Why You Need an Online Privacy Policy – To Cover Your ASS of Course
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I get asked a lot about whether or not a particular website needs an online privacy policy or not. My answer to all those different websites is the same: for the love of little puppies, yes. No matter what your subject matter or nature of your website, you need to have a privacy policy.
NOTE: Now before i get into this any farther I do need to make one thing VERY CLEAR… I AM NOT A LAWYER and therefore do not take anything I post here as legal advice. You are on your own there… so if you are not sure then check with a lawyer.
The reason you need one, as I mentioned in the title of this post, is to cover your ass. With all the news and talk about the FTC and the changes that are coming you do NOT want to be unprepared for the unexpected.
An online privacy policy states the terms and conditions under which your website handles the personal information that it obtains from anyone who visits your site. What that means for you is that, because you had a posted policy, no one can come to you after visiting your site and complain that you misused their information or didn’t inform them about how their information was going to be used.
You may think that you don’t need a privacy policy because your site isn’t hosted in a state or country that has any laws that protect consumer privacy online. But you’re not actually protected by that – if a user who does live in one of those places takes offense to the way their information was used, and you didn’t disclose that it would happen in your privacy policy, then you could be liable.
Yes, I know, what are the chances of that happening to your website, but you never know. And frankly, putting a link to a privacy policy on your homepage is not that hard to do, and it covers any chance of liability, so why wouldn’t you do it?
So if you don’t have a privacy policy in place, you need to get one now. While you can find lots of different examples of privacy policies from all over the internet, don’t just copy one from another site and paste in your company name over theirs. You need to make sure that you privacy policy covers you for exactly the way you use the information of the users who come to your site.
Here’s what your privacy policy needs to include:
- An explanation of what kind of information you collect from people who visit your site.
- An explanation of how you use that information you collect from your users.
- Your contact information so people can contact you if they have any questions about the privacy policy.
- An explanation of how you will communicate any changes to the privacy policy to your users if/when it happens.
And, if your site has a forum, comments section, or some other kind of interactive content that requires people to register to participate, then you also need to include a statement about how people can review or make changes to their personal information they provided to you.
Now that you have a privacy policy in place, you need to display it somewhere where it can be easily found. A link at the bottom of your homepage will usually suffice.
So what are you waiting for… oh wait probably some examples or something right?
Well honestly my suggestion is, if you are going to be serious about this online business of yours then you take this seriously and do what I did…. Let someone who knows what they are doing handle this for you. You will notice that on this blog and my membership sites that my privacy policy states a source at the bottom (http://www.internetlawcompliance.com/)… that is who I used and I highly recommend you do the same. Do NOT just copy and paste from another site cause not only may that not suit your needs, these are copyright protected as well.
Go to http://www.internetlawcompliance.com/ (not an affiliate link either.. cause this is a serious topic and I want you 100% trusting me on this to protect yourself. Not that you should not trust me but… ya I will just shut up now).
You may not feel you need one right now, but most people don’t realize they need a privacy policy until after there’s a problem. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, or, in this case, one simple little document and a link on the homepage can save your ass later.
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That’s really helpful post. Most of the people forget or don’t care about privacy policy of their site which may sometimes cause problems to their business.
yep, a privacy policy and a disclaimer is a must have…
Helpful post – very strange picture! I dread to think what search term you put into Google to bring back that little beauty!
With regards to privacy policies, I agree completely. For the few minutes it takes to create a policy page, it’s worth it (as you say) to cover your ass!
Well said, you ideas are great tips for the Online Privacy Policy – To Cover Your ASS of Course. I really like your tips.
Nice topics, I don’t an online policy but I use internet about 5 hours per week
What about terms and conditions? It is as important as having a privacy policy as well. They should go hand in hand IMO.
Thanks for the advice, it is trick especially with the new internet compliance lawsD
Echoes the sentiment regarding the rather disturbing picture!
Thanks for the reminder, been meaning to get around to proper privacy policies, best do it before the horse bolts, eh…
I have also read that an about page and privacy policy helps with your rankings in google. Do you know if this is true.
Yes that privacy policy and disclaimer pages are very useful to Google, I will have to dig up the info but I know Matt Cutts (google spam czar) recommends them. Personaly I just always use them and highly recommend them… the one thing i have stopped doing however is linking to them with the nofollow link… i used to do that to protect page rank but i recall something from Google a little while ago about not recommending to do that. I recommend you always have a privacy, terms of use, disclaimer, about us and contact us pages and link to them from every page.
