If your ecommerce offerings include a mobile app, you might be wondering if your app needs a privacy policy. The answer is yes if:
- You collect, store, or share personal data like emails, names or payment info
- You use a third party service that requires your app have a privacy policy
So what do privacy policies do? Privacy policies detail what info you collect from app users and you’ll use that info.
And if you think you don’t need a privacy policy, just know you risk being sued. Delta Airlines, Snap Chat and Google have all faced lawsuits over their mobile app’s privacy policies. You risk hefty fines if your app doesn’t have a privacy policy.
Even if you think you’re not collecting sensitive personal data, using a third party service to collect data, displaying ads and using analytics still means you’re collecting personal info and the user has a right to be informed. A third party service includes services like Google Analytics and AdSense. Both services require you have a privacy policy.
Pretty much most developed countries and every state requires you to have privacy policies.
App stores like Google Play and Apple both require apps to have privacy policies. You risk your app being rejected if you don’t have one.
Be forewarned that it’s not enough just to slap together a privacy policy on your app and be done with it. It’s a legal document that needs to take into account the nuances of the law. Mess up and you could get sued, even if you have a privacy policy. The social app Path in 2012 was fined a whopping $800,000 by the FTC for privacy violations.
Sounds like a huge legal headache, right? It can be, but before you decide to ditch the whole idea of a mobile app, you might want to look into an online privacy policy creator. A good privacy policy generator takes into account details of your store such as what data you collect and how, to create a custom privacy policy for your mobile app.
To learn more about how to create your own custom privacy policy in just minutes, visit FreePrivacyPolicy.com. (and yes, it really is free.)
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