How do I write a privacy policy?

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well, someone accused me of using my site for, uh .... "nefarious" and commercial purposes, to say the least, and one of the things this person used against me is that I don't have a privacy policy. It was sort of weird, but it makes me think I ought to write one to prevent it happening again.

I read some sample privacy policies but they seemed very LONG and had LOTS of CAPITAL LETTERS for some REASON.

And then I googled how to write a privacy policy and I got some stuff that seemed aimed towards ... companies, I think. And a lot of them said you should get their company to write it. I don't have that money.

So, here's the deal:
1. Mines a non-profit site. I don't even take any monetary donations. I don't put ads on the site. All costs are boarne (I spelt that wrong I think) by me.
2. I do use Google Analytics on it. I don't do anything "nefarious" (I don't even know what that word means though) with it though. At least I don't think I do. I use it to figure out what the visitors like.
3. The only place you enter an email address is if you enter a comment on the "About" page. I don't sell those for spam or nothing. I might consider creating some form of an email newsletter in the future but I'll set that bridge on fire when I'm on it.

So, any suggestions?

 

[Turner]

http://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+write+a+privacy+policy

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I said I tried that!!!111

And then I googled how to write a privacy policy and I got some stuff that seemed aimed towards ... companies, I think. And a lot of them said you should get their company to write it. I don't have that money.

 

[Turner]

So I'm guessing you just went to the first link?

This stuff doesn't get handed to you..... you have to put some effort into it.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I looked at several. But I don't exactly understand it.

 

[SuperJay]

What do you want us to tell you, Aimee? You need to do your own research and develop a "policy" of your own. It doesn't have to be a long, complicated legal document, but it might take some effort.

These really vague, broad questions don't always have a simple 3-step answer. If you've tried finding a simple solution and couldn't, that probably indicates that this may not be an issue that a couple forum posts is going to resolve for you.

 

[illram]

PRIVACY POLICY: This site shall not share with any third party any personal information you choose to provide, unless and until Tom Petty requests such information, in which case your information shall be provided forthwith. This site reserves the right to Tom Petty at any time, with or without your Tom Petty, and you forever waive all future Tom Petty, known and unknown, by using this site. Tom Petty.

 

[Zelig]

https://www.billmonk.com/about/privacy

 

[amadeus]

Privacy Policy: I have no possible way of collecting your information so I've just wasted your time by having you read this. Haw-haw.

 

[mdwh]

I'd just ignore the person.

If you're not collecting information, then it doesn't really seem relevant.

 

[Furiey]

It's probably worth having one even if it's to reassure people that you are not going to sell their personal information and use cookies to track all their movements on the net.

This link in the list Turner posted covers what you need: http://www.opentracker.net/article/how-write-website-privacy-policy

The simple way is going to be:
List what personally identifiable information you do collect eg: e-mail addresses, do you use cookies?
For each say what you do with it, ie: the purpose of collecting that information.
State that you will not sell or give the information to 3rd parties
I'm not sure what information google analytics uses, if you have not already covered it you probably should do so.
A statement how to get your information removed, how to delete any cookies, how to have e-mails removed from your list.

You mention about a possible future newsletter, you probably should state if this does happen people will be able to opt in/out.

PS: I have not ever written one, but if I had to looking at the links that is the approach I would take.

 

[Narnia]

I found this page: http://www.streetdirectory.com/trav...nd_finance/how_to_write_a_privacy_policy.html
But I noticed that the above also says pretty much the same thing. In simple terms, tell people what info you are collecting, how you are collecting it, and why. Providing a link to Google Analysis's privacy policy is probably a good idea also.