know who is behind the product.
As a customer, how much info do you expect to see about the people behind a project or product when you visit their website? Interested to hear of you thoughts as a customer, a product creator, or both.
If you are a user or customer:
Which of the following do expect to see in the 'About' section of a website? (Feel free to indicate whether you expect this for commercial or open source or both)
- At least one or more person names behind the project or programme
- Profile or mini biography of one or more people
- Mini biography of the project or company
- Country location (is this irrevelant if you are a 'digital nomad'?)
- Address
Anything else?
If you are the person behind a product
- How much information do you provide on your 'About' page?
- How much do your feel comfortable sharing?
- Are there any reasons why you don't share some details? (e.g. your location, your name)
If you are just purchasing a product and not providing confidential information (e.g. a financial SAAS) then I don’t see the issue, personally. Privacy-first seems like a good societal default to me.
A postal address is essential, so people know which governments might be involved in oversight, and have a rough idea of what hours you are likely to be available.
An actual email or phone number that always gets answered puts you light years ahead of Facebook or Google in terms of customer service. (See, it is a low bar)
You shouldn't depend on Facebook, Twitter, etc. as your primary web page. They are subject to change on a whim, and you will get burned.
* what is the product for? what desires/needs does it address? under what circumstances might I use it?
If it is an about page for a business, I'd like to know:
* where is the business based out of? (What town or city? Certainly, what state/province/country are they in)
But that is mostly to answer the question:
* can they ship/provide a product to me? am I going to be charged an egregious amount of time / will it get stuck in customs?
If they are offering non-physical products:
* if they are offering a digital good, I don't really care where they are from * if they are offering a service (ex. they are a lawyer), I need to know that they are competent in my jurisdiction * if they are offering a digital (read: cloud-based) service, then I need to know about data privacy and retention, etc, but I'm not going to look for that on the about page.
Most of the time, knowing the people behind the product doesn't make a difference to me. Those big bio pages aren't useful to me as an end user; I don't know the people involved anyway, and have only their word that they are competent. Does the product stand on its own merits, or not? If not, it doesn't matter if a team or neuroscientists stand behind it.
It's a habit I picked up from my first business, where people would be supportive because you're from the same country/race/religion. They'd buy things, bring friends in, and then act entitled because they "helped" you. It also messes with the data, when you're trying to figure out whether you have a valid business model and who your target market is.
60% of the users on my site are from the US, and I worry it might have a negative effect if they see that I'm not. I also presume a lot of product owners leave out their location, because it's probably somewhere in India.
In general, it is more likely to be playing house than doing what needs to be done.
Consider the amount of companies that don't even have a website to begin with or have one that hasn't been updated since the early 2000s. And they still do well. Because their target audience discover them in a different way.
In any case wrapping up a simple about page is not a large effort and probably won't hurt to have anyway so do it. But spending a bigger chunk of time on it should be done only if this is at least a somewhat critical part of your marketing strategy. My 2c.