What is a Privacy Policy?
The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) requires many businesses to have a Privacy Policy. A Privacy Policy sets out how personal information is used by your business. It outlines what personal information your business collects and how that information will be used by your business and/or disclosed to third parties.
Five Reasons Why Your Business Should Have a Privacy Policy
Personal information is information about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, such as a person’s name, date of birth, address, phone number, email address and health information. A business should have a Privacy Policy for the following five reasons.
- For many Australian businesses, it is the law. For these businesses, it is a legal requirement to disclose how the business collects, stores, discloses and uses personal information collected from individuals. All Privacy Policies drafted by Vault Legal are consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.
- When your business’ website includes a Privacy Policy, Google’s “TrustRank” considers it a “trust signal” – it helps inform Google whether the content on your website is legitimate. Not having an updated Privacy Policy can therefore adversely affect your website ranking according to Google.
- To give your customers peace of mind. Providing your customers with a transparent Privacy Policy builds trust and goodwill.
- Each business has its own privacy requirements and challenges. It is important that you do not copy and paste the Privacy Policies from other businesses. Your business must therefore develop a Privacy Policy that is unique to your own circumstances.
- It’s an easy and efficient way to demonstrate to your customers that your business can be trusted and that you have procedures in place to handle their personal information with care.
Key Takeaway
Personal information is ubiquitous and is protected by the law. The above five reasons have demonstrated why it is vital that your business has a Privacy Policy regarding the personal information of your customers and employees.
To speak to a lawyer about obtaining a Privacy Policy for your business, call Vault Legal today on 1300 002 212 or email us at info@vaultlegal.com.au.
Key words: privacy policy, personal information, privacy principles, TrustRank and data protection.