Privacy Policy and Disclaimer for a France-based website

Hi,

I'm in the process of building a website whose main clientel will be the French public (although I live in the UK) and I have a few questions on the subject of Privacy Policies and Disclaimers. I've never written a Privacy Policy or a Disclaimer before, not even in English, nor have I much knowledge of the law, so my questions may seem a little, well, stupid.

Okay, firstly, the only information I'll be collecting from the users is their first (and possibly last) names and their town/city. The user will also have the option to submit their email addresses. The names and town/city will be displayed for all users to see, but the email addresses will not be. I will also be using cookies.

The collected information will only be used for the functionality of the website; I've no intention of disclosing it to third-party organizations, for example.

So, my questions:

• Should the privacy policy be written in French (the language of the clientel) or English (the language of my own country)?
• Is there a standard format (or template) for the privacy policy and disclaimer that all websites must adhere to?
• Also, if anybody happens to know, could the French version of a privacy policy/disclaimer be simply be translated from the English version, or are there different things to be mentioned (due to differences in the law)?

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give me, and my apologies if I've posted this in the wrong forum,
Liam.

As for the language it should be written in, depends on who the clients will mostly be. If the site will have visitors from different countries, then maybe have the choice for the site to be displayed in either french or english... allow the user to choose.

There are a lot of templates out there.. just google them. Privacy Policies have, for the most part, standard sections that they cover. Some sites may have more than others, but this is dependent on what the site will entail. If, for whatever reason, you can't find any templates, then you can take a look at various sites and look at their privacy policy to get an idea of what you want/need. DO NOT copy any privacy policy word for word! I would say to look at some of the well known companies privacy policies (yahoo, amazon, etc), and then choose what headers you need. Then read through their descriptions and completely rewrite it to fit the company you're writing it for.

As for different laws, a privacy policy consists of information related to how personal information is handled. In other words, laws won't dictate how a site handles personal information... only the people in charge of the site. So whether in France, or the US, the privacy policy should contain the info on how you guys will be handling personal information collected. Laws would come into play when writing, for instance, Terms and Conditions.

Now.. Here's a Privacy Policy Generator which may help, although I'm not going to be held liable for anyone using it, as I've never personally used it... Just seen mention of it before.

Hope this helps.

Hey hiker,

Thanks a lot for the reply, it helped clear up a lot of issues that were worrying me.

You mentioned that laws would come into play when writing Terms and Conditions; if the main clientel were to be the French, and maybe some French-speakers worldwide, should the T&C be written under French or English law? Also, am I correct in thinking that Terms and Conditions are the same as Terms of Use?

Thanks again for your great response,
Liam.

No problem. Again, as for the language, it's really up to you. You may want to gear it towards the majority of users, but I'd seriously consider putting it in more than 1 language and give the user the choice.

I've seen it called a variety of things... Terms and Conditions, Terms of Use, Conditions of use, Terms or Conditions, Usage Terms, etc.... But yeah, they usually mean the same thing. It refers to the legal mumbo-jumbo that covers the site... again, for this, you may want to view the various sites as well to see what all is covered. Now, this you may want to get a lawyer involved with, as a lawyer would be able to help you in creating something to cover you, the site, the members, etc.... They know the law for your particular area. I know a lot of lawyers (at least around here), have TAC templates that they can send you... but depends on the lawyer.