{"id":7584,"date":"2021-01-01T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/?p=7584"},"modified":"2025-03-05T18:39:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T18:39:02","slug":"website-privacy-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/website-privacy-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Your Website Needs a Privacy Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe you\u2019ve been told you need to add a <strong>Privacy Policy<\/strong> to your small business website\u2026 and you\u2019re wondering why and how. This beginner tutorial will help you get started.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<strong>What is a privacy policy?<\/strong> A privacy policy lets your website visitors know what type of data you\u2019re collecting from them, and what you\u2019re doing with it. It may also provide information about how you\u2019re collecting data, how you\u2019re storing it, and for how long.<\/p>\n<h2>Website Visitors\u2019 Peace of Mind<\/h2>\n<p>Your website visitors care about their privacy. They want to feel secure when providing their personal information online. Your <strong>Privacy Policy Plan<\/strong> and <strong>Pledge<\/strong> will help reassure them that you will keep their data safe. Your privacy policy will show your visitors that you can be trusted.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-9496\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/website-privacy-policy-plan.gif\" alt=\"Privacy Policy Plan - What are you doing with my personal data?\" width=\"600\" height=\"391\" \/><\/figure>\n<h3>Contact Forms &amp; Email Marketing Lists<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>If you have a contact form, you are collecting \u201c<strong>Personally Identifiable Information,\u201d<\/strong> such as names and emails from your website visitors. It\u2019s important to be upfront about what you plan to do with that information.<\/li>\n<li>If you\u2019ve built an email marketing list, using a service such as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mailchimp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mailchimp<\/a>, you\u2019re gathering personal data through that also.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Your visitors want to know that you\u2019re not going to use their email address for any other purpose besides sending them the information they requested.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-9498\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/website-privacy-policy-pledge.gif\" alt=\"Website Privacy Policy Pledge - We will not share or sell your personal data.\" width=\"600\" height=\"411\" \/><\/figure>\n<h3>Google Analytics<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>If your website incorporates third-party tools such as <strong>Google Analytics<\/strong> to capture user data, your privacy policy needs to mention that. Google Analytics requires a <strong>Privacy Policy<\/strong>\u00a0because is stores \u201c<strong>cookies<\/strong>\u201d on a visitor\u2019s computer (which are then used to collect data about that person).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Privacy Laws &amp; Safeguards<\/h2>\n<p>Some countries and states have implemented privacy laws to protect the rights of consumers.\u00a0The United States, European Union, Canada and Australia have privacy laws.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A privacy policy is not only reassuring to your website visitors, it&#8217;s now required by law if you collect personal information from them.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-9534\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/user-data-protection.gif\" alt=\"User Data Protection\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Privacy policies provide a <strong>safeguard<\/strong>\u2026 not only for your visitors, but also for online businesses and bloggers.<\/p>\n<p>If the personal data you collect falls into the wrong hands, it can lead to fraud, SPAM, or, in some cases, identity theft. You don\u2019t want to lose your customers\u2019 trust or have to defend yourself against a lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Safeguarding their personal data is just plain \u201cgood business.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>United States &amp; The European Union<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>United States<\/strong> has several privacy laws in place. Many of these laws are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).<\/li>\n<li>Some states, such as <strong>California<\/strong>, have their own privacy policy regulations. If your website collects personal information from California residents, you must comply with the California Online Privacy Protection Act (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.freeprivacypolicy.com\/blog\/caloppa\/\">CalOPPA<\/a>)\u00a0.<\/li>\n<li>You must also comply with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/quora\/2018\/02\/14\/what-is-general-data-protection-regulation\/#3a3855d62dd8.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GDPR<\/a> if you\u00a0\u201ccollect and process data\u201d belonging to <strong>European Union<\/strong> (EU) citizens, even if your company is located in the United States.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-9532\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/privacy-policies-legally-required.gif\" alt=\"Privacy Policies are legally required.\" width=\"600\" height=\"393\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Read: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/privacypolicies.com\/blog\/privacy-policies-legally-required\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Privacy Policies are legally required<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>How to Create a Privacy Policy<\/h2>\n<p>You could enlist the help of a lawyer to help you write your privacy policy, but that\u2019s not a practical option for most small business website owners. There are online tools that can help. When writing your privacy policy, try to keep it clear and explicit so anyone can understand it.<\/p>\n<p>(NOTE: This post is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice.)<\/p>\n<h2>How to Link to Your Privacy Policy<\/h2>\n<p>Once your privacy policy page is complete, you need to include a link to it, somewhere in your website \u2014 <strong>that\u2019s easy to find<\/strong>. For most online businesses, you\u2019ll find a link to the privacy policy in the website footer section. It\u2019s a common practice now. Your customers will likely look for a link to your Privacy Policy at the bottom of your web pages.<\/p>\n<p>Your new <strong>privacy policy<\/strong> page will help protect your business and your online visitors. <strong>It\u2019s a win-win situation.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe you\u2019ve been told you need to add a Privacy Policy to your small business website\u2026 and you\u2019re wondering why and how. This beginner tutorial will help you get started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"close","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-small-business","cat-3-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7584"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7751,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7584\/revisions\/7751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimsondesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}