Using Facebook for Business? You Need a Privacy Policy!

Website privacy policies are NOT OPTIONAL anymore, and not having a proper website privacy policy can be waaaaaay more expensive than you think. 

Facebook requires that if you’re collecting any personal data from your page through a Call-To-Action (such as email addresses for your mailing list), you need to provide notice to users and have a privacy policy in place (and of course, Facebook won’t approve your ads without this in place!) 

Say What Sarah?!  

That’s right … but wait, there’s more … 

So what is a privacy policy and what does it do?  A privacy policy is basically a disclosure document that informs (and therefore protects) users.  It’s a statement you’re making to visitors of your website about how you gather information about them and what you actually intend to do with it.  

In general, anyone with a website or landing page that collects any type of data needs a privacy policy.  Specifically, through their Terms of Service, Facebook is saying that if you send someone to your website or a landing page from Facebook and collect (or try to collect) their email, you’d better have a privacy policy posted.

Such language can be found several times throughout Facebook’s Guidelines, including the Statement of Rights and on Facebook Page Terms. 

Having a privacy policy is a straightforward and honest thing to do for your customers and potential customers, not to mention that it’s legally required in most countries and you can be fined by not having one.

But how much $$$ could I really get fined for by not having a privacy policy on my website? 

Just for starters, the state of California can levy a fine of up to $7,500 for each intentional incident and $2,500 for each unintentional incident in violation of what is known as the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) … Ouch! 

And the worst part is you don’t even need to live or offer or sell your product or service in CA for “The Golden State” to get its golden hands into your pocket.  All that would need to happen is for any one of California’s 39.5 million residents (13% of the US population) to happen upon and then visit your privacy-policy-free-site for a potential violation to occur.

Then you have the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which provides that the EU & UK may levy two tiers of fines for failure to maintain among other things, you guessed it, a privacy policy even if you are US based.  The first tier of fines is up to €10 million ($12,104,250) or 2% of your previous year's global annual revenue, whichever is higher and the second tier of fines is up to €20 million ($12,104,250) or 4% of your previous year's global annual revenue, or whichever is greater.

Seems like a lot AND IT IS, but the solution is easy.  Simply have a Privacy Policy … because having a privacy policy on your website is a no-brainer these days. 

Then: Include your privacy policy in your footer, and anywhere you’re collecting email addresses or other personal information. 

Who has to have one of these?

Basically anyone with a website, specifically the “operator of a commercial website or online service.” 

And if you don't?  You can get fined big-time.  Do you have extra $$$ laying around right now?  I hate to tell you this is rare, except it’s not.  Just ask Delta, who got fined $37 million, or all of the App developers that are getting hit.

If you want to protect your hard work, energy, investments (I know that website wasn't free), and business, having a solid PP is an absolute requirement.  Of course you can go and google yourself one up, but before you do … how will you know if it was written by an attorney, is updated for today’s laws and both CCPA & GDPR compliant?  You won’t …. But you will if you get it HERE!

Grab yours at destinationlegal.com!

Sarah Kornblet Waldbuesser, Esq.
Attorney for Coaches & Online Business Owners

After several years at a law firm and a few career jumps, she ended up falling in love with online business and loves helping entrepreneurs achieve their dreams in a smart and protected way. She is also an adventurer, traveler, and food and wine lover. When not at her computer, she loves hanging with her family, having wine with friends, flying around the globe and connecting with other online business owners.