Do I really need a privacy policy on my website?

What is a Privacy Policy?

A Privacy Policy is a document that discloses what personal information you collect on your website, what you do with that information, and who you share it with, amongst other disclosures. Your website needs a Privacy Policy if you use it to collect personal information such as names and emails. Most websites collect personal information through the use of contact forms, email newsletter sign-up forms, and Google Analytics.

Why is a Privacy Policy important?

Several privacy laws are now in place to protect the personal information of residents of certain states with fines that can reach $2,500-$7,500 per website visitor. Examples of personal information include asking for a name and email on a contact form or using a website analytics tool (like Google Analytics).

More and more states are proposing their own privacy laws as well. In the US, there are 23 state privacy bills (and more are expected). Some of these bills would enable citizens to sue businesses for having a contact form without an updated Privacy Policy. Several of these state bills make note that businesses of any size and any location will have to comply or may face fines or lawsuits.

These laws were created to protect the consumers of those states and countries, not the businesses. This means that these laws can apply to businesses outside of those states and countries and may apply to you if you collect the personal information of or enter into transactions with consumers from the European Union, California, or Nevada.

Why you need to keep your Privacy Policy up to date.

Several states have proposed privacy bills that, if passed, would require websites that collect personal information to have a compliant Privacy Policy. These bills all have different requirements for the disclosures that need to be made in a Privacy Policy and would impose heavy fines for failing to include those disclosures. In fact, some states are proposing to allow consumers to sue businesses directly for not having a compliant Privacy Policy.

The Solution

Termageddon is a Privacy Policy generator that will automatically update your website's policies whenever the laws change.

To be proactive about this issue, I’ve partnered up with a Privacy Policy generator called Termageddon. They will automatically update your website policies when the laws change (as well as notify you when changes are coming), and they do it at a fraction of the cost of a privacy attorney.

For $10/month or $99/year, plus a one-time $100 set-up fee, you will receive the following policies to protect your website:

• Privacy Policy;
• Terms of Service;
• Disclaimer; and
• End-User License Agreement.

Termageddon is the only Privacy Policy generator listed as a trusted privacy technology vendor by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP.org). I trust Termageddon and I use it on my own website.

What do I do now?

Contact your friendly, neighborhood web designer, AKA Out of Sight Designs!

With just a short telephone consultation, I can get the information I need to get your privacy policy, terms of service, disclaimer, and end-user license agreement created and placed on your website. After that, we don't need to do anything (unless aspects of how you do business change) as Termageddon will AUTOMATICALLY update these documents on your website.