What is a Privacy Policy?

A Privacy Policy helps website owners comply with privacy laws by providing specific disclosure requirements such as how their website collects, uses, and discloses personal data.

A comprehensive Privacy Policy is required to comply with privacy laws

Today’s modern websites are built to provide a great user experience and motivate prospective customers to reach out and inquire about what you have to offer. This is done through the use of tools such as contact forms, website analytics, and more.

Contact forms ask users to submit their ‘name’ and ‘email’, which are examples of personal data. When a website uses analytics, it collects each visitor’s IP address and shares that personal data with third party data analytics providers. These are just a few examples of the many ways websites collect and share personal data.

The collection of personal data is regulated under multiple privacy laws. For example, a privacy law is in place to protect the personal data of UK residents with fines up to €20 million (about £18 million) or 4% of annual global turnover, whichever is greater. This privacy law (the UK Data Protection Act) requires websites to provide a Privacy Policy with specific disclosures. Privacy laws protect citizens of a specific country (or state or province), and can apply to businesses regardless of their location.

On top of that, new privacy laws are being proposed throughout the world, with several countries proposing multiple laws to protect their citizens. Due to the ever-changing nature of privacy laws, we recommend that you not only have a comprehensive Privacy Policy in place but that you also develop a strategy to keep your policy up to date when these laws are amended or when new laws are implemented.

Google requires your website to have a Privacy Policy

A website utilizing Google Analytics is required by Google to have a Privacy Policy. You can find this requirement within section 7 of Google’s Terms of Service: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/us/

Website Policies Waiver