Unwitting Participants: Evaluating the Privacy Landscape for Website Operators in ‘Privacy-Lite’ Industries
Abstract
Few things tie companies together like the Internet. No matter the business – be it professional basketball, aerospace engineering, or coffee sales – a company website is a fact of the digital age. Company websites almost always involve the collection of information from website users, whether this is a focus of the website or not. For example, “contact us” pages are a staple of many websites, wherein users enter names, email addresses or phone numbers. Similarly, websites may provide forms for users to inquire about products or services, or facilitate employment applications. Websites may track user activity on the site using cookies, or contract with a third party advertiser to do so. Any information that is collected, and the website itself, should be evaluated by in-house counsel like anything else: a source of risk. This article aims to identify the current privacy landscape for those not operating in a heavily-regulated industry from a privacy perspective, as well privacy policy incentives and trends. It also discusses best practices and lists several questions that website operators should ask themselves in order to craft an appropriate website privacy policy.
Copyright & permissions
