Privacy Notices
A privacy notice is a written document which sets out the information which must be given to data subjects when their personal data is collected, as part of transparency requirements under the UK GDPR.
Privacy notices are often called ‘privacy policies’ – ultimately the name doesn’t matter (so long as the name isn’t misleading), what matters is the document contains necessary information that is concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible. Data subjects don’t necessarily just include visitors to your website and/or customers, they can also include your employees, contractors and others. Many businesses will have both ‘internal’ and ‘external’ privacy policies. Almost all businesses with a website will include a link to their external privacy notice on it.
Do I need a privacy notice?
If as a business you collect any personal data from any data subject, then yes! In practice, as a business this will almost certainly be the case and so you will almost certainly need a privacy notice.
What should I think about?
Whilst it may be tempting to simply use a free template or copy another businesses’ privacy notice, in reality privacy notices need to be specifically tailored to a business. Before finalising any privacy notice, its important a business fully understands all its data processing activities including where personal data is stored, with whom it's shared, etc.. If a business doesn’t understand, it should conduct a thorough audit, and so that its privacy notice can be accurately tailored to reflect the business.
In addition, UK businesses should note that the EU GDPR has extraterritorial effect, and can apply to UK businesses with no EU establishment which offer goods or services to EU data subjects or monitor their behaviour as far as it takes place in the EU. If a UK business does this, it will likely need to comply with UK GDPR and EU GDPR and its privacy notice will need to reflect this.
How can we help?
We can help with advising on data protection audits and reviewing and preparing both internal and external privacy notices for your business. In need of some DP support? Get in touch with our team.