Why A Website Must Have A Privacy Policy

by Sam Mitchell - Paralegal

14 August 2012, filed under Ecommerce

A privacy policy is a legal statement your company makes regarding the collection of information, handling of data, and how you can share that information/data. Most likely you have noticed a privacy policy on any website you have ever used. The policy may have stated that the company can collect your name, birth date, occupation, marital status, email address and other personal information. It might state that this information is stored securely, but may be shared with chosen third parties under the legal terms of the UK.

Every country has their own rules when it comes to privacy laws. Your company must adhere to the privacy laws and explain to your consumers what your privacy policy is. There are several reasons for why you should have a privacy policy on your website including the laws which state you must have a privacy policy statement for visitors to you. If you think you need more advice about ecommerce for your website we have a range of handy guides and templates in our Ecommerce section.

One reason to have a privacy policy is to tell your readers what information is collected. This is part of the law in the UK. Regulations state you must tell your reader or visitor what information you collect from newsletters, registration on a website, and through other methods that a visitor might use leaving information behind.

The policy states how the information will be used, which is important to the reader and again a part of the UK laws regarding how private information must be handled. Collected information and data can be used in order to respond to customers’ communications, complaints, website improvements, user experiences, and for certain third party uses. For instance a company may share your data to a marketing firm to draft better marketing for their website and company as a whole. The privacy policy must state whether a company does or does not collect data for marketing purposes. One most important factor with the privacy policy in regards collecting data is that it cannot be sold to a third party. It can be disclosed only to trusted third parties which do not have to be named in the privacy policy.

The privacy policy also makes it clear how you protect the data and information you collect. It is important with the new cookie laws that you have a notice about cookies, not only in the privacy policy but also a pop up which tells the user that you do use cookies on your site.