As a blogger, it’s imperative that your blog has a privacy and disclosure policy.
Did you know that visitors to your blog have the right to know how you’re using their information when they visit your blog? They also have the right to know if you make money on your blog. This can be through ads, affiliate marketing, etc.
Also, I am not a lawyer and this should not be considered legal advice. You should seek appropriate counsel for your own situation.
Important Note: Because the legalities of blogging are ever-changing, I no longer recommend using the templates below. If you use them, do so at your own risk. I highly recommend The Contract Shop for an attorney-approved Privacy Policy. This is one of the BEST ways to protect your blog!
What is a Privacy Policy?
If your blog collects any personal information such as names or email addresses, or cookies, you have to make this information known to the reader by placing a privacy policy on your blog.
A privacy policy will tell visitors what information you collect and what you do or do not do with this information.
What is a Disclosure Policy?
If you make money with your blog (for example, by running ads, receiving cash or free products for sponsored posts, etc.), then you have to make this information known in a disclosure policy on your blog.
A disclosure policy will tell your readers how you make money from your blog, and if receiving compensation will affect your review of the product or service.
How to Create Your Privacy and Disclosure Policy Page
To create your Privacy and Disclosure Policy Page, on your WordPress dashboard, go to Pages >> Add New and create a “Disclosure Policy” page as well as a “Privacy Policy page.
Use the online privacy policy generators below to generate your privacy policy. Copy and paste this policy into your Privacy and Disclosure Policy Page.
Below I’ve included a policy that you can copy and paste to your blog. Make sure you edit the policy to suit your needs.
You can start with a solid, attorney-approved privacy policy template which will cover everything you need in your privacy policy.
Privacy Policy Generator
To generate your privacy policy, you can use the Free Privacy Policy Generator. Simply fill out the requested information, and you will receive and ready to use privacy policy for your blog.
PRIVACY POLICY SAMPLE TEMPLATE
If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us by email at https://mywebsite.com/contact/.
At www.mywebsite.com we consider the privacy of our visitors to be extremely important. This privacy policy document describes in detail the types of personal information is collected and recorded by www.mywebsite.com and how we use it.
Log Files
Like many other Web sites, www.mywebsite.com makes use of log files. These files merely logs visitors to the site – usually a standard procedure for hosting companies and a part of hosting services’ analytics. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and possibly the number of clicks. This information is used to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.
Cookies and Web Beacons
www.mywebsite.com uses cookies to store information about visitors’ preferences, to record user-specific information on which pages the site visitor accesses or visits, and to personalize or customize our web page content based upon visitors’ browser type or other information that the visitor sends via their browser.
DoubleClick DART Cookie
→ Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on www.mywebsite.com.
→ Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our site’s visitors based upon their visit to www.mywebsite.com and other sites on the Internet.
→ Users may opt-out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL – http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html
Our Advertising Partners
Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. Our advertising partners include …….
- Amazon
- ShareASale
These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology in their respective advertisements and links that appear on www.mywebsite.com and which are sent directly to your browser. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies (such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons) may also be used by our site’s third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns and/or to personalize the advertising content that you see on the site.
www.mywebsite.com has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.
Third Party Privacy Policies
You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. www.mywebsite.com’s privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.
If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers’ respective websites.
Children’s Information
We believe it is important to provide added protection for children online. We encourage parents and guardians to spend time online with their children to observe, participate in and/or monitor and guide their online activity.
www.mywebsite.com does not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If a parent or guardian believes that www.mywebsite.com has in its database the personally-identifiable information of a child under the age of 13, please contact us immediately (using the contact in the first paragraph) and we will use our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.
Online Privacy Policy Only
This privacy policy applies only to our online activities and is valid for visitors to our website and regarding information shared and/or collected there.
This policy does not apply to any information collected offline or via channels other than this website.
Consent
By using our website, you hereby consent to our privacy policy and agree to its terms.
Should we update, amend or make any changes to our privacy policy, those changes will be posted here.
Disclosure Policy Generator
To generate your disclosure policy, you can use the Disclosure Policy Generator. Just fill out the requested information, and they will generate a disclosure policy that you can copy and paste to your Privacy and Disclosure Policy Page. Here’s a copy of one of the policies:
DISCLOSURE SAMPLE TEMPLATE
This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.
This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion, and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.
The owner of this blog may be compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites, and various other topics. Even though the owner of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers’ own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.
This blog may contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content will always be identified.
Where to Place Your Privacy and Disclosure Policy Link
The link to your disclaimer should be visible on every single page of your blog. For this reason, it’s best to include it in your navigation menu, or in the footer of your blog. That way, it will show up on all of your pages.
Your WordPress theme will have a suitable area for placing a link to your disclaimer.
In conclusion, having a privacy and disclosure policy on your blog is important not only because it’s a legal requirement, but also because it creates transparency with your readers, which will build trust between you and your audience.