A business website necessarily needs to collect details of its visitors before they get converted into customers. These details can either be contact information such as email addresses and telephone numbers, or sensitive information such as social security numbers and / or other means of personal identification, or even critical financial information such as bank account or credit card numbers. Whatever be the case, the need to ensure that these details remain safe with you is of huge importance if you want to win over the trust of your valued client base.
It is easy to see that any of these bits of information if not handled carefully, could lead to big trouble if it falls into the wrong hands. Not all miscreants would want to misuse plastic money or impersonate you by indulging in identity theft; some offenders will be mere irritants and cause you unnecessary hassle by repeated unsolicited emails and / or marketing calls. It is therefore very important that your website is equipped to protect user information besides making it known to your customers or prospective customers that their details are safe with you – that you will not knowingly part with their details and that you will do everything within your capacity to ensure that all the information that you collect is not disclosed to a third party under any circumstances. You can get a privacy policy written out for you by firms that offer content writing, copywriting and generally any search engine optimisation firm will have this kind of service offering.
What a Privacy Policy Is
A website’s privacy policy details your company’s views and procedures associated with the information collected from visitors. A privacy statement can also be looked at as a declaration in which you describe how you intend to handle the privacy of your business relations. In this respect, it is one of the most important documents on any website.
It is essentially a legal document and hence it tends to be long-drawn and teeming with legal terms and obscuring clauses embedded within reams of text; however, a good website will ensure that its privacy policy is both concise and easy to understand, without leaving any scope for confusion in the readers’ minds.
Main Sections of a Website Privacy Policy
- Introduction: Here your visitor gets to know a little about your business, as well as any special functions that your website has. Any special conditions for collecting information (for e.g. from children under 16 years of age), should be stated clearly in this section.
- Information Collected: Mention what types of information you are collecting here. Ideally, also include information logged by your website servers, like IP addresses and host names.
- Method of Collection: The different methods that you use to collect the information such as automated or using forms that are filled up by visitors must be detailed here.
- Storage of Information: Visitors have the right to know how their details are being stored by you and how secure this database is. It is a good idea to register with the local government so as to enforce the data protection act; this will instill a certain degree of trust in your practices amongst your website’s visitors.
- Contact Details: Allocate a separate set of contact details for visitors to get in touch with you in case of any concerns pertaining to your privacy policy. Include an email address (or online form), as well as a postal address and telephone numbers and ensure that these are responded to in a timely manner.
Importance of a Privacy Policy
Indisputably, one of the most important aspects that conducting business online depends on is the ability to win the explicit trust of the people you deal with. It has been found that people usually are willing to provide simple information like names and e-mail addresses but when it comes to sensitive details such as phone numbers, postal addresses, credit card numbers, age and social security numbers, they are skeptical. Concerns about security and privacy are not unfounded given the numerous instances of misuse of personal information in the recent past. It is therefore vital for an online business to offer an assurance that information pertaining to potential clients will not be abused in any way. Consequently, having a clear and straightforward privacy policy on your web site has come to be an essential component of online success.
Guidelines to Develop Your Website Privacy Policy
You can define the elements of an effective privacy policy by simply looking at the basics of what your business is. Several resources are available to help you with creating the perfect privacy policy for your business. There also are specific tools that you can use to enhance your website’s privacy practices such as enhanced data encryption resources.
Here are a few questions that your privacy policy should be capable of answering:
- What types of information is being collected?
- System specific data such as IP addresses, browser tags, and user location
- Demographic data such as age, family size, income level, etc.
- Contact information such as email and postal addresses / telephone numbers
- Is any information being collected without the user’s consent?
- For what purpose is the information being collected?
- In order to administer your site
- To customize the visitor’s experience
- To communicate with the user
- How exactly will the information collected be used?
- How is the information being collected?
- Through online forms?
- Using cookies or any other identifiers
- From where can the data be retrieved?
- Who, besides yourself, will have access to the information collected?
- Will the information gathered be sold, leased, or shared with third parties?
- Will affiliates or business partners have access to it?
- Will data from third parties be used to supplement your database?
- Where is the information actually stored?
- What is the geographical location of the server that holds the information?
- What is the mode of transmitting data?
- What security features protect the database?
- For how long is the information kept before being rendered inactive or redundant?
- How is information deleted / disposed off after use?
- How does one go about removing or modifying information?
- Is it possible to manage, modify, or update one’s own information?
- What are the procedures involved in opting out of any future services or communications?
- Can users restrict the extent to which their information is shared / used? If yes, how can they go about doing so?
In keeping with the very purpose of your website’s existence, which is to increase your online sales, the best way to ease your prospect’s buying experience is by making sure that their details are not under any threat of being misused. What better way to do this by telling them about your true intentions using an effective privacy statement? Increase not only your sales but also your repeat and referral sales by making a sound privacy pledge, and online success will follow automatically.
