diff --git a/docs/libcurl/curl_easy_setopt.3 b/docs/libcurl/curl_easy_setopt.3
index a06f259d0..157b3b62d 100644
--- a/docs/libcurl/curl_easy_setopt.3
+++ b/docs/libcurl/curl_easy_setopt.3
@@ -803,8 +803,9 @@ support only works for FTP.
 .SH OTHER OPTIONS
 .IP CURLOPT_PRIVATE
 Pass a char * as parameter, pointing to data that should be associated with
-the curl handle.  The pointer can be subsequently retrieved using the
-CURLINFO_PRIVATE options to curl_easy_getinfo. (Added in 7.10.3)
+this curl handle.  The pointer can subsequently be retrieved using
+\fIcurl_easy_getinfo\fP with the CURLINFO_PRIVATE option. libcurl itself does
+nothing with this data. (Added in 7.10.3)
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 CURLE_OK (zero) means that the option was set properly, non-zero means an
 error occurred as \fI<curl/curl.h>\fP defines. See the \fIlibcurl-errors.3\fP