Creating a Privacy and Cookie Policy for Your WordPress Website
Earning money from blogging and affiliate marketing with your WordPress website is relatively easy and stress-free but you do have to comply with some legal requirements. If you use Google Analytics, a contact form or are an Amazon affiliate, having a privacy policy and a request for permission to use cookies on your website are a legal requirement.
Data is a hot topic. If you are collecting people’s personal information, even on a simple contact form, you must comply with data protection laws. You need to include a privacy policy on your website that states how you collect, store, process, use and dispose of user data in line with the Data Protection Act. You also need to tell people who they go about finding out what personal information you hold about them.
And then there are cookies. There is a Cookie Law, started as an EU Directive and adopted by all EU countries a few years ago. The Directive was designed to make people aware of how much information was being collected about them online and to give users the right to refuse the use of cookies to collect that data. You must tell your users what cookies you use and get them to consent to their use.
Before you start panicking about having to get a lawyer and writing legally binding content, take a deep breath. We have found a simple service that generates the privacy and cookie policies for you with minimum effort on your part.
Generate Documents with iubenda
iubenda (affiliate link) offers a complete set of documents to make your website within the law. It offers a free or paid for service, depending on the level of document you need. If you’re running just one site, it’s free. If you need documents for multiple sites, it’s $27 for the year. Still cheaper than an actual lawyer!
Click to add services such as Google Analytics, contact form and affiliate programmes
You might find you need to upgrade to pro as you begin adding your services to the document. For example, if you are an Amazon affiliate, you can only add that into your document as a service if you are using the pro version.
To add your new privacy policy to your site you use the embed code generated by iubenda. I have selected to embed it into the body of a page on the website, but you can it as a widget to your footer too.
I'm really happy with the way these look and I've ticked that legal box, which is a relief. It was so easy and hassle-free and totally worth the $27 annual fee.
Check out the WP Eagle video on cookie consent popups/banners, also a requirement on your site of you use cookies. You can watch that here.
