A Privacy Policy is Required by Law

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The most important reason Privacy Policies are useful is because you're most likely required by the law to have one posted on your website. The applicable laws in your region or the region you're conducting business in may require you to include and abide by certain clauses in your Privacy Policy.

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For instance, in the United States, the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) requires websites that collect personal information from the residents of the state of California to include a statement in their Privacy Policy that discloses how you handle their information. Since there isn't a way to filter out visitors from California, you're likely required to comply with CalOPPA even if your website is ran from a location nowhere near California.

The EU's GDPR also requires a Privacy Policy from most businesses around the world that collect any personal information - including simply an email address - from people located in the EU.

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Forever 21's Privacy Policy agreement has a separate section on California Residents that explains the rights of the residents of California in compliance with CalOPPA.

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Use of Cookies and Tracking

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Websites that use cookies or other technologies to obtain personal information from their website's visitors or customers include a cookies clause in their Privacy Policies. Generally, the cookies clause states that the website uses cookies, why it uses them, and how users can disable cookies on their devices.

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Canva's Privacy Policy has a section on Cookies information that explains cookies usage.

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Changes to the Privacy Policy

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You will likely have to change the content of your Privacy Policy at some time. For this reason, most Privacy Policies have a clause that states how they will inform users about updates and revisions to the agreement.

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What should I add in my Privacy Policy?

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Certain clauses or provisions should be present in your Privacy Policy:

• The personal information you collect from visitors

• How the collected personal information is processed and shared (and with whom)

• If you use cookies or any other tracking methods

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