How to write a Privacy PolicyWritten by Anti Spam League
A Privacy Policy can be defined as policy under which a company or organization operating a web site handles personal information collected about visitors to site. For most of us consumers, privacy involves protecting our integrity and our right to disclose or not our personal information to third parties, without letting anybody bother us with unsolicited communications if we do not want to be contacted.Why has privacy become such a big deal for consumers over last few years? The answer is that customers need reassurance before giving out their personal information to someone they do not know. They might really like your web site and even visit it often, but as soon as you ask for their name, they get suspicious. Moreover, if you also ask for their address, phone number, credit card number, bank names, account numbers, health history, or current job information, they start worrying about what you are going to do with all that information. Can you blame them? Of course you cannot. What you have to do is ensure you address some basic but critical aspects of their concern, through a clear and efficient Privacy Policy. Below are some important issues you should take into consideration when writing your company’s Privacy Policy: 1) Explain what types of information you collect and how you use it Provide reassurance. Clearly explain what types of information you ask from your visitors for and what you are going to do with such information. Besides personal information, what other information do you keep track of? Do you collect information from children? How do you verify parental consent for information about their children? Remember that information is power and although about two thirds of Internet users might be willing to accept a guarantee that you will not abuse their privacy, other quarter feels extremely nervous about way their personal information might be used. Therefore, if your web site mines raw transaction data to identify visitors, to come up with new offers, or to sell their names to merchandisers, you will need to explain how you share that information within your own family of companies and outside, or else you will very likely face serious legal problems. 2) Explain why your server and online operations are secure Now you have already told people what information you ask for and what you do with it, but that is just tip of iceberg. Next you will have to explain what makes your server and online operations secure. You probably do not want to be caught with no answer when confronted with questions such as, ‘How do you make sure nobody steals my credit card information?’ or ‘How do you protect privacy of my emails to your customer support team?’ Point out how your consumers can tell if they are really on a secure server, i.e. change in URL, icons that show up on status bar, etc. You may even take a shot at explaining encryption, and Secure Sockets Layer. Most importantly, concentrate on benefits to consumer, for in end, most of them will not care less about all security measures you take and all money you spend to make your website secure, unless that translates into some specific benefits to them. 3) Let customers out When people read your Privacy Policy for first time, they will want to know how they can start or stop receiving email from you. Giving customers an opt-in and opt-out option is a great way to build trust and lower their personal barriers. However, you must be aware that people’s needs, desires and interests might change over time and despite fact that no one likes to lose a customer, you must let them go if they state that they are no longer interested in receiving your emails. In order to protect your customers’ privacy, you must give them access to their personal profile or account, and let them delete themselves. Since one of biggest invasions of privacy is spam, one of organizations created to fight spam called The Anti SPAM League considers that it is a good idea to allow people to opt into your e-mail newsletter twice - once by clicking checkbox and Submit button, and again by responding to e-mail notification that they can subscribe if they reply -. Double opt-in makes it more likely that people know what they are doing when they volunteer for email. Remember to include an ‘unsubscribe’ option at bottom of each newsletter you email to your customer base. Of course, if most of your customers request to be removed from your mailing list then you will have a much more serious problem because your business will be in danger. But still, you must always give your customers a way out. 4) Let customers view and edit their personal information If you give people opportunity to view and edit their information, chances are they will provide even more. The reasoning under this is pretty basic: almost no one destroys his or her own data. Therefore, whenever you display customers’ personal information, place clear and visible labels indicating how they can edit it. Be clear about how they can view and edit their information, i.e. ‘You can access all your personally identifiable information that we collect online by logging in and clicking ‘Change User Info’ link in box on right-hand side of every page’. Also, answer questions that might be of extreme importance to some customers such as, ‘Can I review information you have about my child?’. 5) Inform customers about policy changes
| | Privacy: Reduce your Customers’ Concerns by Building Trust FirstWritten by Anti Spam League
Before making a purchase from you, buyers need to trust your company and think that your products and services will do what they are supposed to. Do your marketing and online practices help establish trust necessary to convince prospects to buy from you? What is connection between privacy and trust? Evidence shows that two are closely correlated.Since beginning of interpersonal communication, trust has been perhaps most important influence on information disclosure. Then, when commerce started, people would trade with those individuals whom they trusted and would avoid those who were perceived as non-trust-worthy. Intrinsically subjective and hard to define, trust is a function of amount and type of control one has in a relationship. Social exchange theory advocates that individuals weigh both costs and rewards in deciding whether to engage in social transactions. Aided by a little common sense we can conclude that if rewards outweigh costs, then individual is likely to enter into an exchange relationship whereas if cost outweighs rewards there will be no exchange. This trade-off occurring inside people’s minds should not be overlooked since it ultimately determines whether they will buy from you or not. The same process takes place in cyberspace. That is, risks of disclosing personal information are weighed against benefits when deciding to provide information to a website. Hence, trust is critical to disclosure in both interpersonal and online relationships. This is where privacy concerns come in. In a previous article; “How to write a privacy policy”, we said that privacy involves protecting our integrity as individuals and our right to disclose or not to disclose our personal information to third parties. Since technology has become such a powerful enabler of data collection and utilization, one of biggest IT responsibilities is making sure that personal information their systems collect is protected from misuse and abuse. Who draws line that separates them both? This seems to be quite an intricate issue. As a consequence of terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, increased security is a reality in today's world. As US government collects more personal information about its citizens, are Americans really confident that their personal information is being safeguarded without their privacy being compromised? A survey conducted by Ponemon Institute, a leading privacy think tank, in September 2003 uncovers some interesting findings. The more than 6,000 Americans who participated in this first annual Privacy Trust Survey were asked to indicate their confidence, as it relates to protecting privacy, regarding 60 different government agencies. The overall results indicated that majority of Americans surveyed (83%) consider privacy a matter that is important or very important to them. Nonetheless, many respondents indicated they have a high level of uncertainty about government agencies that collect and use that information, thus creating a negative impression of those organizations. The survey also showed that protecting personal information is important to people of all ages, education and income levels. Among organizations scoring highest were hospitals, doctors, banks and U.S. Postal Service. Those ranking lowest included retailers, grocery stores, telephone companies and newly created Department of Homeland Security. Although at a first glance it might seem somewhat strange that two federal government agencies could score so differently on survey, a closer look would explain apparent discrepancy. When you compare two, it is easy to see why consumers trust mailman more than people fighting terrorism. The Postal Service has more than a century of proof it can be trusted, while Department of Homeland Security does not yet have such proof. A number of studies of interpersonal exchange situations have confirmed that trust reduces perceived risks or cost involved in revealing private information. As a case in point, Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky in their ‘Internet Consumer Trust Model’ (1999) found that trust increases confidence in a company, which lowers perceived risk of electronic exchange with that company and, therefore, increases likelihood of consumers engaging in electronic transactions. Similarly, Swaminathan et al. in ‘Exchange Model’ (1999) established that consumers prefer to do business with web sites that they perceive to be reliable, honest, consistent, competent, fair, responsible, helpful, and altruistic, all of which are main components of trust. All of above indicates that role of trust in facilitating disclosure is especially critical in online exchanges, where computer-mediated communication replaces physical contact. Other potential issues on Internet include; technical difficulties for people who are new to online world, lack of ability for consumers to physically inspect goods prior to purchase, and new companies that have not been in market long enough to establish good reputations. Trust is important because it contributes to building a good or bad image of company before customers’ eyes. Negative images are very hard to change. This is why this is such a delicate and critical issue.
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