Here’s one of the biggest mistakes online business owners make: They fail to put the 3 most important legal documents on their website, and that leaves them exposed.
It’s tantamount to standing naked on the corner of Egads and Nooooooooo!
Turns out this is a very popular corner on the Internet. And it can bite your naked “assets,” if you know what I mean.
How? Why? Because, with Privacy laws becoming stricter, and because (as sad as it is to say) there are more shysters and hooligans lurking in Internet space than you can possibly imagine, you may inadvertently leave yourself wide open to “Legal Hell” if you don’t take the necessary steps to 1) be in compliance with the law, 2) make sure you reduce your risk of being sued, and 3) protect your content from being stolen and/or misused.
The 3 legal docs that aim to protect you from the above are:
- Privacy Policy
- Terms and Conditions statement
- Disclaimer
The second biggest mistake online business owners make is to take shortcuts in hopes of saving money (which often ends up costing more money in the long run since getting yourself out of Legal Hell is a nightmare that can bring you — and your bank account — to your knees).
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to fix someone’s Privacy Policy because they had cut and paste it from another website and it was all wrong (not to mention the fact that “borrowing” legal documents off someone else’s website is copyright infringement. Would you like to go up against the lawyer who drafted those documents?)
When it comes to privacy policies, one size does not fit all, especially now with stricter privacy laws geared towards protecting the personal information of individuals who share that information online with business owners like you and me.
Posting a Privacy Policy is a legal requirement for anyone who collects information on their website. Even if all you do is collect email addresses, you MUST have a Privacy Policy. You don’t have to be selling anything. As soon as you ask someone for personal information (ex., their name, their email address, etc.) you MUST point them to a Privacy Policy that explains exactly what you will do with that information, where you will store that information, how long you will store it, how you will manage it, what you will do to protect it, who will have access to it, who you intend to share it with, what steps you’ll take in the event of a breach, and that’s just the beginning.
If you have subscribers from any of the European Union countries, you have even more responsibilities as a business owner. The General Data Protection Regulation is wide-reaching in scope and it requires business owners to jump through several hoops to ensure the protection of an EU resident’s personal information.
The good news? You don’t have to hire a lawyer!
You don’t need a lawyer to write a GDPR-compliant Privacy Policy for you. You can do it yourself, as long as you make sure it includes all the necessary clauses that not only protect your website visitors but also cover your assets. The last thing you need is to have someone claim you didn’t notify them of their privacy rights, or worse, that you breached your duty to protect a subscriber’s or a client’s personal information. Click here to do it yourself using a lawyer drafted GDPR-compliant Privacy Policy Template.
There are also strict US laws to consider like the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Click here to do it yourself using a lawyer drafted GDPR-compliant Privacy Policy Template.
I don’t want to scare you, really I don’t. (Ok, maybe a little. Kinda like the dentist who says, “You need to brush or you’re going to need a root canal some day. Can’t argue with that.) But as online entrepreneurs we must take care of ourselves; we must protect our businesses fiercely. You don’t want to put all that hard work into growing a successful online business and then have it all come crashing down because you didn’t take the necessary steps to make sure your legal ducks and docs were all lined up in a nice little row.
These are just a few of the things that need to go into a GDPR-compliant Privacy Policy:
- Explain the type of information you will be collecting, including any “personal information” and how it’s collected.
- Explain what will be done with that information and whether it will be shared with third parties.
- Notify visitors whether you use cookies or other tracking devices and how they can disable them.
- Explain that you will have a legal obligation to disclose certain information if compelled by law.
- Provide an email address so people can contact you with regards to their privacy concerns.
- Give instructions for how people can opt out of your email list(s).
- Let people know that you will occasionally update your Privacy Policy and always provide the date of your last update.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Reading the GDPR law will make your head spin (it made mine spin and I’m a lawyer!) That’s why I created this new template, for the do-it-yourself types among you.
I realize there are people out there who are saying it’s all nonsense. Tell that to Microsoft. And yes, I get it, you’re not Microsoft, but privacy protection laws are not going away. Small businesses are being held accountable, In fact, several countries (Canada among them) are already talking about adopting GDPR compliance guidelines.
I realize (and appreciate) that this can be a royal pain in the “assets”… but your assets (your business name and tag line, website content, products, services, etc., as well as your personal assets like your home and investments) are worth it, right?
You and your business are worth protecting.
But as a responsible business owner, you already know that.
→ GET THE NEW DIY LEGAL “MINI TOOLKIT”: Contains all three legal docs you need to protect your website and your business, including a comprehensive GDPR-compliant Privacy Policy. (For a limited time, use coupon code GDPR100 to get a $100 discount.)