Writing Privacy Notices & Privacy Policies

At the heart of the UK’s data protection regime is the GDPR, which runs in conjunction with our own Data Protection Act 2018. At the heart of the GDPR are the principles of lawfulness, fairness, and transparency.

The GDPR also sets out a range of very important rights designed to protect the interests and privacy of individuals (known in the GDPR as “data subjects”). Inextricably connected with the transparency principle is the Right to be Informed. Under this right, data subjects must be provided with a range of information about your use of their personal data and about their range of rights under the law. Such information is typically provided in a Privacy Policy or Privacy Notice.

We are often asked what the difference is between these two things. Does a privacy policy differ from a privacy notice? It does not. Various names are given to privacy information, including those. Others may call the information a “privacy statement”, a “data protection policy” (although this term is generally used for a far more detailed internal policy document), or, simply, “privacy information”. Here at Simply-Docs, we use the terms “privacy policy” and “privacy notice” respectively to denote (broadly) the differences between online and offline documents. An “offline” privacy notice can still be displayed on a website for reference, however the terms used in our privacy policies are designed specifically for personal data collected online and are thus more suited for online contexts.

New Privacy Information Guidance Notes

Given the sheer amount of information required by the GDPR, putting together a privacy policy or privacy notice (or a privacy statement or a… you get the idea) can be a daunting task. It is, therefore, helpful to understand the requirements behind that information.

The latest in our series of GDPR & Data Protection Guidance Notes has been designed with this goal in mind. The guidance explains the requirements laid down by the GDPR in more detail, providing practical insights into those requirements along the way.