If you operate a website, whether it’s a blog, an online store, or a niche content hub, having a privacy policy is no longer optional. Privacy regulations around the world are tightening, and users are becoming increasingly aware of how their data is collected and used. Even if your site doesn’t deal in sensitive personal information, a proper privacy policy helps build trust and ensures compliance with legal requirements. What’s more, many advertising networks, including the popular programs from Google AdSense and Ezoic, require that sites have privacy policies published in order to receive in order to properly participate in their offerings.
This article is designed to point out why privacy policies are important, what they should generally contain, and how you can generate a rudimentary privacy policy for free. Importantly, this article is not to be considered legal advice, and is simply a source of helpful information for independent web publishers. It’s always best to consult with a lawyer around the generation of important legal documents, though in reality we know that smaller operators and startups don’t always have the resources available to pay legal fees for documents of this type, which is where policy generation tools can prove helpful as a starting point.
Why a Privacy Policy is Essential
Privacy policies exist to inform visitors about how their data is collected, used, and stored. Depending on where your audience is located, you may be legally required to have one. Laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the U.S., and the Australian Privacy Act impose obligations on website owners regarding transparency and data protection. Given that content-driven websites are often available to people from all over the world, complexities arise in trying to satisfy the many and varied legal requirements that are put in place by different regions.
Even if your site doesn’t operate in these regions, third-party services like Google Analytics, AdSense, and affiliate networks often require you to have a privacy policy in place. Without one, you risk penalties, loss of advertising revenue, and even removal from these platforms.
What a Privacy Policy Should Include
A well-crafted privacy policy typically covers:
- What personal data is collected (e.g., names, emails, IP addresses)
- How the data is collected (e.g., cookies, forms, analytics tools)
- Why the data is collected (e.g., improving user experience, marketing, legal compliance)
- How long the data is stored
- How users can request access to or deletion of their data
- Whether third parties have access to the data (e.g., payment processors, advertising networks)
For website owners who don’t have a legal team on standby, writing a privacy policy from scratch can be daunting. Fortunately, several excellent free privacy policy generators can help you create a compliant and professional document in minutes. Following are a handful of tools that we’ve found useful in this space. Again, this isn’t legal advice, but these tools do cover off some of the more rudimentary requirements that advertising agencies and website visitors expect from a website’s privacy policy, so we hope that they save you time and help to step up your compliance.
As with many free tools online, most of these have paid versions available that cover more advanced compliance requirements and/or that help you to dynamically keep your policies up to date as requirements change. It could be argued that even the more basic free versions are better than having nothing in place, though, as long as they do accurate reflect your practices around data collection, storage and use.
The Six Best Free Privacy Policy Generators
- Termly (https://termly.io) Termly offers a clean and user-friendly privacy policy generator that adapts to various privacy laws. It provides free policy generation with customization options, and the free plan allows you to create and host your policy online.
- PrivacyPolicies.com (https://www.privacypolicies.com) This tool allows you to generate a privacy policy by answering a few simple questions. The free version creates a basic yet legally sound policy, which you can copy and paste onto your website.
- Free Webmaster Tools (https://free-webmaster-tools.com/privacy-policy-generator) Probably the simplest of the bunch, this free privacy policy generator asks you for only two pieces of information – the name of your website, and its URL. Based on this, it instantly generates a basic privacy as HTML code that you can easily copy and paste into your website. No registration is required and the site doesn’t try to upsell you to a premium offering.
- FreePrivacyPolicy.com (https://www.freeprivacypolicy.com) A straightforward option for small business owners and bloggers, FreePrivacyPolicy.com generates a policy that covers GDPR, CCPA, and other major privacy laws. The generated text can be downloaded and used without a subscription.
- GetTerms.io (https://getterms.io) Designed for startups and small websites, GetTerms.io offers a free privacy policy generator with essential clauses. While more advanced features require a paid plan, the free version is sufficient for most general websites.
- Shopify’s Privacy Policy Generator (https://www.shopify.com/tools/policy-generator) Originally designed for e-commerce businesses, Shopify’s tool works well for any type of website. It’s particularly useful if you run an online store, but even non-e-commerce sites can use the generated policy as a starting point.
Final Thoughts
In today’s digital landscape, having a clear and compliant privacy policy is a must. Not only does it help protect your website from legal risks, but it also reassures visitors that their data is handled responsibly. With these free tools at your disposal, there’s no excuse to skip this crucial step. Do ensure that you read through the generated policy to check that it accurately describes your practices, so that you are being open and transparent with your audience.
If you currently have nothing in place on your website, or just a basic statement that doesn’t cover off any of the complexities of GDPR, COPPA and other key pieces of legislation, take a few minutes today to generate a privacy policy that suits your website’s needs. Your users – and privacy regulators – will thank you!
Last modified: January 23, 2025
One Reply to “Why Your Website Needs a Solid Privacy Policy (And Where to Get One for Free!)”
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I opened the link. It provides information on why a privacy policy is important for websites and lists six free privacy policy generators, including Termly, PrivacyPolicies.com, and Shopify’s Privacy Policy Generator. Let me know if you need a summary or recommendations