Why Your Online Business Needs a Good Privacy Policy
by Carrie Hinkel on November 12th, 2007
A privacy policy is a notice informing visitors about how a website deals with a user’s personal information. Typically, a privacy policy explains if or how customer’s information is shared, along with the website’s use of cookies or web bugs.
According to the Better Business Bureau’s website, www.bbb.org , a good privacy policy is easy to find, easy to read, and explains all your online information practices. It also will let potential customers know what you will do with their information. Having such a policy is an important first step in defining your online practices and answering the concerns and barriers potential customers will face when looking at your website.
A privacy policy on your business website is also a promise, more than just a notice. The policy listed on the site must be implemented on a wider scale, and you should carefully consider what will be in your policy.
If you want visitors to keep returning to your site or placing orders, it is absolutely essential to have a privacy policy on your website. In the past, there have been so many companies who have wrongfully abused customers’ private information (especially e-mail addresses), selling them to third party companies, using the information for subsidiary companies, etc. With all the e-commerce competition, visitors would much rather place an order with a company who has a clear, easy-to-read privacy policy that favors customers.
A company’s privacy policy should be casual and easy to understand. It shouldn’t be pages and pages long and look like it was drawn up by a lawyer. You may want to have your lawyer review what you wrote, but it shouldn’t be written in legalese. Remember, a privacy policy is for your customer’s benefit, not to keep you from being named in a lawsuit.
When writing your website’s privacy policy,
it’s important to explain these issues in detail:
1. The information you collect and how you will use it - You should clearly explain the types of information you ask from visitors and customers and what you will do with that information. Do you sell information to third parties? Do you use the information within your own subsidiary of website? If so, your visitors need to know about it. Be specific and be truthful, otherwise, you may very well be named in a lawsuit!
2. The security of your server and online operations - Visitors are always concerned about submitting credit card information online or their email address when they email your company a question. Can that information be stolen? Tell them if your server is secure and why. Tell them about the security measures you have taken to ensure that your site is secure.
3. How customers can opt out of any memberships, newsletters, emails, etc. - With people’s inboxes filling up with tons of unwanted emails, you can bet visitors are concerned about unknowingly being signed up on yet another email list. You should let customers know how they can opt out of any emails or newsletters they are receiving. Every email should have an unsubscribe link at the bottom, and for any newsletters you should always have a double opt-in (meaning they have to confirm subscription twice) so that only customers who are actually interested will receive newsletters or emails. This is all necessary anyway under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. For more information, read our article How to Make Sure Your Next Email Campaign Complies with CAN-SPAM Regulations .
4. Policy changes - Many companies will review and change their privacy policy occasionally. Your customers should be informed of this. All you need is a simple sentence like “From time to time we may change our policies, and any such changes will be reflected in this policy statement, so please check back periodically for updates.”
5. Contact information for customers who have questions regarding their privacy - Even after reading your privacy policy, you may still have some customers who are unsure and want to ask a specific question. For those customers you should have an email address or phone number listed right in the privacy policy so customers can easily get a hold of someone.
Writing a privacy policy isn’t difficult; to get an idea of how to write one, take a look at some websites from companies in your specific industry. Just be sure yours is tailored to describe how exactly your business uses information