Creating your own personal website or blog is easier than ever with so many templates available today to help get you started. However, you need to be thinking about more than just the basic design for your page.

You need to also keep your visitors in mind and think about how you will protect their rights, so they’ll keep coming back. That’s where a privacy policy comes in. It’s a way to be transparent and explain what kind of personal information you collect on your site and what you are going to do with that information.

Privacy Matters

Although this may seem like a daunting undertaking, creating privacy policy that fits your specific needs does not have to be a tough task. You can use a personalized privacy policy generator to help get you started. Many are available on the Internet for free or for a one-time fee.

Just choose the generator that best fits your needs, plug in some simple information about your online business or blog, and in no time at all you’ll have your own privacy policy, ready to become a part of your website. But, you may be wondering if the policy generator you choose includes all the information you need to convey to your customers. Here’s a breakdown of some important items to be sure to include in your own privacy policy.

Exactly What’s Being Collected

Leave nothing out when detailing what kind of information you are collecting. It’s best to make this part of your policy short and concise by creating bullet points. For example:

• Name
• Billing Address
• Shipping Address
• Home Phone Number
• Email

Make sure you explain who is collecting this information, how it is going to be used, and if you are going to be sharing it with any third parties. Once this is stated in writing, you cannot change the policy unless you have the consent of your customers, according to the web design company Off the Page Creations, LLC.

Cookies

If your site is using cookies, you need to explain in plain, easy-to-understand language what a cookie is, what it does, and why it is not harmful. Cookies collect information from your site’s visitors about their surfing habits, allowing you to use the information to do a traffic analysis, according to the event tracking and analysis website.

It’s important to mention in your privacy policy that cookies do not collect personal details. Explain that you are using this method of tracking to benefit the visitor in the end, by improving your website and its content. Even so, some people will still be wary of the concept, so you also need to give your viewers an option to block cookies and show them how to do so.

Email Lists

Finally, if you use some sort of email list to promote special offers or send out snippets of your blog, you need to include opt-in or opt-out instructions. Many people advocate for the opt-in option, because it “gives communication control to the customer, allowing him to check a box if he wants to be contacted by a company,” according to an article in Inc.com.

In the opt-out option, the customer is bombarded with emails until he makes the conscious choice to opt-out. Whichever option you choose to go with, make sure to explain clearly on your privacy policy what your customers need to do, depending on if they want to receive your emails or not.

Once you have double checked to make sure these important elements are included in the personalized generator you use, you are ready to make your policy live on your website. Create a prominent link on your page so your customers know exactly what they’re getting into and can feel confident when surfing your site.