|
|
Sample Privacy Policy
A sample privacy policy is shown below, and
is available from many online sources. The Better Business Bureau, for
example, provides the following information regarding Privacy Policies:
"A good privacy notice is easy to find, easy to read, and comprehensively
explains all your online information practices. It also provides online
visitors an opportunity to make informed decisions about the collection
and use of their information. As part of good business practices, posting
a notice is an important first step in defining your online policies and
towards answering one of the major concerns (and barriers) voiced by
web-users when going online.
A privacy notice is also a promise. As a promise, it is not enough to
simply post such a notice. To effectively promote trust and confidence in
you and your website, the provisions of a privacy notice must also be
fully implemented as part of a larger privacy policy. Careful
consideration should therefore go into the creation of a notice so it
accurately reflects your own unique information practices and you can
guarantee a faithful adherence to its provisions.
For these reasons, the following sample privacy notice is held out only as
a drafting aid, and not necessarily an absolute definition of an
acceptable privacy notice. You should also note that many of the BBBOnLine
privacy notice requirements turn on particular information practices.
Should any of these information practices be utilized, an applicant's
privacy notice will need to contain additional disclosures as required by
the BBBOnLine Privacy Program.
The following sample privacy notice describes basic information practices
for a single website directed to U.S. residents. Additional disclosures
would be required for website operators that:
- limit the application of the privacy
notice to U.S. residents,
- share individually identifiable
information collected online with unaffiliated third parties or
corporate affiliates not governed by the same privacy policy,
- direct part of their website to children
or collect information from online visitors actually known to be
children,
- enhance or merge individually
identifiable information or prospect information collected online with
data from third parties for the purposes of marketing products or
services to the subject of that information,
- apply the privacy notice provisions to
everyone except those operating solely in a business capacity,
- limit the scope of the BBBOnLine privacy
seal by excluding in the application corporate subsidiaries, operating
divisions, or websites devoted to other discrete product lines,
- condition access to any part of the
website on the disclosure of individually identifiable information,
- allow other organizations to collect
individually identifiable information or prospect information by
interacting directly with online visitors at the applicant's website,
- collect passive information (including
cookie information) that is linked to a name or similarly specific
identifier,
- use prospect information for any purpose
other than those for which the information was submitted, or
- limit access to maintained individually
identifiable information or prospect information by limiting the
frequency of requests or by requiring a processing fee; or limit access
due to an inability to retrieve such information in the ordinary course
of business."
The following is a sample privacy policy
provided by the Better Business Bureau:
Sample Privacy Policy
Effective month/day/year
Privacy Notice Table Of Contents:
Our Commitment To Privacy
The Information We Collect
How We Use Information
Our Commitment To Data Security
Our Commitment To Children's Privacy
How To Access Or Correct Your Information
How To Contact Us
Our Commitment To Privacy
Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy we provide
this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices
you can make about the way your information is collected and used. To make
this notice easy to find, we make it available on our homepage and at
every point where personally identifiable information may be requested.
The Information We Collect:
This notice applies to all information collected or submitted on the
[company name] website. On some pages, you can order products, make
requests, and register to receive materials. The types of personal
information collected at these pages are:
Name
Address
Email address
Phone number
Credit/Debit Card Information
(etc.)
On some pages, you can submit information about other people. For example,
if you order a gift online and want it sent directly to the recipient, you
will need to submit the recipient's address. In this circumstance, the
types of personal information collected are:
Name
Address
Phone Number
(etc.)
The Way We Use Information:
We use the information you provide about yourself when placing an order
only to complete that order. We do not share this information with outside
parties except to the extent necessary to complete that order.
We use the information you provide about someone else when placing an
order only to ship the product and to confirm delivery. We do not share
this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to
complete that order.
We offer gift-cards by which you can personalize a product you order for
another person. Information you provide to us to create a gift-card is
only used for that purpose, and it is only disclosed to the person
receiving the gift.
We use return email addresses to answer the email we receive. Such
addresses are not used for any other purpose and are not shared with
outside parties.
You can register with our website if you would like to receive our catalog
as well as updates on our new products and services. Information you
submit on our website will not be used for this purpose unless you fill
out the registration form.
We use non-identifying and aggregate information to better design our
website and to share with advertisers. For example, we may tell an
advertiser that X number of individuals visited a certain area on our
website, or that Y number of men and Z number of women filled out our
registration form, but we would not disclose anything that could be used
to identify those individuals.
Finally, we never use or share the personally identifiable information
provided to us online in ways unrelated to the ones described above
without also providing you an opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prohibit
such unrelated uses.
Our Commitment To Data Security
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the
correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical,
electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the
information we collect online.
Our Commitment To Children's Privacy:
Protecting the privacy of the very young is especially important. For that
reason, we never collect or maintain information at our website from those
we actually know are under 13, and no part of our website is structured to
attract anyone under 13.
How You Can Access Or Correct Your Information
You can access all your personally identifiable information that we
collect online and maintain by [description of the company access
procedure]. We use this procedure to better safeguard your information.
You can correct factual errors in your personally identifiable information
by sending us a request that credibly shows error.
To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps
to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.
How To Contact Us
Should you have other questions or concerns about these privacy policies,
please call us at [phone number] or send us an email at [email address].
Featured Articles:
Google
Web Browser
Lookout
Personal Search Engine
Yahoo! Redirects
On Page Website Optimization
301 Permanent Redirects
Search Engine Marketing Glossary
Featured News:
Jill
Whalen
Internet
Consultant News
Online
Content News
Online
Marketing News
Search
Engines News
Webmaster
Tips
Search
Engine Watch
Website
Marketing Plan News
Search
Engine Guide
|
