Privacy Policies ARE REQUIRED for you Websites and Apps

Privacy Policies are Required Everywhere

It's a practice of being transparent towards your users about what is happening with their personal data that they are providing you with - knowingly and unknowingly. Here is a comprehensive overview of the legal landscape.

Legal Requirements Regarding Privacy Policies

Most countries have privacy laws that require you to include a privacy policy - a statement of your data collection as a disclosing service to your visitors or users - as a website owner or app developer. It's important to understand that this is a global phenomenon and there are mostly a few similar criterions that trigger such a requirement.

Usually the trigger is the collection or sharing of personal information like names, emails, images or any other means of identifying a returning user (the way ad networks serve targeted advertising for example). "Commercial" is an often used trigger for privacy policies, which is generally defined broadly in order for it to cover a wide range of cases.

The California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA)

An operator of a commercial Web site or online service that collects personally identifiable information through the Internet about individual consumers residing in California who use or visit its commercial Web site or online service shall conspicuously post its privacy policy on its Web site.

Who is required to have a privacy policy?
The term "Operator of a commercial Web site or online service" usually includes a very wide spectrum of people, as well as app developers (as communicated by the Attorney General of California).

Geographical reach
​CalOPPA is potentially quite disruptive in reach and is not limited to California's borders. Even if your Web site or online service isn't run from California, it may still impact and collect personal information from customers who are California residents. And hence it is very likely that the regulations of the CalOPPA extend to you as well.

What kind of behavior triggers the need for a privacy policy?​
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Under CalOPPA, the collection of Personally Identifiable Information is very broadly defined to cover “individually identifiable information about an individual consumer” and includes a consumer’s first and last name, home or other physical address, email address, telephone number, and Social Security number.

In addition, PII includes any other identifying information that permits the physical or online contacting of a specific California consumer, as well as other user-related information maintained in personally identifiable form.

Special care regarding children

If your service is also made for children you must comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires that operators of websites or online services that are either directed to children under 13, or which have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information from children under 13: must give notice to parents and get their verifiable consent before collecting, using, or disclosing such personal information and must keep secure the information they collect from children.

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