What is a Privacy Policy? How Can you Make It Compliant?

For any website, one of the fundamental legal obligations is to have a privacy policy. Regardless of whether you are running a small e-commerce platform or a blog with no income, you might be surprised to find out that you still require a privacy policy.

Primarily, if your webpage gathers personal information, a privacy policy is a necessity since you are required to inform your visitors about this practice. This obligation is in line with global privacy laws such as the EU's GDPR, California's CCPA, and Brazil's LGPD,  to name a few.

In this article, we explore what a privacy policy entails and how to make it compliant with current data privacy laws.

Components of a Privacy Policy?

When it comes to managing websites, a privacy policy is a document that outlines the kind of personal information you collect from the visitors, why, and how you keep it confidential.

For this reason, privacy policies are expected to be both accessible and kept in readable language. Today, several countries have adopted privacy regulations that obligate companies and websites, collecting personal information to provide a proper privacy policy. Non-compliance to the established regulations can attract heavy penalties or even prosecution.

Who needs a Privacy Policy?

Simply put, if you have a website that handles personal data, a privacy policy is a prerequisite. You need to be aware that most sites often collect user data. In some cases, the collection of data may happen without the website owner's knowledge. This aspect is possible through cookies. 

Characteristically, if your website is hosted, uses plugins, social media buttons, or analytics tools, then definitely it sets cookies and gathers information from the people that visit the platform.

How Can I Make the Privacy Policy on my Website Compliant with International Data Privacy Laws?

Typically, a privacy policy can be created as an isolated section on your webpage and made accessible as a link in the header or footer section of your platform. In some instances, you can include it in the ‘About'' section. Nonetheless, the most important thing is its ease of accessibility to users as opposed to where it is located.

It is essential to acknowledge that a privacy policy is a legal document. For this reason, its contents are influenced by the jurisdictions your webpage falls under, as well as how your platform deals with personal information.

Every website is unique. Therefore, it is not advisable to copy a privacy policy from another webpage and use it on your own. While you can employ the services of a lawyer to develop a privacy policy for your website, this approach can be quite costly, especially if you are a small business or produce blog content as a hobby.

This is where Secure Privacy comes in handy. They have a solution that can help you generate and customize a privacy policy on your website that is compliant to GDPR, CCPA (see more on the requiresments for CCPA Privacy Policy), or LGPD regulations. This solution is easy to use and works seamlessly with any website. Additionally, Secure Privacy helps you to add a privacy policy button on your website in six simple steps. 

In case you have additional concerns or queries, request a demo, or try it for free and avoid attracting penalties for non-compliance to data privacy laws.

Check out these top tips for a compliant privacy policy.

Read about Cookie Compliance and Privacy Policy on Wix.