All About a Merchant Account Privacy Policy
If you have applied for an online merchant account, you have most likely been asked to submit a website privacy policy to your Merchant Account Provider. It surprises many of our customers when they learn that a privacy policy is one of the required documents that must be on the website before they can receive approval for a merchant account.
In the article below, we discuss why a website privacy policy will help protect your business and help customers feel more secure when using your website. We will also give examples of common topics typically covered in a privacy policy document.
Why Do I Need a Privacy Policy for My Online Store?
A comprehensive privacy policy is simply a statement that breaks down how you will collect “personally identifiable information” through your online website.
As an online business owner, you will most likely want to collect as much information as possible about your customer’s online preferences and shopping habits. Critical information such as popular products and/or pages frequently viewed can help you make improvements to your online store and offerings. This information will continue to encourage your customers spend less time browsing through your web store and more time buying your products. You may also need to collect personal information such as an address, an email and/or credit card information to process a transaction.
A privacy policy can also help reassure your customers that any information you collect is safe and secure and will not be used in any way that could make them a vulnerable target to online predators.
Overall, it just makes sense to be as clear as possible about how you use all of the important data that is gathered on your website.
Who Needs a Privacy Policy?
ANYBODY who collects any “personally identifiable information” should have a privacy policy in place. This may include any basic information collected such as an email address, a name, or a physical address. “Personally identifiable information” could also include data that you collect anonymously. If there is any chance that the anonymous data could be used to identify a customer, then you must have a privacy policy. The FTC takes privacy very seriously and could possibly enact huge fines if you do not comply.
What Should My Privacy Policy Include?
Your privacy policy should be comprehensive and include details such as: Your official company name, address and website should be included in your privacy policy. Sometimes online stores/companies do not share the same name as their brick and Mortar Company, even though the ownership is the same. They may choose to occasionally use the merchant account of their brick and Mortar Company to process their online stores transactions. This can confuse customers who will see a charge from the brick and mortar retailer or company and not recognize it as the purchase they made with the online store/company. A lot of charge backs can happen in these situations. A privacy policy can help clear up this confusion by clearly stating the business name.
A Description of the Information That Your Business Will Collect
As a website owner, you will collect information a couple of different ways.
Cookies
As a small business owner, you may not realize that when a customer comes to your site, the web server that your website is hosted on will send what is known as a “cookie” to the web server’s browser. A cookie is simply data stored on a web searchers computer. It records data such as browsing preference, the movements made on a particular website, and products that they have placed in an online shopping cart. Almost all websites make use of cookies but it is still important that you let your customers know that your online store distributes cookies and how you use the data received from the “cookies”.
Contact Information and Forms
If you have a form on your website for customers to fill out to receive more information about your product, then make sure your privacy policy includes information on who will have access to the forms.
Underage Customers
Make sure to include how your business handles information or access to customers who are underage. If your customer base is specifically for children and you knowingly collect information from children, then it is critical that you find a way to make the guardians of that child aware that you are collecting information. The guardian of the underage child must give their consent before you collect said information.
How Customers Can Change or Delete Their Data
As a small business owner, we recommend that you include instructions on how a customer can contact you to make changes to delete personal information from your database. Typically, an email or phone number of someone within your organization will suffice.
Include Information About Possible Links to Other Websites
If your website includes links to other websites, we recommend that you inform customers of this possibility in your privacy policy. If a customer does happen to click on a link from your website and visits a different website, then you are no longer responsible for what happens on the other website. The other websites should have a privacy policy of their own describing guidelines that their site follows for security purposes.
Where Do I Put My Privacy Policy?
Your privacy policy must be posted on your website in an easy to find link. It should not be buried behind layers and layers of pages. Most customers appreciate that you take the privacy of their data seriously.
We typically recommend that our customers post at link at the bottom of the page in the area known as the “footer.” It is common for the footer to show up on every page. This allows their customers access to the privacy policy without having to use up valuable website page real estate.
Privacy Policy Samples
If you are still unsure about how to write a privacy policy, take a look at our sample privacy policy to help you use ideas for your own website.
Still Need Help?
Please call a SecureGlobalPay representative today. We have helped hundreds of customers create a detailed privacy policy to help protect their online interests.