Matt wrote about your total page rank being divided between followed and nofollowed links (before being passed on) so having too many of the later impacts your followed links. I did a little piece about the best way of adding your privacy policy to a Wordpress blog last week
http://www.moneyschemes.net/add-a-privacy-policy-to-your-wordpress-blog-the-best-way/
Jason,
On a serious note, forget about the privacy policy stuff for a second and please explain were on earth you got the picture from dude?
I read your privacy policy post and agree with it 110% but boy did you nail it with that image!
Poor dude. Do you know him? lols
Looks like he needs more than a privacy policy now!!
Keep up the great work!
Alvin
Nice post. In addition, if you use Google AdSense, you are required to maintain a privacy policy. If you’re caught without it, you run the risk of your account being canceled.
With the new regulations that are coming out this is more important than ever.
An interesting thought I had…..I live in Canada and initially I thought, “haha the Americans got some pretty stringent policies coming down on them”.
At first I thought, being in Canada, these rules didn’t apply to me. But in reality, if my sites target the US (among others), then I have to abide by their laws.
Another important point to consider;
If your internet business is just a hobby and you never expect to generate any amount of significant income, then perhaps you can just ignore these rules. However, if your business is “real” and you expect to generate “real” money, then you should expect that any non-compliance with these rules will eventually be caught (if your making money, they’ll notice eventually).
So the point being, cover your ass now. Don’t wait till you have traffic and are generating a large income. Expect that is what you will accomplish and plan ahead.
Cheers!
JeromyS
http://twitter.com/JeromyS
Total agreement Jason, every site from music videos to enemas for donkeys, needs the legal stuff!
(Could enemas for donkeys, be a niche? Must check!)
In the rush to put up sites many people skip the things they consider small stuff. This is a good spotlight on the issues that may be considered small, but are indeed totally the opposite.
There are no major sites without a privacy policy. This realization alone draws the importance that it carries.
Great post! I never think of this point! Thanks for sharing! I will make a privacy policy for my blog too.
Jason, so what if I have an affiliate CB mall (my own site/store), and I don’t collect any info from the visitors – just redirecting to other sites (CB merchants) ?!!
I’m still new to affiliate marketing, my site has been online for several months.. and I don’t have the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service pages yet..
can you please help..!
Thanks a lot.
Yah privacy policy is very much important for our blog.
Good information. The internet business is getting more scary every day. I have a really hard time finding images. Where do you get yours, please! Thanks B
Jason,
Somewhere I’ve seen that you have these privacy policy generators with your blitz software…is that correct?
A disclaimer and privacy policy is a must. I need to add this to my blog as well, just incase I get some problems.
Thanks
Hello JohnCow,
could you please make a post elaborating on the FTC and the changes you’ve mentioned in your post?
thanks!
LdaInformation.net
Interesting. I’ve just subscribed to a well known affiliate marketing “guru’s” tutorial on building white hat websites purely for affiliate marketing purposes. Try as I might, I can’t find such a page anywhere on his sites he uses as examples.
Do I need one for my blog, also. It’s personal and it’s mine, so why should I care?
[...] Continue reading the remainder of Online Privacy Policy… [...]
It is more than just a privacy policy, it is also about being careful about what you share on Facebook, MySpace and even Twitter. There is such thing as too much information!
Hi guys
I totally agree that Private Policy and Disclaimer is must on a website to make boundaries to your subscriber or visitors.
Kind Regards
Sam
X
Definitely need a privacy policy when collecting information like emails.
What do you think about the ready made privacy policy sites you find on the web that offer a free policy where you just fill in the blanks? Worth it?
That was a good post, it got me in to thinking more about it. I will take your advice. But really, what about that picture?
Get post! Lots of great info. Privacy and Disclamers are real big right now with the FTC changes.
Well that was a great article!
Im just launching a new project and Privacy policy didnt run in my mind not even for once
.
You may have just saved me
.
Thanks a lot bud.
Hi Jason,
I may have called you John before due to the name of your blog. I’m not sure which name you prefer so I’ll use both until I find out.
Privacy policy is apparently important to cover yourself and although I have it on my other sites I’ve neglected putting one on my blog.
It’s not like I’m not going to abide by what is expected. Keeping information private is common sense with or without privacy policy displayed and linked to every page.
I will put it up very soon to make sure that those who want to read it can find it even if it is one out of a million that has that desire.
This post is very helpful reminder and I’m glad you wrote it.
Vance
[...] have been reading this blog http://www.johncow.com/why-you-need-a-privacy-policy-to-cover-your-ass-of-course/ and this particular post made me think that it is about time I work out my privacy and disclaimer [...]
Hmm!!! A covered ass is still exposed to Bacteria…Wt to do with that…….I mean to say wat abt if a blog gets in controversy against a big blog…….
[...] to read the rest of Online Privacy Policy… Share and [...]