Website Privacy Policy – What You Need to Know?

Website Privacy Policy – you might have come across it on almost every website you visited. You get a message for accepting cookies and reading the privacy policies.

Web designers that build projects need to add this privacy policy page to your website but it isn’t just their default task. Before putting anything in your privacy policy and adding it to your website or using a default template, you need to think carefully.

You need to think about several things when creating a privacy policy and also, what to include in it will depend upon your industry or location. Below is the brief explanation of privacy policy for you to start building a perfect one for your website and learn about the queries you might need to ask before publishing it.

Do I Actually Need a Privacy Policy?

Are you wondering “Whether you really need a privacy policy for your website?”

Suppose you are starting a business today, then surely you need a privacy policy.

It can be a daunting task to start a new business because there are several parts you have to manage at once and you might completely ignore your privacy policy in this tension. But there is an emergence of many new data regulations and lawsuits and so, if you skip on a privacy policy, you will be putting yourself in trouble.

There are some regions such as the United Kingdom (DPA), European Union (GDPR), Canada (PIPEDA), Australia, and few states in the United States that have laws that need privacy policies and notifications if you assemble certain types of information on your website. Apart from these countries, other countries and locations are including regulations all the time.

As a standard rule, if you follow the strictest guidelines, you should always be safe. Because internet is used worldwide, you can safely think about your starting point.

Apart from that the prompting factors can include third-party apps and services that you connect to your website such as advertising, email newsletters, eCommerce platforms, or analytics tools. These services might need you to include a privacy policy on your website as a part of their terms and conditions for usage.

Are you planning to run any online ad campaigns? Google as well as Facebook need privacy policies if you are going to collect any user information. Facebook Lead Ads significantly need a privacy policy URL link within each ad created by you.

Privacy Policy Benefits for Your Website

Though you don’t need a privacy policy legally, you should check the reasons to opt for one.

Helps to Build Trust with Users

When your website is secure then only you can sell things online or ask for payment information. A privacy policy acts a form of security for users to share their information and buy things from your website. No doubt many people don’t take interest in reading these documents, but they should be there if needed or if your users have any queries about you. With this, users will appreciate that you are being transparent and thus, increase their trust on your website.

Boost Your Search Rankings

Though an indirect impact, but it surely happens. If your website receives more visitors and more engagement, it is surely going to help you. How? When a highly comprehensive website engages visitors for a long time, search engines notice it and think that your website is more valuable. This then boosts your website’s ranking.

Be Compliant to Use Third-Party Tools

You won’t be able to use your email newsletter service or any other third-party app, if you don’t have a privacy policy and it is require as per their terms of use. Of course no one wants to deal with such as tension.

Creating One Isn’t Complex

To speak about, create and add a privacy policy to your website isn’t a hard task. A business attorney can make your task easy by quickly creating a privacy policy for you. Moreover, there are other tools and resources online that will help you to create your privacy policy. After creating a document, you simply need to create a page for it on your website.

Increase Your Conversions

Again here trust and transparency come into picture. If your privacy policy is transparent, easy to locate and easy to read for users that are close to answering a poll, filling out a form or making a purchase might feel confident to do so on your website.

Privacy Policy Content

There’s not one privacy policy content that all can use but there is some general information that almost each website’s privacy policy includes. A more regulated industry, such as healthcare or financial services have stricter privacy policy guidelines which you need to consider, if you are one of them.

The common things privacy policies include are:

The website URL, owner, as well as contact information (For instance: an email address).
The type of information or data you collect on your website (For instance: asking for email signups or payment information).
In case that information or data is reserved (for example, usernames or account information may be stored on websites but payment information is not generally stored on websites)
What’s done with any information or data collected?
If a third-party app or vendor can access that information.
Any third-party apps’ clauses or information that are needed as part of your usage agreement with them.

Location of a Privacy Policy on Your Website

After creating a perfect privacy policy for your website, you should add it on a page of its own. Without giving a second thought, name this page “Privacy Policy.” If you have a terms and conditions or terms of use page ensure that it is separate.

When you name the page as privacy policy, it helps your website visitors to find it easily when they navigate your website.

Ensure that you link the privacy policy page. Footer is the standard location for a privacy policy. Also, see that it is on or easily accessible from every page of your website. Therefore, footer is the standard location for it.

Updating a Privacy Policy

Don’t forget about the privacy policy, after writing and publishing it.

The consumer rights and internet privacy laws are always changing. So, always keep an eye on the legislative changes and update your policy when the new regulations are announced.

To remember about updating your privacy policy you can add this task in the annual website to-dos list.

Go through the policy for the things that have been modified, new third-party tools are added or third-party services you aren’t using now.

Reading over your privacy policy when you link it to a new website, service, or app is considered as a good practice.

For instance, Facebook allow you to link to a website privacy policy. If you link to the policy again, ensure it covers the use added at a minimum.

Privacy Policy Resources and Tools

The perfect privacy policy for you relies on your business, needs, industry, location and website. Avoid downloading a random template as well as publishing it.

To make your work easier, there are some tools, templates and guidelines you can start with. When you are searching for one of these tools, select one that is offered from an official source (for instance a reputable business advocate or organization) rather than from a reseller.

Check below some of the privacy policy resources:

Privacy Policy of Pinterest https://policy.pinterest.com/en/privacy-policy
Privacy Policy of DuckDuckGo https://duckduckgo.com/privacy
Template of Privacy Notice from GDPR.eu https://gdpr.eu/privacy-notice/
Shopify Privacy Policy Generator https://www.shopify.com/tools/policy-generator

Conclusion

Privacy policy and online regulations are effective in some countries. Don’t consider this guide as a legal document and always consult an attorney if you have any queries about some rules.

With this guide, you can understand the factors to considering while creating a privacy policy. If there is no privacy policy on your website, consider an appropriate type of privacy policy and the information it should include.