If you have a website or business which collects, stores, or processes individual personal data, you need a privacy policy. Several states, the European Union, and China have data privacy protection laws, and violations can incur hefty fines and penalties. So can you use a privacy policy template to take the hard work out of drafting your own policy?
Unfortunately, privacy policy templates rarely cover every potential issue or comply with every applicable law. In order to ensure that your policy is compliant, you’ll need to pursue other options. Fortunately, SixFifty has privacy tools to take the time and expense out of creating your own.
What is an example of a privacy policy?
Privacy policies can vary quite a bit, depending on where you’re located and who your users are. A great example of a privacy policy is from Google. The privacy policy is divided into easy-to-navigate sections on a sidebar, including the information Google collects, why, how you can access privacy controls, regulatory compliance, data transfer frameworks, key term definitions, and updates to the policy.
When you navigate through Google’s privacy policy, note that it’s written in plain, easy-to-understand English—not legalese. Although it’s a good idea to have a lawyer either draft your privacy policy or review what you’ve created, your audience is the people who use your website or business. Global privacy laws are designed to put power back in the hands of the consumer, so it’s important that they understand their rights and your methodology.
Google also uses illustrations and videos to make the privacy policy easier to understand. Although that’s not required, it’s a great way to break up the information and highlight key concepts or sections. Once you’ve drafted a compliant privacy policy, you’re welcome to use similar techniques to make your policy more user-friendly.
Need more examples? Most websites should have a privacy policy available, typically linked in the footer or in a navigation menu. If you’ve never reviewed your favorite sites’ privacy policies, it’s a great way to see how language and presentation vary across territories and industries.
Are privacy policy templates good to use?
Privacy policy templates aren’t as bad as copying and pasting someone else’s privacy policies into your own website (that could be a copyright violation—and it runs the risk of misrepresenting your actual processes), but they’re generally not a good option.
The problem with using templates is that they take a one-size-fits-all approach. Unfortunately, privacy regulations can vary significantly, and there’s no guarantee a privacy policy template will be suitable for your specific website, company, blog, app, or other venture. Because data privacy violations can incur fines ranging from thousands to hundreds of millions of dollars, it’s better to create your own custom privacy policy, specifically tailored to your needs.
Can I write my own privacy policy?
You can write your own privacy policy, even if you’re not a lawyer—but you’ll probably want to get a lawyer’s approval, regardless. If you feel comfortable researching global privacy laws in different territories, and translating those regulations into plain English, go for it!
Another option is to have your lawyer or in-house legal team research and draft a privacy policy. That ensures legal compliance, which is the most important objective. On the other hand, you’re bound to rack up a significant legal bill, or take your in-house team’s attention away from other pressing matters. Ultimately, these options tend to be burdensome for small businesses—you’ll sacrifice time, money, or both to get a custom privacy policy.
How to create a privacy policy
It’s crucial that you have a privacy policy for your business, lest you run afoul of domestic or global laws. Yet this can be prohibitively expensive and burdensome for small businesses and individuals—even if it’s cheaper than paying for violations.
SixFifty has created Privacy Docs to address these needs. Instead of relying on a privacy policy template, hiring a lawyer, or doing the research and writing all on your own, there’s a better solution. Our privacy tools pair real legal privacy policy expertise with powerful technology. The result? Your own custom privacy policy, without the time commitment or massive price tag.
All you have to do is answer some questions about your company or site, then download the automatically generated custom privacy policy. Best of all, we keep you updated when laws change, so you can regenerate an updated policy.
Ready to find out why SixFifty is more powerful than a privacy policy template? Schedule a free demo today!