Why Every Australian Business Needs a Website Privacy Policy
Thinking of it in the simplest terms, a privacy policy for your business website is something like insurance. Suppose you don’t have insurance for your car or bike or any other automobile. You can go without it just as far as everything is going as usual. When your automobile becomes prey to an accident or lands in any other unfortunate situation, you will be totally on your own.
But having insurance for that will never let you face such troubles because the insurance has got you covered. The same is the case with the website privacy policy. You are very able to run the business website without a privacy policy but you can expect serious troubles in unfavourable situations.
In fact, the Australian Privacy Principles and legislation may require you by law to have a privacy policy in place. Before we start talking about website privacy, let us give you some idea about what it is.
What is a website privacy policy?
A privacy policy is something that tells your visitors everything like the data that you collect about them and the way you will use those pieces of data. Whenever you visit a website, you will find a link to the privacy policy at the bottom of the page. The majority of users don’t pay much attention to it. But it is a must for your website in case someone needs it.
Owning a business website comes with a serious need for a privacy policy page as compared to other categories of websites.
This is because a business website uses cookies and they also ask for some personal information like email addresses and other contact details. Having a privacy policy on your business website makes it evident and clear to the users the way it will store and use the personal information of the visitors.
Importance of website privacy policy for businesses
Talking of its importance, it is compulsory by law in many countries, including here in Australia. However, you only need to follow the Privacy Act 1988, in certain circumstances (although it is recommended you do, no matter if you are required to by law, or not).
These circumstances are;
If your business has an annual turnover of more than $3 million, you must comply with the Privacy Act.
If your business has an annual turnover of $3 million or less, you may still be required to comply with the Privacy Act depending on your business type and what you do within your business. For example, you will still be required to comply if you’re a:
- private sector health service provider, including complementary therapists, gyms, weight loss clinics, child care centres and private education providers
- business that sells or purchases personal information
- contractor providing services under a contract with the Australian Government
- credit provider/credit reporting body
- residential tenancy database operator
Ideally, most experts will agree that you should have one even if your organisation does not meet the criteria above.
Not having a privacy policy might land you in trouble when you send marketing emails to your visitors or do anything like that. The concerned person has the full authority to inquire about the reason why you didn’t tell them about it. And that person has the right to come to you with a lawsuit regarding it. So, the troubles are quite serious for businesses that don’t have a website privacy policy.
Having a privacy policy is a solution to all the issues that we have mentioned above or many others that we haven’t talked about. It maintains transparency in the way your website works. Above all when you are in business, earning the trust of people is very important.
With enough transparency about the way you work and process their data, you are taking a major step towards earning their trust. Regardless if you are a plumbing business or a labour hire firm, it is wise. People always tend to know more and more about the brand they are interested in. In this world of the internet, having a website privacy policy will let them know about it more than usual.
You have read a lot about its significance and a few other aspects. You might think it must be a difficult task to create a privacy policy on your own. But this is not the case because it is a fairly simple process. Let us give you a quick look at how you can do it.
Creating a website privacy policy for your business
There are several online tools that you may opt for this process. And if you want to do it your way completely, that is an easy process as well. Just prepare a text of your privacy policy and then you have to post it on your website. There are some things worth caring about in both these steps.
While writing the privacy policy, you have to ensure that it is written for the Australian jurisdiction. Theres no point in using one written for USA or UK, for example. You also must be clear about every aspect of the way your website will operate with the data it collects from the visitors.
Make sure the privacy policy is written in a way that a common internet user can easily understand.
Once you post this piece of text on your website, you have to take care of some other things as well. Don’t forget to link this privacy policy to all the relevant spots throughout your website where it should be. Your focus at this point in time should be to make it available at different spots where visitors might want to have a quick look at it.
Australian Privacy Policy templates and generators
You can simplify this process further by opting to use privacy policy templates or privacy policy generators available on the internet. There are many places you can obtain a privacy policy template, such as;
We have used several other privacy policy generators, however the four above seem to have the best templates for your needs.
Final words
We hope this article helped you know why you need a website privacy policy, and where you can obtain a free template to get started. Running a business is a difficult task and you can’t afford to make mistakes on the legal side of things.
Ensuring trust and privacy is just the beginning of this journey. Getting it done the right way is going to make things easy and smooth for you in the later stages.
