What to Include in Your Privacy Policy?

Does your business have a website, mobile app, or desktop app?

Regardless of where and how you conduct your business, a privacy policy is definitely a must!  Having a contact form or newsletter signup on your website is enough reason for you to have a privacy policy. The same is required if your site is using Google Analytics since personal data is being collected. A privacy policy is a statement on how an organization handles a customer’s personal information such as name, phone number, and address. It is definitely the most important legal document there is in any business.

You see, managing a business that collects personal information without a privacy policy may result in numerous violations of state, federal, and even international laws. 

The General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR is a European Union’s data protection law mandating how personal data should be used by organizations and companies in a friendly way. It applies to any business which processes personal data. It is set out on seven (7) key principles: 

• Lawfulness, fairness and transparency
• Purpose limitation
• Data minimization
• Accuracy
• Storage limitation
• Integrity and confidentiality
• Accountability

These key principles are set out right at the start. They embody the spirit of the general data protection regime instead of giving hard and fast rules. These are fundamental building blocks for good data protection practices. However, failure to comply may result in a different substantial fine as stated in Article 83 (5)(a).

Privacy policies build consumer trust for your brand

Aside from minimizing conflicts with the law, having an appropriate privacy policy could actually help in boosting sales by improving customer trust and giving your brand peace of mind without having to think of “surprise complaints” from customers. Hence, establishing you as a consumer-focused, thought leader.

According to Cisco 2020 Consumer Privacy Survey, around one-third of the consumers are “privacy actives”, as what industry experts call them, who stopped working or shopping with companies with data protection issues. In fact, customers demonstrated a willingness to pay another company more for the same service as long as they display a commitment to privacy. 

While 78% of consumers are concerned about sharing their personal data, 90% believe that companies should proactively protect the consumer’s sensitive personal information. These are the same individuals who are ready to be ride-or-die customers if a business makes protecting sensitive personal information a priority.

What could be included in your own privacy policy

You may now be wondering what could be included in your own Privacy Policy. Worry no more! Below is the list of things you would want to consider in developing a strong privacy policy:

• Make it easy to find – They say that “things easy to find are not worth finding”. But hey, a privacy policy is different. This should be the easiest to find. The footer is a common place where privacy policies are placed and where consumers often look for them..

• Information about your Business – Who are you? Where are you from? Basic as it is, you need to provide relevant details about you. Stating it in any privacy policy is definitely a given.

• State what information you collect – What do you collect? Is it personal information like names, addresses, phone numbers or perhaps other information? Explain this to your audience clearly. Pretty sure they will understand easily.

• Explain how you will use the information – Explaining how the information you gathered will be used is like walking your readers through everything vital. Is it for an e-commerce site? If it is, some data such as the customer’s name and address will be used. Third-party organizations, if there are any, should also be included in your explanation.

Now, you are ready to create your own privacy policy. Make sure to keep in mind everything discussed.

Hope this blog helps!