This post is part of a series of articles covering Online Privacy Policies as they relate to website and blog operators. The purpose is to provide insight into the less obvious legal risks that entrepreneurs are exposed to in the area of privacy law and PII, simply by owning a website or blog. The fact is, legal consequences can result even if mishandling of PII is unintentional. [Continue reading]
Are Online Privacy Policies Required by Law?
When I initially got involved with designing websites, I remember being unclear about whether online privacy policies are required by law for the average website or blog operator. When I researched the issue, I quickly realized the answer is not a simple one. The short answer is: it depends. The longer, more complete answer depends on whether you are talking about federal law or state law. At the federal level, it depends on the age of the website-visitor. At the state level, it depends on which state the site-visitor resides in. The goal of this article is to provide clarity on this issue at both levels. [Continue reading]
11 Reasons to Have a Privacy Policy Posted on Your Website
There are numerous articles available on the internet listing reasons to have a privacy policy for your website. What makes this one different is it includes a reference to recently introduced U.S. federal legislation requiring privacy policies from all entities that collect PII. This legislation is now the most compelling reason websites and blogs need to have a privacy policy posted. Thus, it’s first in my list of 11 reasons.
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How to Write a Privacy Policy for a Website – Part 1 of 2: Assess
Before a privacy policy can be written effectively, current PII handling practices need to be assessed. This post contains a list of questions that facilitate this assessment. The questions are based on requirements from a cross-section of relevant sources. The answers serve as a comprehensive outline upon which a compliant, consumer-friendly privacy policy can be constructed. [Continue reading]
How to Write a Privacy Policy for a Website – Part 2 of 2: Options
While the previous post examines the assessment phase, this post covers the crafting phase – the steps involved in actually writing a privacy policy. It offers a free downloadable list (PDF) of solutions including auto-generator websites, sites offering privacy policy templates, as well as online professionals who will write a customized privacy policy for you. [Continue reading]
Federal Legislation and Online Privacy Policies
In a previous article, I made the point that due to variations in evolving state laws requiring online privacy policies, the U.S. needs a standard set of requirements at the federal level. Without a universal standard across the U.S., online entrepreneurs were going to have a difficult, if not impossible, time complying with privacy rules. As the saying goes… be careful what you wish for! As of this writing (10 months later), 16 online privacy related bills have been introduced in Congress – and we are only halfway through 2011. They are listed here along with links to each bill in THOMAS, the Congressional database. [Continue reading]