A Privacy Policy is important to every website regardless of the purpose of the website. It creates transparency on the part of the website about the information they collect which in return provides trust on the part of the users of the website. In order to create a competent Privacy Policy, the website owners should be sure to include (1) how they share information with third parties, and (2) acknowledgement of the use of cookies on the website.
Sharing Information with Third Parties
When collecting information, it’s easy for the website owner to think that they won’t share this information with anyone outside of this company, so the instinct is to have a clause in the Privacy Policy stating such. However, this is generally not the case because there will be instances where information may need to be shared. For example, a website where products are sold may need to share the information provided by the user to a third party delivery service. Additionally, information may need to be shared to satisfy an applicable law, regulation, or an enforceable government request.
Therefore, a Privacy Policy should state that information may be shared with third parties for the purpose of fulfilling the services of this website and also to comply with certain laws or government requests.
The Use of Cookies
A cookie is a file that is placed in the memory or storage of the device accessing the website and is used to tell the server that a certain device has returned to this website. Cookies are used to help personalize websites when they are visited repeatedly. Information gathered through cookies includes time and date of visit, pages viewed, time spent on the website, and the websites visited before and after this website. A Privacy Policy should include information about cookies because users have the choice of whether or not to accept them. Additionally, the cookies are gathering information and users need to be notified of this collection of data.
Creating a privacy policy for a website that includes all of the appropriate information can be difficult, but Rincker Law, PLLC is prepared to help you write an effective privacy policy that protects you and provides your visitors with verification that their details are protected.