Selling With Confidence The Privacy Policy Requirements of Course Creators -
Prepare yourself. It is about time to find out about the reasons why websites that are based on courses may require Privacy policies.
Ok, it's not the most exciting subject, but it's still one that is vital.
Privacy is becoming a bigger and more important issue. Customers are demanding that websites to adhere to their privacy. Non-compliance costs can be very costly by not disclosing your own privacy practices.
If your website for your college has been collecting data under regulation, you have an obligation to give specific information to help your visitors understand what you're doing with their information.
This article (and the webinar) is designed to give instructors with the fundamentals on the policies for websites that are mandatory for certain course-creator websites, and how to put the proper guidelines put in place (and keep them up to date over time).
Before proceeding further before we proceed, it is important to note that this article and webinar is not legal advice and is for solely informational use. You should speak to an attorney within your region to assist you with requirements for compliance.
What is regulated data?
Names, emails addresses, and IP addresses are governed by various privacy laws across the globe. If you're collecting these regulated data, you may need to establish privacy Policy, regardless of where your in.
It's already a major conclusion: the governments who create privacy laws do not care the location of your company. They care about protecting the privacy of their citizens. Therefore, if you're collecting information from multiple sources, you may be required to adhere to different privacy laws and to make the disclosures required under each one (yes each privacy law is unique).
Are the data you collect regulated harmful?
Not at all! You just have to make some disclosures about the matter.
Collecting data like email addresses, names, and IP addresses can help your customers have a great experience while using your website. It also helps you improve your site in the future.
The only thing that has been changed is the fact that you should be mindful of the practices that you employ to protect your privacy and make sure you've got the respective policies on your website that contain the proper disclosures you specifically are required to make under the law(s) that apply to you.
Does your website course collect regulated data?
Virtually all modern websites collect regulated information. This is almost a necessity for security purposes to prevent spammers from trying to alter your contact form and is impossible to take payments otherwise. So collecting data is normal for web sites, and it is likely to be much more frequent than you imagine.
Common features for platform courses that store controlled data
- Membership and course registrations
- Accepting payment
- Video embedded from 3rd party sites
- Engagement initiates
- Rewarding your Learners
- Email drips
- Discussion forums
- Integrity
- Quizzes
Common integrations in which course creators are sharing information with third party:
- Embedding videos from third party sources into lessons (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)
- Integrations of payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal, etc.)
- Automatic renewal reminders (Mailgun, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, etc.)
- Email newsletter subscription forms (Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact, etc.)
- Data transfer providers (Zapier, etc.)
Why should I care?
It is essential to implement policies on your website to help you make more sales , and to avoid penalties or lawsuits. Also, by having policies on your website it builds trust and help comply to the laws.
Privacy won't be going away (if anything it's becoming more important) and failure to provide a fully compliant Privacy Policy is what gets website owners into problems when it comes to privacy laws (where fines start at $2,500 for each visitor to a website who's rights have been violated by you).
You should consider joining our live webinar in which we'll teach you about the basic principles of website policies, including how to acquire proper ones, and the best way to maintain them in the future!