Lately, we’ve been reaching out to our clients who don’t have a privacy policy in place. Why? Because they are pretty important.
What’s a Privacy Policy?
A Privacy Policy is a statement provided on a website that explains how you collect, use, and disclose Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Any website that has as little as a contact form is collecting PII and should have a Privacy Policy.
Why is it critical that you have a privacy policy on your website?
Several privacy laws are now in place to protect the PII of citizens of certain states with fines that can reach $2,500 to $7,500 per website visitor.
In addition, more and more states are proposing their own privacy laws, each with their own unique requirements and penalties for not complying.
Some of these bills would enable citizens to sue businesses for simply having a contact form without an updated Privacy Policy. Several states make note that businesses of any size and any location will have to comply or may face fines or lawsuits.
With an increasing number of privacy laws on the horizon, we advise all of our customers to not only have a Privacy Policy in place but to also have a strategy to keep it up to date with newly required disclosures. An up-to-date Privacy Policy can help you avoid significant privacy-related fines and lawsuits.
What can you do to get protected?
We are happy to help add a policy to your site, but we cannot provide the policy itself. Your options are to either work with your attorney to have one created, or if you do not have the budget to hire a privacy attorney, we recommend using Termageddon.
Termageddon is a comprehensive website policy generator and will update your website policies when privacy laws change, helping you stay compliant and avoid fines and lawsuits, and they do it at a fraction of the cost of a privacy attorney.
You can learn more about Termageddon and create your Privacy Policy.