Every reputable website needs a privacy policy statement. When you have a statement like that, your site visitors will be more willing to trust you and see your business as a reliable one. Hence, here’s how to write a privacy policy for your website.
Steps to Writing an Online Privacy Policy for Your Website
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Writing a proper privacy policy statement for your website is not difficult. Start by including all the important information and adhere to the standards for such papers. As you build a policy for your website, use these steps to writing an online privacy policy for your website to help you in the policy review process.
Ensure That Your Team Is on The Same Page
First and foremost, ensure that your team is on the same page, especially if you won’t be writing the statement yourself. When everyone knows about each other’s tasks and decisions, it is much easier to organize all of your activities and create a comprehensive privacy policy statement. Host meetings and ensure that there is always a way to communicate with other team members during the process. It’s also a good idea to use a project management tool like Workast to set up tasks and mark them when they are done.
Determine What Kind of Data You Will Be Collecting
Before you start writing, you need to determine what kind of data you will be collecting. Olivia Hughes, an expert who writes high-quality cheap research papers, states, “You need to understand what exactly it is that you will be collecting from your site visitors. Then, you will have to explain in the statement how you will use this data.” Most commonly, this information is collected by websites:
- Names, dates of birth, email addresses, and post addresses
- Purchase activity, geolocations, and IP addresses
- Payment details, social security info, and insurance numbers
- Other relevant information and customer data
Consider Legal Requirements and Rules
There are certain laws and regulations you will need to comply with when using the data you collect. By understanding what these laws and regulations are, it will be easier for you to write a statement that complies with the said laws and help you refrain from common GPDR mistakes.
The most important legal requirements are:
GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was implemented by the EU in 2018 and requires websites that target EEA residents to design their data privacy processes according to certain regulations.
CCPA
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA ) was also implemented in 2018 and is quite similar to GDPR except that it is in force in California.
ePrivacy Directive & Regulation
To put it simply, this is the EU cookie law. Right now, it is being transformed into ePrivacy Regulation to work better with GDPR.
PIPEDA
The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) is a Canadian data privacy law that is similar to all of the above.
COPPA
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is intended to safeguard children’s personal information when they use the internet or utilize mobile applications and games.
Include the Five Key Aspects of Privacy Policies
According to the fair information practice principles or FIPPs, your privacy policy must include five key aspects:
- Notice: Users should be notified about your practices regarding their personal information before you collect their personal data.
- Choice: Users should have a choice about their personal data collection.
- Access: Users should be able to access their personal data.
- Security: You should have a process for secure data storage and deletion that ensures client data protection.
- Enforcement: You should have a process for the way all of the above is enforced.
Write All the Necessary Clauses of Your Policy Statement
Gregory Jensen, an expert from the custom writing reviews site Supreme Dissertations, says, “There are certain essential and additional clauses you need to include in your privacy policy statement. Essential clauses are particularly important, but you can skip the additional clauses if you want to.” The classes your privacy policy statement should/can have are:
Essential Privacy Policy Clauses
Including all the personal information you will be collecting is essential to your privacy policy. Then, explain how this data will be collected and used. Next, address any privacy issues related to users that are under 13 years old (consult the COPPA about this).
In the next section, explain how the personal data you collect and use will be protected. Mention whether you will be sharing the data with third parties. Then, describe your use of cookies and tracking technologies. Lastly, explain how users can access and control their data.
Additional Privacy Policy Clauses
You can also include a section about how users can contact you. Likewise, you can also have a clause about what happens to the data in case you decide to sell your business.
Structure and Format Your Privacy Policy Statement
Using customizable Word templates, you can quickly create your Information Security Policy and Procedures Manual.
When your privacy policy statement is ready, it will probably already look somewhat structured and organized. However, it’s still a good idea to go over it and format it even more if you can. Janet Rivers, an expert from the writing services reviews site Best Essays Education, explains, “You need to make it user-friendly with the help of formatting. After all, it’s meant for your site visitors to read.”
Double Check Before Publishing the Statement
Finally, before you publish your privacy policy statement, make sure that it contains all the necessary elements. Not only should you include all the relevant information, but you should also comply with the rules for such policy statements. Also, proofread your statement with the help of a tool like Grammarly to avoid linguistic mistakes. When you are certain that everything is correct, you can publish the statement on your website on a separate page.
Write a Privacy Policy For Your Website
As you can see, it’s not that hard to write a detailed privacy policy statement for your website. Just make sure that you include all the relevant information and follow the requirements for such documents. Use the information in this article to guide you along the way as you create a policy for your website.