Privacy Policies

You must have a privacy policy and a usage policy for your site. These policies will state how you intend to use the personal information from product orders and other information you collect about your site visitors. This is a very important step to take and should not be taken lightly. When you write the policy make sure you follow it to the letter. Not doing so may put you in violation of the FTC Act. You can read the transcripts of a public workshop put on by the the FTC about the use of consumer data at the FTC Web site. There is also a lot of other good information there. You might also visit some well-known commerce sites and see how they've done their privacy statements. If you get a seal from one of the TTP groups listed in the previous section then you'll have to also follow their specifications.

Display the link to your Privacy Policy in a conspicuous spot on your home page and your ordering pages. Make the language easy to understand and clearly state how the information will be used. It is generally recommended to give the consumer the option of not sharing their personal information (assuming you're planning on sharing the data with others). If you are sharing the information, state with whom you will be sharing it.

Include a statement about how you use cookies. Many people are still not clear about how cookies work and are not comfortable with idea. (You may also want to set up your system to not rely on cookies since many people have them disabled in their browsers.)