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Are Online Privacy Policies Required by Law?

When I initially got involved with designing websites, I remember being unclear about whether online privacy policies are required by law for the average website or blog operator. When I researched the issue, I quickly realized the answer is not a simple one. The short answer is: it depends. The longer, more complete answer depends on whether you are talking about federal law or state law. At the federal level, it depends on the age of the website-visitor. At the state level, it depends on which state the site-visitor resides in. The goal of this article is to provide clarity on this issue at both levels.  [Continue reading]

How to Write a Privacy Policy for a Website – Part 2 of 2: Options

While the previous post examines the assessment phase, this post covers the crafting phase – the steps involved in actually writing a privacy policy. It offers a free downloadable list (PDF) of solutions including auto-generator websites, sites offering privacy policy templates, as well as online professionals who will write a customized privacy policy for you.  [Continue reading]

What is a Privacy Policy?

The type of privacy policy discussed in this series of articles deals with personally-identifiable information (PII) collected online by website operators. Interestingly, while the federal government does take action against website operators that violate their own privacy policies, federal law does not explicitly require website operators to have an online privacy policy unless they collect personal information from children under the age of 13. Some states, however, require privacy policies regardless of the age of a website’s audience and regardless of the location of the website operator.  [Continue reading]

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