Writing Privacy Policy for Websites
Website Privacy Policy - Integral Part of Website Content Management
In this age and time when there is a proliferation of websites, it is necessary to assure visitors to the site that their Privacy will be protected. When a person is selling a product or service online, the prospective buyers will feel more secure if there is a Privacy Policy in place. The customers will feel confident that any information they part with will not be misused.
What is a Website Privacy Policy
A Privacy Policy can be described as a statement that outlines the website's Policy on gathering and using information about a visitor to its site.
A Privacy Policy generally spells out the details about sharing customers’ names, addresses, phone numbers, and e mail Ids with third parties. Certain web pages even ask visitors to click a button to acknowledge that they have read and agreed to the Privacy Policy of the site
Wikipedia defines a Privacy Policy as “a legal document that is dealing with the information related to customers' and merchants' private profiles.”
A still more elucidatory definition pertaining specifically to websites would be “A Privacy Policy can be defined as the Policy under which a company or organization operating a web site handles the personal information collected about visitors to the site”.
Nature of the Privacy Policy
Privacy policies generally let the users know details of the personal information that it collects, the purpose why it is collected, the manner in which it will be used by the website, whether it will be disclosed to any one and if so whom, what security measures have been put in place by the site to maintain the confidentiality of the personal information, and whether the website uses cookies and web bugs.
The nature of Privacy policies as declared by many websites are in conformity with the P3P guidelines. “P3P is the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project that enables Websites to express their Privacy practices in a standard format that can be retrieved automatically and interpreted easily by user agents.”
The need for a Privacy Policy
A visitor to the website is somewhat disturbed when suddenly asked about the name, postal address, telephone numbers, credit card particulars and certain other personal information.
It is a natural human tendency not to part with personal information unless assured that it will not be shared with third parties and the information will not be misused. Thus the need for an unambiguously written Privacy Policy is desired.
How to write an effective Privacy Policy
First of all, the online Privacy Policy statement must be written in simple, easily readable language. The Privacy Policy has to be short and user-friendly and published as part of the website. To write the Privacy Policy more effectively, it is advisable to refer to ‘P3P Guiding Principles Document’ available on the Internet.
It is obligatory to mention details about the nature of personal information that is collected collect, to what use the information will be put, the names of people who will have access to the data, and for how long the information wll by retained by the site.
The points to be covered when writing an effective Privacy Policy are:
- The nature of information that is collected
- To what purpose the information thus collected will be used?
- How the information will be protected?
- Names of people to whom the information will be disclosed
- Undertaking that the information will not be shared with third parties
- Specific assurance that the server and other online operations of the site are secure and the nature of security arrangements available
- Are cookies used? If so, cookies-specific details
- How personal Information is stored?
- Choices available to visitors regarding deletion/deactivating personal information submitted.Changes in the site’s Privacy Policy
Website Content Management is a complex management system and Privacy Policy forms an integral part of it since it tries to take the customers into confidence and assures them of the privacy to the information they have imparted to the website. In this way it becomes crucial for both the parties (customers and website owners) to follow a transparent approach of mutual understanding through effective Privacy Policy.
Privacy Policy for People to Read
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