According to the grapevine, Google is about to pay the government $16,000 for every day the company apparently violated privacy rights. While that’s peanuts for a company the size of Google, what are the typical costs of privacy screw-ups for website owners like you?
1. Lawsuits. If you get sued (or even threatened with a lawsuit), there’s your time, energy, and money that will be spent. Even if you “win,” you really lose because you’ll never get any of these back.
2. Government investigations. If a government agency comes knocking, it’s common to spend a boatload in Internet attorney fees trying to prove you did nothing wrong plus a bunch of time putting together documents showing you’re one of the decent people online.
3. Reputation. It’s hard to get back your reputation with prospects and clients after word leaks that you don’t respect privacy rights.
So what do you do to protect yourself? You keep your privacy policy and other website legal documents up-to-date and you honor your policies.
