As a business owner who uses digital assets, you probably understand how important it is to collect user data. Data is what lets you fine-tune everything from your website content and newsletters to various AI and machine-learning-powered personalization features. Data collection happens on your business’ website, blog, or even your business’ app. And if you don’t collect data, you risk your competitiveness on the marketplace. Data gathering is a tricky, sometimes even murky, landscape. That’s one of the main reasons why businesses that own websites or apps develop privacy policies. But if you think your business can get away with not having one, or creating a very weak privacy policy, here are four points that should convince you otherwise.
Regulatory or Third-Party Requirements
The list of entities that will require you to have a privacy policy for your data-collecting digital assets is long. You can pretty much guess that some of the entities on that list are government agencies that enforce laws that pertain to the digital space, or the gathering and use of sensitive information. But you’ll find tech behemoths like Google or Apple on that list, too.
To put it bluntly, a privacy policy that transparently states how and why your assets collect user data and what you plan to do with them is a necessity if you want to stay in the good grace of governments and tech giants. If you don’t do it, your website, app, and your whole business will suffer various kinds of penalties.
Protection from Lawsuits
A kind of penalty you can suffer when having no privacy policy might come in the form of a lawsuit. Who would sue you? Anyone from your users, to various consumer advocacy groups, and maybe even jealous or especially mean competitors.
A well-developed privacy policy can act as a deterrent, that much is true. But even if someone tries to sue you, the privacy policy will act as a shield that ensures you did everything according to the law, and with the consent of your users.
A Trust-Building Tool
There’s no such thing as using too many features that instill trust into your customers. That’s why your website displays security seals, or testimonials, or takes an extra step to be even more transparent. And users will respond positively to your trust signals, especially when they pertain to their own data.
Online privacy and security are rising concerns among internet users. A strong privacy policy that’s written in a way people can understand it will go a long way in ensuring the visitors that their data will not be misused or stored in an unsafe manner.
It’s Good for Business
It’s obvious how a privacy policy can be good for your business. If it prevents your website or your business from being taken to court, or if it doesn’t make you a subject of regulatory fines or online marketplace penalties, that’s pretty good for your business.
But there’s more to it. All the transparency and straightforwardness you demonstrate when you create a good privacy policy can affect your bottom line for the better. When people trust you, they are more likely to do business with you. If they know their data is safe in your hands, they have one less reason to wander off to your competitors. So a good privacy policy might actually help you make more money, not just stop you from losing money unnecessarily.
There are many benefits to having a privacy policy, and many drawbacks on not having one. However, if you want to get the most out of that legal document, you have to ensure that it’s professionally written by legal personnel who specialize in writing privacy policies. And with the increasingly tough stance regulators are taking on online privacy, it will only get more important to protect your business with a good privacy policy. If you contact us, we can set you up with all the legal documents a website needs to operate free of hassle and in accordance with the regulations.
