Does My Website Need a Privacy Policy?
Disclaimer: This article contains links to third party sites where we may receive a commission for products that are purchased.
Does Your Website Really Need Policies?
Many people ask this question. It's a good question, and one that many website owners feel doesn't apply to them. That assumption could be a costly one. If, like many website owners and business owners, you aren't sure what policies your website needs in order to make sure you're covered, keep reading!
The Importance of Website Policies
Several privacy laws require certain websites to have a Privacy Policy
A Privacy Policy is a statement provided on a website that explains how you collect, use, and disclose personally identifiable information (PII). Any website that has as little as a contact form is collecting Personally Identifiable Information and should have a Privacy Policy.
Several privacy laws are now in place to protect the Personally Identifiable Information of citizens of certain states with fines that can reach $2,500-$7,500 per website visitor. In addition, more and more states are proposing their own privacy laws, each with their own unique requirements and penalties for not complying. Some of these bills would enable citizens to sue businesses for simply having a contact form without an updated Privacy Policy. Several states make note that
businesses of any size and any location will have to comply or may face fines or lawsuits.
With more and more privacy laws on the horizon, we advise all of our clients to not only have a Privacy Policy in place but also have a strategy to keep it up to date with newly required disclosures. An up to date Privacy Policy can help you avoid significant privacy-related fines and lawsuits.
Which Policy Is The Right Policy?
If a website has a contact form, it needs a Privacy Policy
Contact forms ask for a “name” and “email”, which are examples of “Personally Identifiable Information” (PII). Multiple countries and states have enacted privacy laws that impose heavy fines for not having an up to date compliant Privacy Policy. Also, over a dozen states are proposing laws that can apply to businesses regardless of their location. Several of these proposed laws will enable its citizens to sue businesses of any size located anywhere. It’s simple: if you ask for PII via a contact form, and you want to avoid fines and lawsuits, provide a compliant Privacy Policy.
If a website has links to third party websites, or offers products & services, it needs a Terms & Conditions (also known as Terms of Service or Terms of Use)
Terms & Conditions limit a company’s liability. If a user clicks a link to a 3rd party site that is hacked, and then that user gets hacked, a Terms & Conditions helps prevent that business from being sued. Your customers or clients also need to know what their responsibilities are with regard to their accounts, as well as yours. Some examples may include cancellation or refund policies, or requiring that someone is over a certain age to sign up for an account.
Bonus fun fact: A Terms and Conditions (aka Terms of Use) can provide a DMCA Notice, which can help your business from being sued for improper use of copyrighted material (like licensed images).
If a website has affiliate links, it should have a Disclaimer
Websites providing information that could be considered health advice or legal advice are also good reasons to have a Disclaimer. A lot of affiliate programs will require you to have a disclaimer, and consumers want to know when you’re getting paid for links you put on your website.
What You Can Do To Protect Yourself
If you do not have the budget to hire a privacy attorney to create and keep your policies up to date, we recommend using a policy generator such as Termageddon.
Termageddon is a comprehensive website policies generator and will update your website policies when privacy laws change, helping you stay compliant and avoid fines and lawsuits, and they do it at a fraction of the cost of a privacy attorney. A Termageddon license includes a set of policies (Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Disclaimer and more) to help ensure your website and business is protected.
Termageddon policies to any of our Website Care Plans
Nayru Digital has partnered with Termageddon to offer policies as a cost-effective add-on to the Website Care Plans that we offer.
Here are some of the benefits of this add-on:
- Includes an auto-updating Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, Disclaimer and more for your website
- Your policies stay up-to-date automatically
- Receive updates when new privacy laws are going into effect
- Receive notifications when new questions need to be answered to ensure your policies are compatible with newly required disclosures
- Attorney friendly – Invite your attorney to review the policies and even ‘override’ sections of each policy to their liking, if they wish. Future updates will be suggested by Termageddon, but they won’t override what your attorney changed without asking your permission first.
We hope that this article helped make things more clear about what sort of policies your website needs.
If you ever find yourself overwhelmed with all the intricacies of managing a compliant website, Nayru Digital can help! We offer affordable website maintenance plans, and can even customize one just for your needs. Check out our Website Care Plans or Contact Us for more info.
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