What is a privacy policy?
A privacy policy is a legal document that explains how a website collects, uses, shares, and protects the personal information of its users or customers. It outlines the policies and procedures related to privacy and data protection, providing transparency to individuals about how their personal information is handled.
But what does that really mean? Basically, if someone lands on your website, what data about that person will you receive, and how will you use it? You might be thinking, “I don’t receive anything!” But that probably isn’t the case. If you use Google Analytics, then you have access to a certain level of user data even if the person doesn’t purchase from you or submit any of your forms.
The only time when you would not be receiving any user data on a website is if you have no way for them to interact with the website, meaning there are no forms, no shopping, no membership, and no stats or analytics. In that case, you may not need a privacy policy. But for most people, you should have one.
What should you include in your privacy policy?
Keep in mind when looking over this information, it is generic in nature AND I am not a lawyer and don’t know the laws of your state, territory, or country. So use this as a guide to make decisions about what will be the best privacy policy for you, or better yet, contract with an Intellectual Property attorney to get one customized for you.
Possible options for your privacy policy
- Introduction: A brief overview of the purpose and scope of the privacy policy.
- Types of Information Collected: Explanation of the categories of personal information collected, such as name, email address, contact details, IP address, and any other data collected through forms, shopping carts, cookies or tracking technologies.
- Collection Methods: Description of how the website collects personal information, including information provided by users directly through forms, registrations, or subscriptions, as well as information collected automatically through cookies or other technologies.
- Purpose of Data Collection: Explanation of why the website collects personal information and the intended use of that information (e.g., providing services, personalization, analytics, marketing).
- Legal Basis: Identification of the legal basis for processing personal information (e.g., consent, legitimate interests, contractual necessity) in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
- Data Sharing: Disclosure of whether and how personal information is shared with third parties, such as service providers, advertising partners, or law enforcement agencies.
- User Choices and Controls: Information about the rights and choices available to users regarding their personal information, such as opting out of certain data collection or requesting access, correction, or deletion of their data.
- Security Measures: Explanation of the security measures implemented to protect the personal information from unauthorized access, loss, or misuse.
- Data Retention: Indication of how long personal information is retained and the criteria used to determine the retention period.
- International Data Transfers: Disclosure of whether personal information may be transferred to and processed in other countries, including any safeguards implemented to ensure an adequate level of data protection.
- Updates to the Privacy Policy: Statement indicating that the privacy policy may be updated from time to time, and how users will be notified of any material changes.
- Contact Information: Contact details of the website operator or data controller for users to reach out with questions, concerns, or data subject requests.
Where does the privacy policy go?
Your privacy policy should have it’s own page on your site, and it should be linked via a text link in the footer of your site.
By default, when you create a new WordPress site, there is a privacy policy already in place for you, on its own page, in Draft form. You can use that as a jumping off point to customize it based on your own preferences.
