Please note that in no way is Help Desk Cavalry providing legal information or counseling in this article. The content below is offered for your information only and any concerns or questions about complying with current laws should be directed to a legal professional.
A privacy policy for small businesses is a legal requirement—that’s very true—but more than that, it’s a tool to help earn your customers’ trust and to protect yourself. Since everything in business changes from operational processes to the plugins on your website, it’s important to keep your privacy policy up to date so you stay in compliance.
7 TIPS TO MAKE SURE YOU STAY THE COMPLIANCE PATH
- Updates to the official policy must happen if there are any changes to:
- Data procurement – How you get the data
- Storage – How you store the data
- Security – What the security policies and measures around your data are
- Sharing – How and when you share the data
- Customer rights – What access and recourse your customers have regarding their data
- Notification of policy changes must be issued in writing to your customers. This can be a simple pop-up on the website or a customer-wide email informing them of the specific locations in the policy where the changes were made and what they changes were.
- Your privacy policy must be a part of your website’s sitemap or have a clearly visible link in the footer. The goal is to ensure that it’s easily accessible for your website visitors in case they wish to read it. With the same goal in mind, we recommend that you keep it simple. There’s no need to use fancy words and jargon in your privacy policy. Just ensure it covers and conveys everything.
- Make sure there’s a link to the privacy policy wherever it comes into play. For example, before filling a form on your website or before check out.
- If your site uses cookies to store visitors’ preferences with the goal to offer a more personalized browsing experience, you need to let your visitors know. A pop-up on your site during their first visit is a good way to do this.
- Make sure your privacy policy mirrors the standards for your industry. For example, a privacy policy for a business that sells products to the government will be different from a company that provides pest removal services to residences or a healthcare clinic.
- Stay on top of regulation developments that may affect your privacy policy (especially since more and more states—WA being one—that are changing their laws). If you are worried that you won’t be able to stay up to date, ask your MSP and legal counsel.
CUT LABOR COSTS BY DOING IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME
Managed Service Providers like Help Desk Cavalry are responsible for providing you with the right technology to ensure that business basics like a small business privacy policy can be met. If you need any help understanding what your data collection, storage, and security options are, just reach out to us. While we can’t provide strict legal guidance, we can absolutely make sure that you have all the technology required to satisfy your own policies. Contact us today.