Privacy Policies... Don't Get Caught With Your Pants Down...

The US is notorious for having strict rules to protect consumers. This is a good in that we as consumers can be protected.

This is an annoying thing, as it adds a little bit more work up front.

And it's a bad thing because as an online affiliate, we can get in trouble if we don't take the right steps and make the right disclosures.

I've been doing some research on privacy policies and the one that you may have copy and pasted from WA may not be enough to protect you. If you aren't using google Adsense, then the privacy policy you copy and pasted from WA doesn't really mean anything to you except taking up space that could be better used.

If you are promoting affiliate products, then you must have something in your privacy policy about that fact.

What I've found is that vagueness can get you in trouble. At the least with not gaining a visitors trust. At worst, with legal actions.

So what should you have in your privacy policy?

• Personalize – Your readers will be more at ease if they think they’re hearing from a real person rather than a one-size-fits-all boilerplate policy that is in lawyer-speak. It’ll help convince them that you went all out to make sure you respect their privacy.
• Be definite – Many privacy policies use the words “may” or “might” in order to cover as many bases as possible without having to frequently research and update the policy. Try to research exactly what information you and your third parties collect as much as possible. Using less vague words like “do” and “will” conveys that you’ve done a lot of work to know exactly how your users are affected.
• Read every TOS - You don’t want your accounts shut down because you didn’t follow their guidelines for protecting your readers’ privacy.
• Prominent link – While you don’t have to have an abnormally large link to your privacy policy on your navigation menu, it should be easy to find. Standard practice is to place the link in your footer.
• California – Note that compliance with the California Online Privacy Protection Act is required if anyone located in the state of California visits your blog, regardless of where your blog is based. Will California authorities come after you if you violate this law and you’re based in a different state? Probably not, but why take a chance?
• Comply with COPPA - The children's online privacy and protection act is no joke. Make sure you have something (even if it's brief) stating that you will not knowingly collect information on individuals under the age of the 13

Now, I'm in no way a lawyer, nor do I play one on tv. But, it's important to educate yourself to protect yourself.

There are a lot of free resources out there to generate customized privacy policies. Be sure to do your homework and protect yourself before you wreck yourself! :)