Where to Get a Website Privacy Policy

Welcome to website privacy policy roundup of your dreams.

Oh, you've never had that dream? Okay, I'll add it to my “weird sh*t website designer dreams” list and move on. But really, I get it – there’s 193267 (rough estimate) things to think about when you’re starting or running a business, and sometimes this just doesn’t make the top of the list.

Today, I’m pulling back the curtain on exactly where my clients find their privacy policies. Whether a privacy policy generator or a customizable contract doc is more your speed, I have options on options just for you.

Please note: I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice. This is just me sharing about a tool I recommend to clients to help cover their website’s legal bases now and in the future stress-free. Also: This post contains affiliate links.

Let’s start with the basics…

Why Your Site Needs a Privacy Policy

If you have a contact form on your website (which I hope you do), you're collecting personal information! Websites with contact forms help website owners generate leads by collecting people’s names and email addresses. When a form gets submitted, you receive that person’s contact details via an email sent to your email inbox. 

So, you’re not only collecting names and email addresses, but you’re sharing that data with your email service provider and any other third-party services you may be using to collect leads (like Dubsado, Healthie, etc). You may also use tools that collect information like user’s IP addresses for security and analytics purposes (Meta Pixel, cookies, Google Ads, the list goes on).

Websites collecting personal information should have a privacy policy

Personal information (names, emails, IP addresses, etc.) is regulated under multiple privacy laws. And because your website could be collecting this information from website visitors located anywhere, you may be required by multiple privacy laws to provide a website Privacy Policy that makes specific disclosures required under each law. 

There’s nothing wrong about collecting personal information, rather it’s a great thing that helps a business grow. It’s just that these days, you need to make the respective disclosures in your Privacy Policy!

Which Privacy Policies You Need

There are four policies I recommend you have on your website (again, this isn't legal advice – consult a lawyer for personalized insight):

1. Privacy Policy (REQUIRED)
2. Terms of Service/Terms & Conditions
3. Cookie Policy
4. Disclaimer

Privacy Policy

Websites are required by law to have a privacy policy. A Privacy Policy is “a statement published on a website or application that explains how your website(s) collects, uses, and discloses personally identifiable information, as well as your privacy practices” (from Termageddon).

Common website features that need to be included in your policy (if you have them):

• A contact form that collects information
• Analytics software (I will help you set up Google Analytics as part of our project. To opt out, just let me know you don't want/need this step!)
• Mailing list signup

Terms of Service/Terms and Conditions

The T&C details the rules of using your website. From Termageddon: “A Terms and Conditions is often not required, rather its intentions are to help limit the liability of the website owner.  If a website owner is taking eCommerce payments through the website, however, a Terms and Conditions is indeed required to explain the rules to transactions being made online and to comply with consumer protection laws.”

Cookie Policy & Cookie Pop-Up

Cookies are small pieces of data that are used to identify someone's computer when they use your website. In order to track your website's performance over time, I recommend connecting to Google Analytics which does use cookies, meaning you'll need a cookie policy & pop-up to allow people to opt-in.

Disclaimer

“A Disclaimer is a statement that limits the liabilities that a website owner may be responsible for due to the website.” (From Termageddon)

A disclaimer is highly recommended if you:

• Are a healthcare provider
• Use affiliate programs to generate income

Shop Terms & Conditions

If you have any digital products for sale on your website, I recommend sourcing a specific set of policies for it. You can see examples here on my Shop Terms page!

Where to Get Website Policies

There are multiple ways to generate the appropriate policies for your website, including: consulting a lawyer, purchasing a template, or subscribing to an embedded policy creation service.

Option 1: Policy Generation Tool

Termageddon charges $119/year for a full set of policies to help website owners comply with laws and limit their liability (aka, help you avoid potential website related fines and lawsuits).  This includes a Privacy Policy, Terms, Disclaimer and more! 

The tool generates your policies based on a questionnaire that helps determine what laws apply, provides the exact disclosures you’re required to make and then notifies you and can even push updates automatically to your policy pages when the laws change! 

Option #2: Contract Template Shops

Contract template shops are run by lawyers and provide an editable policy document for you to add your information. From there, you'll simply copy/paste the policy onto a page of your website for visitors to read.

Favorite Template Shops:

• The Creative Law Shop
• The Contract Shop (affiliate)

Where to Put Your Privacy Policy

I typically give my clients a website page named “Legal” or “Policies” that contains everything on one page. You can use clearly marked headers to separate out your policies – it doesn't need to be a highly designed page!

You'll use your website design platform to add a code block (may also be called an embed block or something similar). Essentially, your website privacy policy generator will generate a string of code for you that you'll copy and paste into this block. Ctrl-C, ctrl-V, move on!

Then, just link to it in the footer of your site and make sure it's on every page.

Curious what that looks like? Legal pages are included in all of my website templates!