Termageddon

A Privacy Policy is a document that discloses what personal information you collect on your website, what you do with that information, and who you share it with, amongst other disclosures. Your website needs a Privacy Policy if you use it to collect personal information such as names and emails. Most websites collect personal information through the use of contact forms or email newsletter sign up forms.

It can help you avoid law suits. Currently, there are four laws in the U.S. and the E.U. that require most websites that collect personal information to have a Privacy Policy. These laws were created to protect the consumers of those states & countries, not the businesses. This means that these laws can apply to businesses outside of those states and countries and may apply to you if you collect the personal information of or enter into transactions with consumers.

Several states have proposed privacy bills that, if passed, would require websites that collect personal information to have a compliant Privacy Policy. These bills all have different requirements for the disclosures that need to be made in a Privacy Policy and would impose heavy fines for failing to include those disclosures. In fact, some states are proposing to allow consumers to sue businesses directly for not having a compliant Privacy Policy.