You may ask why should you have a privacy policy. It sounds all legal eagle and complicated . But even though you may be dumping your email address all over the internet many other people aren’t as free. They still (and in some cases are right) think that you might take their email and contact details and use them for the wrong reasons, And the reason for this is because lots of people do!
Well if you have a contact page and actually are getting contacted then you are at a minimum collecting email addresses. You should tell people what you are doing with their data. Some people may worry about what you with this information. People hate spam and they don’t want to be getting more crap offer email from you pushing some special offer.
Your WordPress blog privacy policy isn’t meant to be a legal document but if you were to ever use their email address and got a complaint from someone at least you could point to this and say it was there.
I recommend saying in your auto response when someone does contact you what you plan to do with their data or at least point to a link where they can read some more.
For ecommerce a more rigorous document is needed as you are then handling personal information and even if it is invisible to you you should at least specify this in terms that the layman would understand.
If you are confused then write the words We will not do anything with your data is a good start!. Then build on this and get a more comprehensive statement over time. It needn’t come together in one fell swoop and ask others to review it and look at what other sites do and get some ideas. Jot down a few lines and put the link on your website’s footer. People may not read it but when they see it they will at least know you were thinking about it and have some responsibility.
But I May Want to Do Something with Their Data!
Well if this is your plan then again state this up front and in your privacy policy. Also give them an option to opt out. People will opt out and now you should make the option to Opt In the default so that it isn’t pre-ticked on the form that they use to put in their detail. It is devious to have a book ticked with an opt in.
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