[1]    The purpose of a website privacy policy is help webmasters and web-based businesses comply with data protection legislation.  In the UK, that primarily means compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.  Failure to comply with data protection legislation can lead to civil liability and criminal law penalties.  Our template privacy policy is designed for use by businesses based in the UK (although the UK data protection regime derives from EU law, there are differences in how that EU law has been implemented in the different member states of the EU).  The template is designed for websites which collect standard kinds of non-sensitive personal data for standard kinds of use.  It may be unsuitable for websites which collect sensitive personal data (such as information relating to a person’s health, sexuality, ethnicity or politics) or which collect personal information from children.  It may be suitable, for example, for use with websites which act as online company brochures or online shops. The website privacy policy template will need to be edited before it is ready for use.  Square brackets in the document indicate the sections which need or are likely to need to be edited.  However, you should of course carefully review the whole document to ensure that it meets with your requirements.  You should regularly review your privacy policy to ensure that it remains up-to-date, both with respect to the law and to your business's use of personal data.  Please note that the use of a privacy policy does not exhaust your data protection obligations.  If you are in any doubt regarding the preparation of your privacy policy or your data protection obligations generally, you should seek professional advice. 

[2]    The privacy policy should be clearly and easily accessible to website visitors from the website home page and any page which collects personal data (e.g. “The personal information we collect on this page will be treated in accordance with our privacy policy”).  In addition, key information about the use of personal data should be provided on the page where the data is collected, rather than in a separate document.

[3]    “Personal information”: for day-to-day purposes, it is best to assume that all information which relates to a living individual constitutes personal information.  (We use “personal data” and “personal information” interchangeably in this template.)

[5]    You should list in this provision all of the different kinds of personal information which will be collected over or in relation to your website. We have suggested a number of common categories.

[6]    If your site does not use cookies, the paragraphs on cookies can be deleted.

     The rules concerning cookies are set out in Regulation 6 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (as amended).  Regulation 6 provides that:

     (4) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to the technical storage of, or access to, information—(a) for the sole purpose of carrying out or facilitating the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network; or (b) where such storage or access is strictly necessary for the provision of an information society service requested by the subscriber or user."

[7]    If you don’t use Google Analytics, you should check whether your analytics system uses cookies and include an appropriate explanatory paragraph if it does.

[8]    If so, you should provide details.  The following paragraphs give examples.

[9]    This text should be used if you publish Google Adsense interest-based advertisements on your website.  Additional disclosures will be required if you have not opted out out of third-party ad serving.  For more information, see: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=100557.

[10]   As a general rule, where you plan to use personal information you have collected for the purpose of direct marketing, this should be made clear on the page where the information is collected, and you should ensure that this only happens if users opt-in to the marketing (e.g. “Click here if you would like us to send you information by email about products which we think will interest you...”).  There are however exceptions to this general rule.  There are also rules about the content of direct marketing communications.  If you are in any doubt about complying with your legal obligations in relation to direct marketing, you should seek professional advice. 

[11]   You must list here all the uses to which you will (or may in future) put personal data.  Again, we have suggested some common categories.

[12]   The relevant licence should be set out in the appropriate disclaimer/terms of use/terms of subscription etc. document.

[13]   It is good practice to also say what you will not do with personal information (within reason).

[14]   You should insert details of any payment services provider(s) you use here.  If you don't collect payments on your website, you can delete this section.

[15]   Give as much detail as possible about any such international transfers.  You also need to be aware that the inclusion of this provision will not be sufficient to ensure that all international transfers of personal data are lawful.  If in doubt, you should take professional advice on this point.

[16]   There is an obligation upon data controllers to store personal data securely.  You should provide details of your security measures here.

[17]   Changes to the policy – in particular as to permissible uses of personal data – may not be retrospective. In other words, if you collect personal information on one basis, you cannot, simply by changing the terms of your policy, go on to legitimately use that information on a different basis.

[18]   You should include a postal address as well as an email address.

[19]   You should check whether you need to obtain a data protection registration.  You can find out about this on the Information Commissioner's website at http://www.ico.gov.uk.