Privacy policy compliance is one of the most commonly overlooked legal obligations for online businesses. If your website, app, or platform collects any information from users, including names, email addresses, payment details, or even just browsing behavior through cookies, you are required by law to have a privacy policy.
Who Needs a Privacy Policy
The short answer is: almost every business with a website. US laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and global frameworks like GDPR require businesses to tell users what data they collect, why they collect it, who they share it with, and how users can request that their data be deleted or corrected. Even if your business is small, if you have California residents visiting your site or EU visitors at all, these requirements apply.
Beyond CCPA and GDPR, payment processors, app stores, and advertising platforms like Google often require a compliant privacy policy as a condition of using their services.
What a Privacy Policy Must Include
A compliant privacy policy should cover the categories of personal data you collect, the purposes for which you use that data, the third parties you share it with (including analytics providers, email platforms, and payment processors), the rights users have over their data, and the process for exercising those rights. It should also describe your data retention practices and how you secure the data you collect.
Writing this from scratch without legal guidance is risky. Each platform has specific disclosure requirements, and missing a required element can expose you to regulatory complaints or class action lawsuits. Working with a privacy policy attorney is the safest way to ensure your policy covers everything it needs to.
Keeping Your Privacy Policy Current
A privacy policy is not a document you write once and forget. Every time you add a new analytics tool, change your email provider, start running ads, or launch a new feature that collects different data, your privacy policy needs to be reviewed. Major privacy laws also update their requirements over time, which means a policy written two years ago may already be out of compliance.
For most businesses, an annual review with a lawyer is a reasonable baseline. For high-growth companies adding new integrations frequently, reviewing the policy every quarter makes more sense.