What is a privacy policy?
A privacy policy is a legal document that outlines how a company or organization collects, uses, and manages the personal information of its users or customers. It details the types of information collected, how it is collected, and how it will be used, shared, and protected. This is especially important for anyone with an online presence. Just about every website needs to have a privacy policy that specifies the information you collected from your users and how you use it. So if you write a blog, or own or manage an e-commerce store, mobile app, or social media app do not delay. It takes less than 5 minutes to post your privacy policy online. Do it today!
A privacy policy aims to provide users with transparency and trust by explaining how we use their personal information. Typically required by law in many countries, companies post their privacy policies on their websites for easy access by users. A privacy policy may also include information about the user’s rights, such as the right to access or delete their data, and how to contact the company with any questions or concerns.
Who needs a privacy policy and why might you need one?
If you are an individual or an organization that collects, uses, or stores personal information of other individuals, you may need a privacy policy for the following reasons:
- Legal compliance: Depending on the jurisdiction and industry, many laws and regulations require companies or individuals to have a privacy policy. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States mandate that companies must have a privacy policy.
- Transparency: A privacy policy is an essential tool to establish transparency and build trust with customers and users. By explaining how personal data is collected, processed, and shared, companies or individuals can show that they are committed to protecting the privacy of their users.
- User control: A privacy policy enables users to understand what personal information a company or individual collects and gives them control over their data. A well-written privacy policy should explain what choices users have regarding their personal information, such as how to access, update, or delete their data.
- Risk management: A privacy policy helps mitigate legal and reputational risks. By setting out clear guidelines for how personal information is collected, used, and shared, companies or individuals can minimize the risk of data breaches or misuse of personal data, which can result in lawsuits, regulatory action, and reputational damage.
In summary, if you collect, use, or store personal information of other individuals, having a privacy policy is not only a legal requirement but also a best practice to protect the privacy of users, establish trust, and manage risks.
What does a privacy policy include?
A privacy policy typically includes the following information:
- What personal information is being collected
- How personal information is collected
- How personal information is used
- Who personal information is shared with
- How personal information is protected
- User rights regarding their personal information
- Contact information for the organization responsible for the privacy policy
- Information about cookies and other tracking technologies
- How to update or change the privacy policy.
Overall, the organization should provide clear and concise information about how it collects, uses, and protects personal information in its privacy policy, and should explain how users can control their personal information.
What are the consequences of not having a privacy policy?
Companies and individuals who choose not to post a privacy policy on their website, blog, or app, risk violating various laws regarding privacy disclosure and maintenance requirements and may be subject to civil and criminal lawsuits and hefty fines.
A Privacy Policy can help prevent the following consequences for both companies and users:
Where to find free privacy policies
Our “go to” easy and quick online resource for free and detailed information about privacy policies is Legal Templates. Legal Templates walks you through the process of drafting and downloading their PDF/DOC privacy policy.
Additionally, we just found quite a few attorney drafted and/or lawyer approved privacy policies on Etsy.
Sample privacy policy
Feel free to fill in the blanks and copy and paste as you see fit :: https://easylegaltools.com/privacy-policy/
Privacy Policy
Effective date: ____________
Who we are
Our website address is: _________.
Personal data we collect and why we collect it
COMMENTS
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
MEDIA
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
CONTACT FORMS
We submit contact form submissions via Ninja Forms and store contact form submissions in our website database.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. However, this cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. However, if you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Analytics
WHO WE SHARE YOUR DATA WITH
If you request a password reset, we will include your IP address in the reset email.
HOW LONG WE RETAIN YOUR DATA
If you leave a comment, we retain the comment and its metadata indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
We may check visitor comments through an automated spam detection service.
Disclosure of data
BUSINESS TRANSACTION
If (Company Name) is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.
DISCLOSURE FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT
Under certain circumstances, (Company Name) may be required to disclose your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).
LEGAL REQUIREMENTS
(Company Name) may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:
- To comply with a legal obligation
- To protect and defend the rights or property of (Company Name)
- To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
- To protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public
- To protect against legal liability
Additional information
HOW WE PROTECT YOUR DATA
The security of your data is important to us but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
WHAT THIRD PARTIES WE RECEIVE DATA FROM
We may use third-party Service Providers to monitor and analyse the use of our Service.
- Google Analytics Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualise and personalise the ads of its own advertising network.You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
YOUR DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS UNDER THE GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (GDPR)
If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), you have certain data protection rights. (Company Name) aims to take reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, delete or limit the use of your Personal Data.
If you wish to be informed about what Personal Data we hold about you and if you want it to be removed from our systems, please contact us.
In certain circumstances, you have the following data protection rights:
- The right to access, update or delete the information we have on you. Whenever made possible, you can access, update or request deletion of your Personal Data directly within your account settings section. If you are unable to perform these actions yourself, please contact us to assist you.
- The right of rectification. You have the right to have your information rectified if that information is inaccurate or incomplete.
- The right to object. You have the right to object to our processing of your Personal Data.
- The right of restriction. You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information.
- The right to data portability. You have the right to be provided with a copy of the information we have on you in a structured, machine-readable and commonly used format.
- The right to withdraw consent. You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time where Company Name) relied on your consent to process your personal information.
Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests.
You have the right to complain to a Data Protection Authority about our collection and use of your Personal Data. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority in the European Economic Area (EEA).
LINKS TO OTHER SITES
Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.
We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.
CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 18 (“Children”).
We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Child has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.
Changes to this privacy policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. And we will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.
We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “effective date” at the top of this Privacy Policy.
Please review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
Contact us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:
- By email: (insert email address ____________)
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