Published policies
Privacy policy, US
In the libraryThe door has this paper. Type its name at the composer. It offers to start from it.
The public page saying what you collect from the people who use your product, what you do with it, and who else sees it. This one is written for United States practice. It is addressed to readers rather than to lawyers, and it describes actual behaviour: what is gathered, why, who it is shared with, how long it is kept, and what choices a person has.
- Printed on the page as
- Privacy Policy (U.S.)
- Where it can live
- Any of the 184 governing laws
Who uses one
- Anyone running a site or app that collects information from visitors.
- Companies whose customers or users are in the United States.
- Businesses required by a platform, an advertiser or a customer to publish one.
What you are deciding
- What information is collected, and how
- What it is used for
- Who else it is shared with, and why
- Whether anything is sold or shared for advertising
- How long it is kept
- What choices a person has, and how they exercise them
- How children's information is treated
- How the policy changes and how readers are told
Blanks you leave stay blank and wait in the room. Nothing is filled in from a guess.
The sections a draft usually has
- 1Who we are
- 2What we collect
- 3How we use it
- 4Who we share it with
- 5Cookies and tracking
- 6Retention
- 7Your choices and rights
- 8Children
- 9Changes to this policy
- 10How to contact us
A general outline, not a required one. What turns up in a draft follows what you described. A contract is written in the order a contract is read.
What people call it
Type any of these at the door. It offers this paper. The matching happens in your own browser, on a wordlist you could read. No model runs before you sign in.
- privacy policy
- privacy notice
- us privacy policy
Questions people ask
- Does every website need a privacy policy?
- Many jurisdictions and most platforms require one wherever personal information is collected, which in practice includes almost every site with a form or analytics. The requirement comes from local law and platform rules.
- How often should it be updated?
- Whenever what it describes changes. A policy that no longer matches the product is worse than none, and most carry a last-updated date for exactly that reason.
- Is a privacy policy a contract?
- It is generally a notice rather than an agreement — a statement of what the organisation does. Some of its content is nonetheless required by law, and misdescribing practice can be an enforcement matter.
General answers about the document. Not advice about your situation. Not written about any one country.
Where it lives
A contract names the legal system it is governed by. That is a separate decision from which paper it is. You pick it at the door, from any of the 184 units in Governing law, including England and Wales, Delaware, California and New York.
Say what you agreed in one sentence. When what you describe is privacy policy, us, the door offers this paper. One press takes it. One press refuses it.
Start it at the door →Related kinds