How to Add Privacy Policy in WordPress
Privacy policy in WordPress is a document that is required by the law. It discloses information you collect about your visitors on your site. Needless to say, all websites collect visitors’ information in one way or another. In most countries, websites are legally required to disclose the information that they collect and how they plan on using it. This is discussed in the privacy policy.
A typical WordPress website will collect information from users in the following ways:
- Name and email address in the comment forms
- Name and email address submitted by the user using the contact form
- Comment form cookie that remembers the user’s name/email address
- Information collect when users register on the website
- Facebook page plugin and the like button cookies
- Google analytics tracking
- Other social media platform widgets that will track users
- Advertising programs such as Google AdSense that track users
With that being said, it is important for all websites to have their own privacy policy page. This will protect you from any legal issue and also help you build trust with your consumers.
What should be in the privacy policy?
Your privacy policy in WordPress must give details on all the different ways that you will be collecting and using the user information. A basic privacy policy page should contain this information:
- Information that will be collected about the users that visit the website
- Methods that are used to collect the information: it may be cookies, web beacons, signups, comment forms, registration and so on.
- List of third-party advertisers that collect information on your site such as Google AdSense
- Ways that users can use to block cookies and to opt-out of the third party advertisements
- Links to the privacy policy of the advertising program that you are a part of
- Your contact information to allow users to contact you if they have questions.
It is good to note that there are many websites that will allow you to generate text needed for your privacy policy.
Adding the privacy policy in WordPress
With your privacy policy content in hand, it is time to add the privacy policy page. Go to Pages>>Add New under the WordPress admin area. Name the new page ‘Privacy Policy’. Add the privacy policy text by copy-pasting from where the text is. It is also possible to generate the content using the Auto Terms of Service and Privacy Policy plugin. Add your contact information and your business name then publish.
Adding links to the privacy policy page
Most websites have the link to the privacy policy page in the footer. That way, the link will be visible on all pages and doesn’t take up room on the navigation menu. To do this, you can add the link to the footer.php file.
Having the privacy policy in WordPress will keep you from a lot of trouble in case one of your visitors threatens to sue you. The privacy policy page will be your insurance policy. Ensure it is as detailed as possible.