Privacy Policy to Ensure Customer’s Safety

Privacy Concerns of Your Customer

Everybody has their privacy. Including when they buy the product of your store. In an online store, we will give our identity, address, our phone number, and even credit card number. Therefore, we will need some security system to ensure that our customers will be safe when they do their transaction. One of the security systems you can use is privacy policy.

 

Importance of Privacy

In the US itself, American people become more concern with their privacy after the September attack years ago. The most recent case is when Trump uses Cambridge Analytica to create a quiz on Facebook and gather all data from US citizen. The impact is incredible since it leads Trump and Republican win the election based on the data.

Since the social media era began years ago, social media company started to collect our data and sell it to third parties. We all know that social media is completely free. On the other hand, we also become their ‘product’ and used to make millions or even billions a day.
Let’s say we have a Facebook account and are still active interacting with our friends on it. The interaction itself could lead you to specific advertisements from other companies. If you talk about a movie you want to watch with your friends, you will get an advertisement about that movie in minutes. It’s a piece of common knowledge, yet we still use Facebook and interact with others.
Also, we can’t sue Facebook for this because the privacy policy said that when we click “Agree,” we are signed up to be their ‘product’ voluntarily. Therefore, as long as you can deal with it, there is nothing to worry. You can just watch your feed and communicate with your friends on Facebook.

 

The Importance to Read Privacy Policy

As an e-commerce player, we should understand the importance of reading all privacy policies before agreeing to them. Not just you; your customers should be aware of this as well. Since they are the user and the user should know what they use and do in your e-commerce website or mobile app.
The privacy policy contains what data we usually collect and use. So, we hold all the private information of our customers. Unfortunately, the customer sometimes (or mostly) simply clicks the “Agree” button and doesn’t care about its value.

 

Platform and Company Standpoints

Platform

The platforms like Apple and Android (Play Store) have their requirements when a company submits its privacy policy. If you pass their test, you can upload your mobile app and start the real journey. However, if the policy is not good enough or there is something fishy here and there, then it’s possible for the platform to simply reject your app until you revise your policy.

 

Company

On the other hand, the company’s standpoint views the policy as part of the company’s assets. It represents how the company works and will make the brand becomes stronger. If the policy is bad, then you don’t deserve a download. However, if the policy is good and your customer accepts it, then it’s all good.

 

How to Make Your Customer Read the Privacy Policy

Simple Education

In my country, Indonesia, most people still don’t know how important the privacy policy is. Even they don’t bother to think thoroughly about privacy itself. Showing off almost all daily life is like part of their needs.

 

Tell Them How to Read a Privacy Policy

Reading the privacy policy, if it is for the customer, you will need to focus on the data. Tell them to focus on the information you collect, how you would use that information in the future, and how you give it to third parties (if any). If the information is not used for any commercial purpose, then the customer should read it, just in case they don’t want their private information and activity to be sold to third parties.

 

Things We Should Read in Privacy Policy

According to Rachel German, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin (get this from here), there are six points you can do when reading a privacy policy:

• Is your data used for secondary use, i.e. for uses other than that for which you are explicitly providing it?
• Is your data shared with third parties? If so, does it specify for what purposes? (For example, it’s often a red flag if the policy states that data sent to third parties is used to deliver ads; that could equal a lot of spam in your inbox.)
• What are the terms for sharing your data with the government and with law enforcement?
• Is your data protected in all phases of collection and storage?
• Does the service allow you to delete your data?
• Does the service use your data to build and save a profile for non-primary use?

Conclusion

There is a crucial point when you don’t have any privacy policy. Even when you want to upload your mobile app to Google Play Store and Apple Store, they won’t accept your app if there is no privacy policy or the privacy policy itself still lacks some points. You can get some help from a free Policy Checker on the internet. So, make sure you get it right.
Also, you need to educate the people to read the policy. At least for the most critical parts. After all, if you need some help or get any questions about this (or maybe for the development process), simply drop us a line, and we will support you with the most solutive answer possible.