Disclaimer: I first want to stress that I am not a lawyer, and if you really are concerned about this you should seek professional advice.

How appropriate to start off a blog post about Privacy Policies with a disclaimer. :-) Wiki defines a privacy policy as :

A privacy policy is a disclaimer placed on a website informing users about how the website deals with a user’s personal information. The privacy policy generally contains information regarding whether or how their information is shared with parent companies, subsidiaries, or third parties. Often this also explains how or if the website uses cookies and web bugs.

So the question I’m asking (and answering) today is: Do you need a privacy policy?

If the only websites you own are simple content sites or blogs or review sites… then no I don’t think you need one. In my opinion, the only time you need to have a privacy policy is if you are directly selling a product to a customer (not affiliate stuff), capturing visitors information (such as emails for a newsletter), or if your website/content can be used for illegal purposes (proxies).

The main purposes of a privacy policy is to cover your ass. If you make a site that has a good chance of being sued over, you’ll want a privacy policy to be safe. But let it be known, unless you draft an official privacy policy by a lawyer, it would likely get ripped to shreds in court if it came to that. Something you write up in Notepad is not going to hold up in court.

An example of a site that might need a privacy policy is a site that captures visitors email address, names, or addresses. Let’s say you send out a newsletter every week to signed-up users on your site. You will need a privacy policy to state how you will use their information. Are you going to use their info for your own private use? Will you distribute it for commercial use? Will you store their info for only 6 months, or for life? All these questions have to be answered in a privacy policy.

The two websites below are resources you can use for generating a privacy policy for your site. If you’re conducting serious business online, get it checked out by a lawyer. If you’re just putting something online so you look like you’re covered, then just slap these templates on your site.

This is a privacy policy generator. You simply check the boxes and fill in the forms and it will email you a custom privacy policy.

This website here provides templates for disclaimers, privacy policies, terms & conditions, and terms of sale. It’s a UK site though, so I don’t know how that effects us in the USA.