In the past, a U.S. business typically needed to be concerned about the laws of the state(s) where it did business (e.g. where the company was set up) and federal law. That’s not the case today if your business is online – with or without a website privacy policy.
For example, California and the European Union may attempt to apply their laws and regulations to your business…even if your company isn’t based in California or Europe. Both have strict privacy laws and regulations that may affect your website’s legal protection.
In fact, the EU adopted an 80+ page data protection regulation that went into effect in 2018. And California has enacted a new law that’s similarly complicated…and it goes into effect in 2020.
In other words, if your site has a website privacy policy that’s a couple years old, chances are you haven’t even addressed these potential threats to your business.
Now, you could ignore these risks. And maybe a government agency won’t come after you. And you won’t get sued by someone claiming you’ve violated their new legal rights.
Of course, the prudent thing to do is have a skilled Internet business attorney review your website for compliance issues and update your site’s privacy policy, terms of use, and other legal documents. As Benjamin Franklin said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
