If you’re under the assumption that nobody reads your privacy policy, chances are you haven’t bothered to update it in a while.
After all, what’s the point in making privacy policy updates if 36% of people—according to Pew Research—don’t read a policy all the way through before clicking “agree”?
Well, here’s the thing. Those 36% of people might not read your privacy policy, but the rest do.
Skip to:
- What is a Privacy Policy?
- Why are Organizations Updating their Privacy Policy?
- What to Include in a Privacy Policy Update?
- How Do You Communicate Changes to Privacy Policy?
In fact, 22% of website visitors say that they “always or often” read privacy policies before agreeing to them.
These users care about their privacy and are willing to stop doing business with you if you fail to protect their sensitive information.
But there’s another critical reason why organizations regularly update their privacy policy. And that reason is the law.
To comply with data protection laws and, if applicable to your organization, the NIST cybersecurity framework, you need updated, accurate privacy policies on your website.
The slew of GDPR fines issued to brand giants like Amazon and Meta proves that this isn’t something to be taken lightly.
Organizations of all sizes are performing intricate data privacy policy updates in a desperate bid to avoid the same costly fate.
But wait—before we discuss why privacy policies need updating, let’s look at what they are.
What is a Privacy Policy?
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A privacy policy is a legal document posted on your organization’s website. It discloses how your website manages the personal information it collects from visitors.
Essentially, it explains your entire data collection process—how data is collected, stored, used, and protected—and the purpose of your data collection.
It also covers nuances like the rights users have over their data and whether information is shared with third parties.
But even the most thorough privacy policy can’t serve a business for months and years, leading us to our next point.
Why are Organizations Updating their Privacy Policy?
Your privacy policy should be a living document. This means that it should adapt to changes as and when they occur. Let’s explore the main reasons why organizations are updating their privacy policy.
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To comply with data privacy laws
Any business that collects data—whether from web visitors, customers, or employees—must abide by data privacy rules, such as GDPR and CCPA.
These regulations legally enforce the proper way to collect, store, and use data. And, critically, they dictate how these actions should be communicated.
Data privacy laws tend to change year by year, although they can certainly happen more frequently and unpredictably than that.
Whether new legislation has passed or previous legislation has been amended, organizations are required by law to update their privacy policies in accordance with it.
Fail to do so, and be prepared to pay the price. The average GDPR fine is around €1,755,366 ($1,874,729) across all countries. So, it's safe to say you want to avoid non-compliance at all costs!
Various types of internal audit can help you identify areas that need attention.
But which data privacy laws should you be concerned with? Here are some of the main laws regulating the usage of website visitor data:
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- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): If your website collects personal data from EU citizens, you must create a privacy policy that discloses specific information, such as how and why you use their data.
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): If you do business in California, the CCPA dictates that you must publish an updated privacy policy every year. Customers must be notified of these updates and, like GDPR, must know how and why their data is being used and be able to opt out if desired.
- California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA): CalOPPA requires every commercial website or online service to display a privacy policy. While similar to the CCPA, it exclusively regulates what information should be included in a privacy policy.
- Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA): If your website collects data from children under the age of 13, your privacy policy must be aligned with the rules set out by COPPA.
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To avoid lawsuits
It’s not just regulatory fines that you should be wary of. An updated privacy policy can help you avoid expensive, reputation-destroying disputes.
Let’s say your privacy policy states that you will always refuse to share information with third parties.
But if you encounter scenarios where you’re legally obliged to share information, you must change your privacy policy to include this clause. If you fail to make this update—or notify users that you’ve made this update—then customers can potentially sue you even if you’ve acted in accordance with the law.
Why? Because they can argue that they weren’t informed of the changes and therefore didn’t agree with them. And if there’s one thing that you must absolutely gain before utilizing customer data, it’s their consent.
Regularly updating your privacy policy and keeping users informed prevents disputes from being raised against you. Users are given the opportunity to opt out if they don’t agree with your new terms.
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To meet user expectations and win customer trust
You need to win their trust to turn a web visitor into a customer—and a customer into a loyal brand advocate. In the age of the internet, this goes much deeper than simply providing them with a consistently high-quality product.
You need to create content that users trust and value, deliver exceptional customer service experiences, and fiercely protect your customers’ sensitive information.
Users must trust that any personal data your business collects is handled properly. This includes information collected via your websites and apps, phone calls, customer service emails, and live chats.
However you store your data, using HDFS (what is HDFS?) or another framework, the same laws apply.
Pew Research illuminates the consumer anxiety surrounding sensitive data usage, indicating whether customers really care about how you use their data.
81% of Americans are largely concerned about how companies use their data, and 71% express the same concerns and skepticism toward the government’s data use.
It’s also worth noting that if you’re using AI for data collection, you may need to work a little harder to establish trust with your website visitors.
Pew Research also discovered that 70% of people are wary of companies that use AI for data collection despite recognizing the many benefits of doing so.
Creating an in-depth privacy policy and performing regular privacy policy updates alleviates this anxiety.
It proves to customers that you take their data privacy seriously. It also establishes transparency, which is key to winning the trust of your customers.
What to Include in a Privacy Policy Update
When reviewing your privacy policy, you should consider any operational changes within your company and changes in data privacy law.
For example, maybe you’ve recently carried out some mainframe modernization. As part of this, you might want to disclose that you’ve migrated some of your data to the cloud.
Free to use image sourced from Unsplash
Here’s some of the main information that you should consider updating in your privacy policy:
- The type of personal data collected by your website.
- What the data you collect is used for.
- How data is collected and processed by your organization.
- Your practices and procedures for storing and securing the data (for example, using end-to-end encryption, strict user permissions as well as full, differential, and incremental backups).
- How users can access, check, and update their personal information.
- How users can opt out of data collection.
- Your data retention policy.
- Your data-sharing policy regarding both third parties and authorities.
How Do You Communicate Changes to Privacy Policy?
We’ve mentioned just how important it is to notify users about privacy policy updates.
To sum up, it helps you avoid legal disputes and win the trust of your customers.
Plus, many data privacy laws dictate that web visitors must be made aware of privacy policy updates, so it keeps you compliant, too.
But how do you communicate these changes to your website users and customers? The three most popular methods for communicating privacy policy updates are:
- Email: Send a mass email to your email list to announce that you’ve changed your privacy policy. You can communicate the changes within the body of the email or, if you’d prefer, link to the privacy policy so that users can consent to the changes.
- Website pop-up: Create a website pop-up that communicates privacy policy updates to both new and returning visitors. Invite users to read the policy and accept or deny the changes made.
- Push notification: Send users who have downloaded your app a push notification announcing your updates.
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Wrapping Up
Just like the prices of the products, the personas of your customers, and the contracts you devise with suppliers, your privacy policy is subject to change depending on the current landscape.
New data privacy laws may come into effect. Existing laws may be updated.
You might change the type of data you collect or use different data collection methods. Whatever the case, your privacy policy should be edited and updated to reflect these changes.
To stay compliant and meet user expectations, aim to perform a privacy policy update every year. And don’t forget to notify your customers every time you make a change.
