Privacy Policies - Realistically, WHAT Do You Need?
I recently (June, 2009) did a little research on "Privacy Policy" postings of various web sites. I am
posting links to many of those (as well as links to PDF-captures of them that you can print and
review at your leisure).
Why Do You Need a "Privacy Policy"
The main reasons that you should publish a "Privacy Policy" on your we site are
two-fold: [1] to cover your own legal concerns and [2] to be fairly explicit
(and hopefully straightforwardly simple and direct) about what you DO and DO NOT
collect in conjunction with your web site and the business and/or service that
your web site offers.
The main reason for an explicit Privacy Policy is to lay out fairly precisely
those things you DO and DO NOT collect and DO and DO NOT use. Bear
in mind that what you are trying to avoid are future misunderstandings --
particularly any possible interpretations by a customer or user of your web site
that they have been somehow "wronged" by using your web site and/or by
material that your web site has collected about them which breeches their basic
"right to privacy". |
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Privacy Policy Survey
First, start with the basic and understand the WHYs, WHEREFOREs and other
concerns of visitors to your web site concerning how YOU address their
"privacy".
The Wikipedia basic entry on the "California Online Privacy Protection Act of
2003" is a good place to start. (In general, as goes California, goes the
nation, so their state law vis-a-vis operators of "commercial websites" will
likely become a de facto standard.)
View that article with this link ->> |
Wikipedia on
Web Privacy
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A "Cookie Cutter" Approach
The Direct Marketing Association
offers a "Construct Your Privacy Policy" web page that lets you provide
information about your web site in a fill-in-the-blanks format that then your
customized Privacy Policy information. (As there are frequently embedded links
to external sources, if you are going to take this approach, it is best to have
the result of that emailed to you as HTML so that it can easily be incorporated
into your existing web site.) Click
HERE to visit that page.
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So What Should YOU Do for Your Web Site?
I strongly urge you to carefully consider your Privacy Policy but to PUBLISH something
on your web site to conform to "generally agreed upon" standards. For some, that will mean
possibly consulting a legal resource to craft something customized for your particular needs; for
others, you could possibly go with the "cookie cutter" approach of the Direct Marketing Association
(linked above).
As we continue to survey competitive web sites, we will include more links here
so that you can review comparable approaches to your commercial or service area.
[ last updated 29 June 2009 ] |
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