The world of online business comprises several terms and policies, for both sellers and buyers. If you’ve ever scrutinized websites profoundly, you must have come across various policy pages, describing different terms and conditions that either the brand or the visitors have to follow ethically.
Amidst innumerable policies and conditions, one of the most essential pages that are essential for every website, irrespective of the niche and type, is the privacy policy page. However, a majority of ignorant people end up taking this page for granted; thus, leading themselves to severe problems and hassles. You can easily create privacy policy using WordPress privacy policy plugin.
So, what exactly is a privacy policy? Is it really as important as it’s hype? And, lastly, how can you create a privacy policy page seamlessly for your website? This post will help discover all of these answers. Read ahead.
What Is Privacy Policy?
A privacy policy is a kind of statement that describes how the website is collecting, storing, protecting, and using personal data provided by visitors. There’s a variety of information that may come under personal data, such as name, physical address, email ID, phone number, financial information, IP address, date of birth, and more.
Importance of A Privacy Policy Page:
Here are some of the essential reasons why you should have a privacy policy on your website:
1. It’s a Lawful Requirement:
Perhaps, one of the most important reasons why you need a privacy policy is because the law requires you to have one. In the United States, the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) says that if you obtain any personal information from users based in California, you must display a legal statement that users can review before disclosing anything to you.
Not just California, but Europe, Canada, and Australia are no different. Apart from these significant areas, different countries might have varied laws, compelling website owners to have an adequate and precise privacy policy on their websites. So, if your site is open globally or the traffic is coming from these major areas, you’d need a policy for sure.
2. Made Mandatory by Third-Party Services:
Several third-party services, designed to improve your websites, like Google Analytics or Google AdWords, do require the presence of a privacy policy that would comprise specific information about how you’re using their services.
Since Google Analytics stores cookies on a visitor’s computer with the purpose of collecting data, it requires this policy. Owing to this, internet laws would demand you to disclose how you’re using Google Analytics and cookies.
To disclose this information, you must have a separate section in your privacy policy called “Cookies.” If not, you can individually display Cookies Policy as well.
3. Makes Your Business Transparent:
When it comes to clients’ information, it’s important to be transparent so as to establish trust and comfort among your visitors. Sharing trusted and authentic information about the kind of data you collect and how you’ll be using it will help establish confidence with the target customers.
If you do the other way round, you may end up losing your clients. Or, it may even cost legal implications to you. When creating a privacy policy, you must add such information that would put forth a clear picture of your business in front of them, including the location and contact information.
Along with informing them about the collection, it’d be great if you can also communicate how you’re keeping their information secure from undesirable data breaches. Also, you must also add whether they can opt out of it or not.
4. Helps Creating Reassurance:
These days, website users are increasingly becoming conscious when it comes to protecting their data online. Keeping this in mind, the need to create a comprehensive privacy policy and to display it adequately on a website is imperative.
Even if you just have a blog, your privacy policy should tell readers that you’re collecting email addresses for the purpose of newsletters. If you have a consistent flow of traffic, they’d want a reassurance that their details are completely protected and safe from public abuse.
It’s true that most of your visitors wouldn’t even be reading your policy statement; however, just knowing that it’s there on the website would put them at ease.
5. Keeps Your Brand Protected:
Having a readable and adequate privacy policy can protect you from such possibilities that can get you sued or run your business into legal troubles. There are innumerable examples of lawsuits are rolling over questionable policies.
Not only small businesses but even the widely-known organizations, such as Delta Airlines, SnapChat, and Google have also borne the brunt of it. Furthermore, the EU is also increasing the fine amount to be imposed over businesses, irrespective of the niche and size.
Despite taking protective measures, there always remains a risk of data breaches. In case you have already published a policy describing your responsibilities, you might save your business from coming under the notice of law and order.
How to Create a Privacy Policy Page with WPLegalPages?
When it comes to generating a privacy policy, you can easily find a variety of plugins for WordPress. However, amidst all the options that you can get, WPLegalPages is one such tool that’s being considered by a majority of WordPress users.
Along with the ease of use and smooth interface, this plugin also comes with a wide range of astonishing features that will further help you create a privacy policy, along with many others, just within a few seconds.
Why Should You Be Choosing WPLegalPages?
The list of reasons would be quite long. Some of them include:
• 25+ prebuilt policy templates
• Responsive popups
• Forced page/post option
• Both free and premium versions available
Creating Privacy Policy with WPLegalPages:
The process of installing and activating this plugin on a WordPress website is quite straightforward and simple. Follow these steps, and you’ll be done within a few seconds:
Activating & Installing:
If you’re using the free version of this plugin, you can either download it from the inventory of WordPress and upload on your website. Or, you can do so from the website itself by:
• Visiting Plugins sections
• Searching for WPLegalPages
• Downloading it
• Activating it
However, if you’re purchasing the premium version of it, you’ll get a .zip file once you’re done with the payment procedure. You can visit the dashboard of your WordPress website, click on Plugins, and upload this file there. And then, you can install the plugin from there.
Setting Up the Plugin:
Once the plugin is activated, you can then customize the settings as per your needs and requirements. This can be done by:
• Clicking on Legal Page options on the dashboard
• Choosing Settings from the menu
From there, you can edit the plugin however you’d want to. And then, you can:
• Click on Create Page from the menu
• Select the type of website you have
• Choose from the available templates
• Edit the content a bit
• And, publish the page
Your policy page would be up and running instantly.
Wrapping Up:
The importance of a precise privacy policy page cannot be neglected, especially when you’re not a fan of legal penalties and court cases. So, to make things easier for you, this plugin from a reputable and reliable source is here with its fantastic list of features.
Download the plugin, activate it on your website, and begin creating different policy pages to suit your requirements. How to Create a Privacy Policy Page with WPLegalPages?