Does your site need a privacy policy?

As governments get more aggressive in protecting consumer privacy, you might need to take explicit steps to protect your website visitors.

Why is a privacy policy important?

A privacy (and cookie) policy protects your website visitors. It assures them you’re using the data you collect from them in a responsible way. In that way, it builds trust with your website and the company it represents.

Having a privacy policy also protects your business against criminal or civil legal actions. You might say to yourself, “but my business isn’t big enough for anyone to worry about.” However, if your business is small something like this might completely shut you down.

If you can do business in the European Union or California (USA) you need to take this seriously even if you’re not located in these places.

For example, if you are located in Charlotte, North Carolina and can only do business there, you might be able to get away without a privacy or cookie policy. However, if someone visits your website from California (for instance, if they want to read an amazing blog post you wrote) then you should consider having a California-compliant cookie policy. You’re liable to protect the visitor from California even if you can’t do business there.

Better safe than sorry: go ahead and install a privacy policy on your website.

What should you expect from a privacy policy?

Having a privacy policy isn’t an SEO factor (yet?) as much as a legal requirement in certain locations.

A negative impact of a privacy policy is when people opt-out of your tracking. When that happens, you’ll be blind to the traffic and the effect of your marketing efforts. Thankfully most people simply opt-in (at this point) but as consumers become more aware of privacy matter, you might be more blind to the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

One positive impact of a privacy policy is that your users will trust your website. This might not affect traffic or business from your site but could affect your conversion rate- as people trust you over your competitors who do not take their privacy as seriously as you do.

How to add a privacy policy to your website