Does My Author Website Need a Privacy Policy?

The short version:

If you’re an author and you have a website:

Yes, you beed probably privacy policy.

Before we go into the details, please note:

🛑 Privacy policies are legal documents, and I am not an attorney. This article should not be considered legal advice or a substitute for professional legal consultation.

What is a privacy policy?

A privacy policy is a statement that explains how a website collects, uses, stores, and protects users' personal information.

Who needs a privacy policy?

And now you may be thinking, “I don’t collect information.”

Hold up. Because …

If your author website has:

• A newsletter form

• A contact form

• Affiliate links (ie, your Amazon links)

• A shop

• Social media integration

• Downloadable content

• Ad integration (if you run Meta or Google ads)

Then actually, you do collect user information, and you need a privacy policy. And those are just the most common elements related to author websites; not a complete list.

Where to get a Privacy Policy

I’ve had clients give me privacy policy text they found for free via Google. I have no idea if a free privacy policy covers the legal bases or not, but to me, this feels akin to picking up a parachute you found on the side of the road and then jumping out of a plane with it. If it has holes, you’re not going to know until it’s too late.

I purchased this privacy policy from a legal boutique ← affiliate link. It comes bundled with Terms & Conditions, because, there’s good chance you need one of those too. I recommend reading this article for more information.

It’s not cheap, but then, neither is the potential $50,000 if you’re found being non-compliant with privacy law.