Might Be Time To Update Privacy Policies & Conditions
As you may or may not be aware, Google and every other technology giant in the world are currently wrestling with privacy and how best to protect users and business interests while not upsetting the apple cart they took so long loading with billions of advertising dollars. This has already made waves around the world and will continue to – no matter where you live and operate – but some places may be impacted first and more fully by regulations and restrictions that simply didn’t exist before.
The question for the future is how are you going to adapt to it without disrupting everything you’ve built to date. Once you figure that out, you’ll be ahead of the game and that’s what matters most in business today – staying ahead of the curve. To assist you in that mission, the team at Lift Conversions has outlined a couple of things that you can do below to ensure that you’re up to date with your own online policies and the conditions set for your own active users.
A Simple Google Update Checklist for Every Business
When it’s time for Google to update their algorithm or internal policies, it’s time to take a look at some of the things governing your own online efforts – specifically your website. Let’s outline them first and then take a closer look at each one so you have a better idea of why it’s important. These include:
- Your Privacy Policy
- Your Terms & Conditions
- Your Cookie Policy
- Your Trademark Policy
- Your Image Licensing
Okay, now that we’ve laid them all out for you let’s look at each one and see why it’s important. There’s no doubt privacy will become more significant, so you’ll need to focus on it from now on out to ensure you’re never lagging behind when it comes to compliance. Suspensions take time and headaches to overcome and there may even be legal issues to deal with if you’re not careful.
- Your Privacy Policy: This is the most important element of your site to maintain and update regularly – especially if new regulations in your country or state have made this a priority. Your privacy policy should be as comprehensive as possible and provide the facts to your users in terms of what you collect, why you collect it and what you can and can’t do with information. We’re not giving you advice on how to write one but only that you should update it frequently to stay current.
- Your Terms & Conditions: Like your website’s privacy policy, your site’s terms and conditions, or T&Cs for short, should be updated regularly to ensure they cover everything you can conceivably include to protect yourself and your users from harmful or nefarious activity. It’s also where you lay out your rights as a site owner, so be thorough and precise whenever possible. Remember, no one will update this for you and it should be checked regularly to be certain it’s doing its job.
- Your Cookie Policy: While most often this is included in a website’s privacy policy, it’s vital to ensure you’re laying out the way your site uses cookies clearly for your users. Be sure to be open and honest about it. Tell them what cookies do and why you use them. Provide them with whatever information you choose about your cookie use but be straight at all times and you’ll be fine. It’s clear that Google’s doing away with cookies at some point so stay on top of that to stay ahead of what’s coming and you’ll be in great shape.
- Your Trademark Policy: This one isn’t necessarily something you need to update if it’s already in place, but if you’ve never included one on your site and use trademark logos for any reason you should include this to explain the reasons for your use and the steps you’ve taken to protect the rightsholders when trademarks are used on your site. It’s the right thing to do.
- Your Image Licensing: With so many scammers looking to take advantage of image copyrights, it extremely important that you have your image licensing in place for all used images on your site. You can even make a page devoted to the licensing you’ve acquired for any used images to try to keep the wolves at bay. It might not work completely but it’s a good step and takes very little effort to create a page like this. We recommend it strongly!
Online Privacy Will Continue To Rise In Relevance
Since that’s an easy prediction to make after reading the technology news worldwide, we’re not going to take credit for it as if we’re the ones who originated it. No, this is a movement that’s been in the works across groups and governments for some time and it’s not going away any time soon. Best to stay ahead of what’s coming by being proactive when it comes to your website’s online policies and conditions. If you don’t have these in place and need assistance, reach out to the team at Lift Conversions for immediate help that will get you back in compliance and on the road to safer website operation. Call (773) 419-3636 or submit a contact form to learn more!
