Why Should My Business in England Avoid Using a Template Privacy Policy?

Your company must follow the rules regarding privacy policies to ensure you do not breach data protection rules and regulations. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) establishes these rules and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) enforces them. This article will explore the benefits of using a privacy policy to demonstrate intent to follow GDPR rules. Furthermore, it will outline the risks of using a generic template rather than a privacy policy tailored to your business.

How Does a Privacy Policy Help?

Your business should process personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner. Part of this obligation involves informing the relevant individuals about collecting and using their personal data. Thus, your business can use a privacy policy to communicate this to customers and clients. Therefore, having a well-drafted policy is integral to being GDPR compliant.

What Should a Privacy Policy Include?

The ICO website is a useful starting point on what to include within data protection-related documents. However, their list is lengthy and does not fully differentiate between essential sections and mere recommendations. 

Overall, the main point of a privacy policy is to inform individuals how your company will use their personal information in clear, understandable language. Therefore, the ICO will not appreciate overly technical policies that use complex legal terms. 

Disadvantages of Using a Template

Every business is unique in terms of what they offer and how they do it. Even businesses in the same industry will collect very different types of information from customers for various purposes. Therefore, you require a privacy policy tailored to your business.

The ICO may reprimand companies that implement generic policies that do not accurately reflect how they collect data. However, having a privacy policy alone is insufficient. To be effective it must be suitable for your business. Considering ICO can hand out fines (of up to £17.5m) for non-compliance with the GDPR, a flawed privacy policy can damage your commercial interests. 

What is the Solution?

Ideally, you should obtain a bespoke privacy policy tailored to your business. Accordingly, most business owners instruct specialist lawyers to create a policy from scratch.

A bespoke policy has many advantages, which include:

• a lawyer will know how best to describe your business within the policy;
• obtaining a policy that correctly states the nature of the information obtained by your company;
• ensuring the policy does not contain unnecessary or overly complex wording;
• receiving advice on which types of data your organisation should not collect; and
• ensuring comments about the ICO (such as the ability to complain to the ICO) are factually correct. 

A good lawyer will ensure that the contents are correct and sufficiently readable for your customers.

Key Takeaways

A privacy policy is a document that should cater to your company’s unique methods and aims. Therefore, generic policies are often insufficient and unsuitable. Whilst it may be tempting to reduce expenses by using a template, you may face ICO repercussions in the future from an inadequate privacy policy. Consequently, many business owners prefer the certainty and confidence of having a lawyer draft their policy.

If you need help with data protection rules and drafting a privacy policy, our experienced Data, Privacy and IT lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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