Introduction
This text template will help you to create your website’s privacy policy.
The template contains a suggestion of sections you most likely will need. Under each section heading, you will find a short summary of what information you should provide, which will help you to get started. Some sections include suggested policy content, others will have to be completed with information from your theme and plugins.
Please edit your privacy policy content, making sure to delete the summaries, and adding any information from your theme and plugins. Once you publish your policy page, remember to add it to your navigation menu.
It is your responsibility to write a comprehensive privacy policy, to make sure it reflects all national and international legal requirements on privacy, and to keep your policy current and accurate.
Privacy Policy Guide
Who we are
In this section you should note your site URL, as well as the name of the company, organization, or individual behind it, and some accurate contact information.
The amount of information you may be required to show will vary depending on your local or national business regulations. You may, for example, be required to display a physical address, a registered address, or your company registration number.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
In this section you should note what personal data you collect from users and site visitors. This may include personal data, such as name, email address, personal account preferences; transactional data, such as purchase information; and technical data, such as information about cookies.
You should also note any collection and retention of sensitive personal data, such as data concerning health.
In addition to listing what personal data you collect, you need to note why you collect it. These explanations must note either the legal basis for your data collection and retention or the active consent the user has given.
Personal data is not just created by a user’s interactions with your site. Personal data is also generated from technical processes such as contact forms, comments, cookies, analytics, and third party embeds.
By default WordPress does not collect any personal data about visitors, and only collects the data shown on the User Profile screen from registered users. However some of your plugins may collect personal data. You should add the relevant information below.
Comments
In this subsection you should note what information is captured through comments. We have noted the data which WordPress collects by default.
Media
In this subsection you should note what information may be disclosed by users who can upload media files. All uploaded files are usually publicly accessible.
Contact forms
By default, WordPress does not include a contact form. If you use a contact form plugin, use this subsection to note what personal data is captured when someone submits a contact form, and how long you keep it. For example, you may note that you keep contact form submissions for a certain period for customer service purposes, but you do not use the information submitted through them for marketing purposes.
Cookies
In this subsection you should list the cookies your website uses, including those set by your plugins, social media, and analytics. We have provided the cookies which WordPress installs by default.
Analytics
In this subsection you should note what analytics package you use, how users can opt out of analytics tracking, and a link to your analytics provider’s privacy policy, if any.
By default WordPress does not collect any analytics data. However, many web hosting accounts collect some anonymous analytics data. You may also have installed a WordPress plugin that provides analytics services. In that case, add information from that plugin here.
Who we share your data with
In this section you should name and list all third party providers with whom you share site data, including partners, cloud-based services, payment processors, and third party service providers, and note what data you share with them and why. Link to their own privacy policies if possible.
By default WordPress does not share any personal data with anyone.
How long we retain your data
In this section you should explain how long you retain personal data collected or processed by the website. While it is your responsibility to come up with the schedule of how long you keep each dataset for and why you keep it, that information does need to be listed here. For example, you may want to say that you keep contact form entries for six months, analytics records for a year, and customer purchase records for ten years.
What rights you have over your data
In this section you should explain what rights your users have over their data and how they can invoke those rights.
Where your data is sent
In this section you should list all transfers of your site data outside the European Union and describe the means by which that data is safeguarded to European data protection standards. This could include your web hosting, cloud storage, or other third party services.
European data protection law requires data about European residents which is transferred outside the European Union to be safeguarded to the same standards as if the data was in Europe. So in addition to listing where data goes, you should describe how you ensure that these standards are met either by yourself or by your third party providers, whether that is through an agreement such as Privacy Shield, model clauses in your contracts, or binding corporate rules.
Contact information
In this section you should provide a contact method for privacy-specific concerns. If you are required to have a Data Protection Officer, list their name and full contact details here as well.
Additional information
If you use your site for commercial purposes and you engage in more complex collection or processing of personal data, you should note the following information in your privacy policy in addition to the information we have already discussed.
How we protect your data
In this section you should explain what measures you have taken to protect your users’ data. This could include technical measures such as encryption; security measures such as two factor authentication; and measures such as staff training in data protection. If you have carried out a Privacy Impact Assessment, you can mention it here too.
What data breach procedures we have in place
In this section you should explain what procedures you have in place to deal with data breaches, either potential or real, such as internal reporting systems, contact mechanisms, or bug bounties.
What third parties we receive data from
If your website receives data about users from third parties, including advertisers, this information must be included within the section of your privacy policy dealing with third party data.
What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data
If your website provides a service which includes automated decision making – for example, allowing customers to apply for credit, or aggregating their data into an advertising profile – you must note that this is taking place, and include information about how that information is used, what decisions are made with that aggregated data, and what rights users have over decisions made without human intervention.
Industry regulatory disclosure requirements
If you are a member of a regulated industry, or if you are subject to additional privacy laws, you may be required to disclose that information here.
Policies
WordPress
Who we are
Suggested text:Our website address is: https://allergy-asthma-clinic.com.
Comments
Suggested text:When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Media
Suggested text:If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies
Suggested text:If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Suggested text:Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Who we share your data with
Suggested text:If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
How long we retain your data
Suggested text:If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
Suggested text:If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where your data is sent
Suggested text:Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.Copy suggested policy text to clipboardCopy suggested policy text from WordPress.
