By now, you should have a pretty good grasp of what goes into a privacy policy. And if you’re now trying to work out what to write in a your privacy policy page, you’ll find further information on the process below:
Familiarize Yourself with Data Privacy Laws
We haven't got the crawl budget to go through every data privacy law here, but you’ll need to research the data privacy legislation that is relevant to your business and audience.
This work will ensure absolute privacy policy compliance with all the laws that matter to your business.
But when in doubt, follow GDPR. It’s the gold standard that other data privacy laws aspire to and if your privacy policy meets the requirements of this law, it meets the requirements of every law.
We’ve also written elsewhere about how to write a GDPR-compliant privacy policy for our TWIPLA users, and this short copy might help you to understand the work involved.
What Personal Information is Collected
Next, you’ll need to work out what personal data is being collected by your website or app and any third-party dependencies that serve it.
This is ultimately just a fact-finding mission and the information should be freely available from the different organizations involved. If not, get in touch with them.
How You Collect Personal Data
After this, you’ll want to go into detail about the methods you use to collect the data of website visitors (or app end users) in the first place.
More specifically, you’ll need to include information rebates to any website forms, cookies, app permissions, third party services. And remember, be open and transparent about ALL your data collection practices.
How the Personal Information is Used
Next, you’ll need to detail the various ways that your website and business uses the data that is collected from website visitors.
This could be for personalizing the user experience, analyzing website performance, or for any wider marketing purposes. But ultimately, your customers need to be able to read the privacy policy and understand from it exactly why your business needs their data in the first place.
Who the Data is Shared With
Now, you’ll want to draft information about any third-party companies that you’re sharing website visitor data with. This could be business partners, service providers, or advertisers.
They’ll all have their own specific reasons for needing website visitor data, and they’ll also have privacy policies that will go into detail about this. So explain why you’re sharing personal data with these entities, and write about the safeguards that are in place to protect his information.
How Personal Information is Protected
Personal data protection is central to the purpose that underpins privacy legislation.
As such, you’ll need to detail the security measures that your business has implemented to protect personal information from the risks of unauthorized access, data breaches, and other threats.
This can include anything from data encryption and data minimization to secure data storage and regular security audits.
How Users Can Opt Out
The privacy policy also needs to include clear instructions on how users can opt out of data collection, marketing communications, or any other data processing activities done by your organization.
Ensure that the process is simple and accessible via simple web forms, email links, mobile app settings, dedicated contact information, and straightforward instructions on a user-friendly interface.
Communicate Users’ Rights
Finally, don’t forget to inform your users about their rights regarding their personal data. These include their right to access, correct, delete, or restrict the processing of their information at any time.
Then, include instructions on how they can exercise these rights. For instance, they could do this by visiting your “Privacy Settings” page, contacting your business directly, or using any links provided in the privacy policy or elsewhere to manage their data preferences.