About a year ago we wrote a blog post Manufacturers Need to be Aware of New Data Privacy Laws to Avoid Fines and Lawsuits. The post covered changes to laws in a variety of states. Recently, we planned to add a Privacy Policy to a website we were developing, but the client insisted that they didn’t need one because they’re not a consumer business. So we thought we’d clarify the requirement.
Basically, you need a Privacy Policy if you do any of the following…
- allow someone to upload a file
- have a contact form on your site
- have a request a quote form on your site
- use any kind of tracking platform to see how much traffic your website gets (ex: Google Analytics)
- track the IP address of the visitor in any way
In addition to adding a policy, you need to ensure it’s kept up-to-date. States are writing their own laws on the subject and each one is differs from the other. It’s critical to ensure your policy has the flexibility to respond to changing demands.
Privacy Policies are no longer something that applies to consumer-based websites only. Every website should have a Privacy Policy. Failure to do so can lean to fines that exceed $5,000 per website visitor. Please contact us if you’d like more information on the topic.