WooCommerce
This sample language includes the basics around what personal data your store may be collecting, storing and sharing, as well as who may have access to that data. Depending on what settings are enabled and which additional plugins are used, the specific information shared by your store will vary. We recommend consulting with a lawyer when deciding what information to disclose on your privacy policy.
We collect information about you during the checkout process on our store.
What we collect and store
While you visit our site, we’ll track:
- Products you’ve viewed: we’ll use this to, for example, show you products you’ve recently viewed
- Location, IP address and browser type: we’ll use this for purposes like estimating taxes and shipping
- Shipping address: we’ll ask you to enter this so we can, for instance, estimate shipping before you place an order, and send you the order!
We’ll also use cookies to keep track of cart contents while you’re browsing our site.
Note: you may want to further detail your cookie policy, and link to that section from here.
When you purchase from us, we’ll ask you to provide information including your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, phone number, credit card/payment details and optional account information like username and password. We’ll use this information for purposes, such as, to:
- Send you information about your account and order
- Respond to your requests, including refunds and complaints
- Process payments and prevent fraud
- Set up your account for our store
- Comply with any legal obligations we have, such as calculating taxes
- Improve our store offerings
- Send you marketing messages, if you choose to receive them
If you create an account, we will store your name, address, email and phone number, which will be used to populate the checkout for future orders.
We generally store information about you for as long as we need the information for the purposes for which we collect and use it, and we are not legally required to continue to keep it. For example, we will store order information for XXX years for tax and accounting purposes. This includes your name, email address and billing and shipping addresses.
We will also store comments or reviews, if you choose to leave them.
Who on our team has access
Members of our team have access to the information you provide us. For example, both Administrators and Shop Managers can access:
- Order information like what was purchased, when it was purchased and where it should be sent, and
- Customer information like your name, email address, and billing and shipping information.
Our team members have access to this information to help fulfill orders, process refunds and support you.
What we share with others
In this section you should list who you’re sharing data with, and for what purpose. This could include, but may not be limited to, analytics, marketing, payment gateways, shipping providers, and third party embeds.
We share information with third parties who help us provide our orders and store services to you; for example —
Payments
In this subsection you should list which third party payment processors you’re using to take payments on your store since these may handle customer data. We’ve included PayPal as an example, but you should remove this if you’re not using PayPal.
We accept payments through PayPal. When processing payments, some of your data will be passed to PayPal, including information required to process or support the payment, such as the purchase total and billing information.
Please see the PayPal Privacy Policy for more details.Copy suggested policy text to clipboardCopy suggested policy text from WooCommerce.
WP Job Manager
This site adds the following cookies to help users resume job submissions that they have started but have not completed: wp-job-manager-submitting-job-id and wp-job-manager-submitting-job-keyCopy suggested policy text to clipboardCopy suggested policy text from WP Job Manager.
WP Smush
Plugin: Smush
Note: Smush does not interact with end users on your website. The only input option Smush has is to a newsletter subscription for site admins only. If you would like to notify your users of this in your privacy policy, you can use the information below.
Smush sends images to the WPMU DEV servers to optimize them for web use. This includes the transfer of EXIF data. The EXIF data will either be stripped or returned as it is. It is not stored on the WPMU DEV servers.
Smush uses the Stackpath Content Delivery Network (CDN). Stackpath may store web log information of site visitors, including IPs, UA, referrer, Location and ISP info of site visitors for 7 days. Files and images served by the CDN may be stored and served from countries other than your own. Stackpath’s privacy policy can be found here.
Smush uses a third-party email service (Drip) to send informational emails to the site administrator. The administrator’s email address is sent to Drip and a cookie is set by the service. Only administrator information is collected by Drip.Copy suggested policy text to clipboardCopy suggested policy text from WP Smush.
LiteSpeed Cache
This site utilizes caching in order to facilitate a faster response time and better user experience. Caching potentially stores a duplicate copy of every web page that is on display on this site. All cache files are temporary, and are never accessed by any third party, except as necessary to obtain technical support from the cache plugin vendor. Cache files expire on a schedule set by the site administrator, but may easily be purged by the admin before their natural expiration, if necessary. We may use QUIC.cloud services to process & cache your data temporarily.Please see https://quic.cloud/privacy-policy/ for more details.Copy suggested policy text to clipboardCopy suggested policy text from LiteSpeed Cache.
Akismet
We collect information about visitors who comment on Sites that use our Akismet Anti-spam service. The information we collect depends on how the User sets up Akismet for the Site, but typically includes the commenter’s IP address, user agent, referrer, and Site URL (along with other information directly provided by the commenter such as their name, username, email address, and the comment itself).Copy suggested policy text to clipboardCopy suggested policy text from Akismet.
WP Email Capture
We use a WordPress plugin called WP Email Capture to aid management of our email marketing list. Should you wish to subscribe to our newsletter, we collect the following data:-
Your Name (or what you chose to address yourself as). This is used for simple personalisation purposes.
Your Email Address. This is used to contact you and include you in our newsletter.
The date of signup. This is so we can reference when to delete your data at a later date.