0 Creating A Privacy Policy

What is a privacy policy?

A Privacy is placed on a website to inform visitors about how the website deals with their personal information.

The privacy policy basically outlines what visitor information you collect such as  personal details collected upon registering or making a purchase; transactions carried out on your website; how your customers use your website ( pages they visit and length of time visited) and even information such as IP address ( the address identifying your computer on the network.) geographical location and browser type.

With an increase in junk mail and identity fraud, your customers may be particularly keen to maintain their privacy in terms of what you intend to do with any information obtained, whether personal, financial or a record of their shopping habits on your site.

When you run a commercial website -  especially one that captures information or data about your visitors – you need to have a privacy policy in place to reassure your visitors that you are safeguarding their personal information. Along with your terms and conditions, this usually appears as a link at the bottom of every website page.

What will it contain?

The policy will highlight what you do with this information. For example, you may use it to administer and improve your website for the customer and for your own marketing purposes.  If you use cookies (  a  text file sent by a web server to a web browser and stored on the browser’ s computer to identify and track the browser), this needs to be mentioned in the policy. Cookies are used to administer the browser’ s  use of the website and so that the browser can be recognized when they revisit your site. Your customers can choose to reject the cookies be changing the setting in their browser  panel. However this, can have a negative impact upon the usability of the website.

What else to be include in the policy

You will need to explain how personal data will be used by your website. Usually , it is used to improve the visitor’s experience. However, it may also be used to send targeted communications from your website or carefully selected third parties which targeted communications from your website or carefully selected third parties which may be of interest to the visitor. The information may also be provided with  statistical information about the users but will also contain that, unless consent is  given, personal information will not be passed on to any third parties for direct marketing.

Other points in the policy usually include a section on disclosures  and how information will only be passed on if it is a legal requirement or to pass on to the purchaser if you were to sell the web venture.

A detailed policy will also cover information and clarification about international  data transfers, security of personal data ( taking all reasonable precautions to prevent the loss, misuse  or alteration of your visitor’s  personal information),  policy amendments, visitor’s rights and contact information.