The Importance of Privacy Notice

Unless you live under a rock, you undoubtedly encountered some privacy policies or notices in your lifetime. You may have even been exposed to the blitz of privacy notice updates that many companies sent out on the eve of GDPR coming in to effect — on May 25, 2018.

So what is a privacy notice, and why should you give it care and attention, and not just copy-paste an example from a similar provider? The privacy notice is required for compliance with legal obligations in most jurisdictions, and the most important aspect of these legal obligations, across jurisdictions, is that it accurately and clearly state your actual data processing practices.

Different jurisdictions require disclosure of different aspects of the processing, so the first step to a good privacy notice would be to understand what regulatory frameworks are applicable.

You should also consider which data processing practices to disclose, based on the context. The information you collect on how employees use your organizational resources is very relevant to candidates and employees, but is not so relevant to visitors of your website. Thus, one organization is likely to have several notices, disclosing different practices to different individuals whose information you handle.

In regards to each of these notices, a good privacy notice will be thorough and clear, but still understandable and not overwhelming for the average user, leaving the user with enough information to be able to make an informed decision regarding disclosure of information, use of the service or resource etc.

As more and more jurisdictions are adopting legislation guaranteeing the data subject’s rights to control of their data, transparency, accuracy and access are becoming more and more important, as any website user, customer lead, and in some jurisdictions — employee, can become an enforcement agent by reporting inadequate notices and request handling to data protection authorities.