No doubt you periodically receive emails from companies notifying you that they have updated their website Privacy Policy.
Data privacy is becoming a very big deal, and because of that, it's important that every website not only has a Privacy Policy, but also has a strategy to keep it up to date.
Privacy policies can be a little daunting to write and, quite honestly, they can be a bit of a pain to keep up to date. But they are important. They are a way for you to communicate to your customers what data you’re collecting, how you’re using it, and how they can access or change it.
What is a Privacy Policy and why do I need one?
A privacy policy is a document that resides on your website and explains how a website user's personal data is collected, why it is collected, and how it is used.
It also includes ways that users can contact your company and normally includes the name of the contact person, an email address, a phone number, and a mailing address.
Privacy laws exist to protect the personal information of individuals online.
Canada’s privacy law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) requires businesses to disclose a comprehensive Privacy Policy if their website is collecting the personal information of Canadians. Penalties for non-compliance can be substantial and can apply to businesses of any size.
Depending on where in the world your website visitors are located, there are other privacy laws that may be applicable:
- Canada - Quebec's Act Respecting the Protection of Personal Information in the Private Sector
- European Union - GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
- Australia - Australian Privacy Act of 1988
- United Kingdom - Data Protection Act (DPA)
- United States - CalOPPA (The California Online Privacy Protection Act)
- United States - CCPA (The California Consumer Privacy Act)
- United States - DOPPA (Delaware Online Privacy Protection Act)
- United States - Nevada's Revised Statutes Chapter 603A
and more are being added. Six new laws were added in 2022 alone.
These laws were created to protect the consumers of those states and countries, and these laws can apply to businesses outside of those states and countries. They may apply to you if you do business there, collect the personal information of residents of those states or countries, or offer goods or services there.
Additionally, many third-party services, such as Google Analytics require you to have a Privacy Policy.
What are privacy laws and why does your business need to be concerned?
Privacy laws exist to protect the personal information of individuals online. Privacy laws start applying as soon as a website asks for a name and an email on a contact form. Once you start collecting information about your website’s visitors, it is considered personal data.
The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) of Canada has imposed strict requirements on website operators to have a Privacy Policy that contains very specific disclosures. While this law was enacted a while ago, Canada has seen an increase in complaints from consumers regarding the collection of their personal information online. This increase is what could result in increased enforcement of this law.
Having a Privacy Policy in place makes complying with data privacy laws easier because it’s all spelled out for you. If your company gets audited by an authority and you store the information about how you use personal data you collected from your website visitors, this policy will make it much easier to show how everything is done legally.
In short, having a website with as little as a contact form means that you are collecting personal information and should consider having a Privacy Policy with the necessary disclosures required by PIPEDA.
In addition, Canada has recently proposed a new privacy bill, The Consumer Privacy Protection Act. If passed, this law will require companies to update their Privacy Policy with new disclosures. This law will also enable Canadians to sue any business for collecting their personal information without displaying a Privacy Policy that includes the newly required disclosures.
This is a good example of the ever-changing nature of privacy laws and I recommend that you not only have a comprehensive Privacy Policy in place but that you also develop a strategy to keep your policies up to date when these laws are amended or when new laws are implemented.
What can you do to get protected?
To help you be proactive about this issue, we are offering a new Privacy Policy service.
We will create your policies, install them on your website, and provide automatic updates to your website policies when the laws change (as well as notify you when changes are coming).
These are the same policies that we use on our own website. You can see them HERE, HERE and HERE.
What Does It Cost?
The first year includes a one-time set-up fee of $400.00 to create a Privacy Policy, a Cookie Policy and a Terms of Service Policy and to install them on your website, plus a recurring yearly fee of $200.00 to maintain and update the policies, for a total of $600.00 (plus tax).
Each subsequent year, the service renews at $200.00 (plus tax).
How Do I Get Started?
We just need a few details from you to get started. Once you fill out the form we'll schedule a follow-up meeting with you by phone. We'll need about 30 minutes of your time to gather some information from you. We will then create your policies and install them on your website.
Order Your Policies