For one second, forget about the numerous blog posts telling you about how hard it is to start a business.
It is fun. The kick in adrenaline, the passion keeping you up at night, the hunger to see some sort of growth when you launch…they all provide you with some kind of high even the most notorious drugs cannot guarantee you.
And the good part? It’s completely legal.
However, in the euphoria of starting your business, there are some important things you might ignore.
For instance, if the business you want to start is to run online; i.e. through a website, web application, a phone application or if you were to conduct email marketing and other internet-based services, a major part of your preparations have to be drafting an online privacy policy.
Your online privacy policy is a way of making a pledge to the public and your users in general on how you will use, not use and protect the data you collect from them.
We’ll be honest, a lot of entrepreneurs don’t see this as something important. “A privacy policy? Sure, I’d just copy from somewhere else and paste on my website.”
You not only need to carefully craft your own privacy policy, you have to make sure your business follows the policy by implementing reasonable security measures to protect your customers’ data.
Failure to comply with your privacy policy could result in costly legal fees, fees that could be avoided if your business takes the drafting of its privacy policy seriously.
This is especially important since the recent EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
While there is no one size fits all privacy policy, there are still some basic guidelines that every business can use while drafting one.
Table of content
1. Explain How You Collect Data
If your business is set to serve not only folks in Nigeria but in some European countries, you need to explain in details how you collect and how you use or intend to use your user’s personal information.
This is particularly important if you are involved in e-commerce or if you collect information in surveys or marketing forms. Every one of your users has a right to be aware of how you collect and use their information. Here are some of the things you’ll have to explain thoroughly;
Your use of cookies: If you use cookies for online behavioural advertising, which tracks visitors’ interests and online habits, you’ll need to let your website visitors know.
How you share customer information: Clearly state with whom you will be sharing data you collect and for what purpose.
Contact information: Make it easy for your customers to contact you or file a complaint.
2. Display your Privacy Policy
Make sure your users especially the new ones have access to your policy by placing it or its link prominently on your homepage or product pages. This would equally help people feel comfortable that you take their online security seriously.
3. Publish Your Email Opt-Out Policies
Be sure to include opt-out options in your email marketing and on your websites so that your users can have the option of changing or cancelling email notices they receive from your company.
4. Collecting Data from Children
If your company will be collecting information from children under 16, you must make reasonable efforts to verify that parental consent is given. There is no written guideline on how this is supposed to be done however, If you intend to collect data directly from children directly, you must write your privacy policy in a way that is clear to understand for children.
5. Adhere to Your Policy
This is really important as stated earlier. It’s important from both the standpoint of customer credibility and the law. In the swarm of diverse online technologies such as mobile applications, online communities, social media and so on, you need to take great care of how your company adheres to its privacy policy so as to avoid any form of lawsuits whatsoever in the case of negligence.
6. Get your policy customized
Your privacy policy should fit into your kind of business and be properly suited to your specific business. We have made this easier at DIYlaw, as all you have to do is answer our questionnaire and you get a properly crafted and customized privacy policy. Try it out here.
7. Talk to a lawyer (optional)
You might also desire to have a professional look at your privacy policy for you, considering the constant change in the privacy policy issues. You can reach out to one of our accredited lawyers here to help you out.
All these said, the more you depend on the internet for your business, the more you need to be on the lookout for the changes in the policies governing the internet.
This is extremely important in Nigeria and in other parts of the world especially if your business plans to expand its reach out of the country’s borders. There are also loads of privacy policy templates you can get online so as to get an idea of what exactly it is your privacy policy should look like.