I may or may not have thought that Termageddon was a pest control company when I applied to be their Marketing person. I thought, “Termites are pretty lousy and I think it’s a great cause to help eliminate them from the face of the earth.”
Wrong terms, Trevor. Wrong terms.
On the bright side, I’ve been given the opportunity to work towards another great cause: helping promote good privacy practices to ensure people’s data is respected. Unfortunately, I’ve run into two issues with this line of work:
- Website policies don’t mix well with an Internet that rewards short attention spans, and;
- I can’t use any of the bug puns I came up with.
That got me thinking, how can I increase the buzz around website policies, and bee a little more accommodating for those among us with the attention span of a housefly?
Memes it is! Here are the Privacy Policy basics explained as memes. It may be the only way to make it through a Privacy Policy blog.
Your website collects data (probably)
Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. Most websites do collect data to run their business and website effectively.
Website owners don’t get in trouble for collecting data; they just get in trouble for not being transparent about it. That’s what policies are for: transparency.
Copy & Paste doesn’t work
Let’s say “Anakin’s Sand & Supply Co.” is across the street from “Padme’s Plants & Landscaping Supplies.” These are similar businesses that both sell sand to not just the men, but the women and the children, too. They are also located on the same street, in the same state, and have similar clientele.
So, it might make sense for their Privacy Policies to be the same, right? Not really.
Small changes in business practices can have a huge impact on what privacy laws a company must comply with and what disclosures their policies need to contain. Not to mention, copying another policy isn’t going to help much when new laws pass requiring new disclosures (next update in June people!).
So if one uses Google Analytics or has an Order 66 newsletter, and the other does not – copying and pasting policies put the business at risk of privacy fines and even lawsuits. Plus, there are copyright laws for a reason.
Privacy laws in other states/countries can apply to you
Privacy laws are not designed to protect your business or your website. They are formed to protect the residents of the state/country where they were enacted.
Even if you don’t have any privacy laws in your area, simply having residents from areas that do could make you responsible for complying with those laws.
Sharing ≠ Selling
Website owners often get defensive when you tell them that they are sharing data and, therefore, need a Privacy Policy. That’s usually because they get sharing and selling data mixed up.
Sharing data is extremely common and is almost required in today’s world. Examples of sharing data include:
- Sharing IP addresses with an analytics tool (e.g. Google Analytics)
- Sharing names and email addresses with an email marketing provider to send your newsletter (e.g. MailChimp)
- Sharing payment information with eCommerce tools (e.g. Stripe)
- Sharing IP addresses with video hosting site embedded onto your website (e.g. YouTube or Vimeo)
Things get a lot more sketchy when you start talking about websites that sell people’s data. This is collecting people’s data for the sole purpose of selling it to third-parties for money.
Minor note: under one of three California’s privacy laws (CPRA) selling is defined differently. For the sake of this blog, we’re keeping it more simple and less Californian.
Privacy Policies are not static documents
A compliant Privacy Policy today may not be compliant tomorrow.
New privacy laws go into effect regularly (8 new ones in 2025) and we are typically tracking around a dozen new privacy bills at any given time that are on their way to becoming laws. Even if one of these laws applies to your website, it will likely mean you need to make specific changes to your Privacy Policy to comply.
That’s why it’s important to have an attorney frequently monitor your policies or find a Privacy Policy Generator (like Termageddon) that will auto-update your policies as these changes take place.
You’d be surprised by how many do not (especially generators). Some of our biggest competitors still claim to comply with privacy laws that changed their names several years ago.
Don’t deny the “decline” button!
According to various privacy laws, including GDPR, consent only counts if users can easily opt out of being tracked by cookies. So, cookie consent banners must have a “decline” option that is just as easy to see as the “accept” option.
And no, you can’t flirt with dark patterns by making the decline button red and scary while making the accept button green and full of life. Stick to buttons that are the same size and color.
Whose data is it?
(This meme makes no sense if you don’t watch ‘Severance’… but that’s your own fault.)
While you may get consent to collect and share a user’s data, at no point does it belong to your business or website. The user is always the owner of their data and should be able to opt-out or revoke their consent at any time.
A Privacy Policy should contain clear instructions on how a user can exercise their privacy rights.
No such thing as free compliance
If Privacy Policy memes were the final straw to get you to take privacy seriously on your website, beware of all the “free Privacy Policy Generators” out there. Everyone says they are free because it’s the No.1 keyword search.
The reality is, most will upcharge you several times throughout the generation process. The ones that are free, are more like templates that won’t help you comply with any laws.
Find a Privacy Policy Generator that is upfront about pricing, asks you several questions about your business (to find out what laws apply to you), adjusts its questionnaire to match your answers, and auto-updates your policies as laws change.
In other words:
P.S. That’s my boss’s face I screenshotted without his permission and put on a meme… So, if you know of any pest control companies hiring, let me know.
Trevor Willingham
Trevor is the marketing coordinator at Termageddon. Ever since he was a wee lad, Trevor dreamed of promoting Privacy Policies and now he's doing just that. In other words, he started from the bottom and now he's in website footers.
