Privacy Policy Fundamentals

You know those tediously long agreements linked at the bottom of websites that no one really reads? Well Guess What?! – Those agreements are extremely important! Any legally sound website should have both a Terms of Use and a Privacy Policy (collectively “Website Agreements”) to protect the website owner from liability stemming from use of the website.

Privacy Policies are designed to put website users on notice about the type of Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) (i.e. information which can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person) that the website collects. Typically, PII includes things such as name, mailing address, e-mail address, IP address, and credit card information.

All Privacy Policies should at least include:

1. What PII is collected
2. How the PII is used
3. Where the PII is stored
4. Who the PII is shared with
5. When users can stop their PII from being collection
6. Compliance with California Law (which allows California users to request inforomation about who/where their PII was shared)
7. Website contact information

These seven items are very high-level requirements that any solid Privacy Policy should include. How the details are filled in is based upon the particular aspects of your business and website model. If you are in need of a Privacy Policy for your website, the Attorneys at Traverse Legal can help.