Privacy Policy

No organization is legally obligated to provide customers with a Privacy policy agreement. That being said, privacy policies serve many useful legal purposes. It’s highly advisable to draft a privacy policy agreement and display it on your mobile app for consumers to view.

Mobile app developers need to ensure that customers know exactly how their user data is collected and stored.

Often, when someone downloads a free app, the users are giving up their data in exchange for that service. For example, they might download an app that requires them to link their social media accounts to use the app. In a typical financial transaction, for example, $5 for a dozen eggs, you know how much you’re giving for that. Usually, that privacy policy agreement is blind, with no notifications of what exactly the app will collect from the user and store or explanation of what will happen to that data.

The privacy policy agreement establishes the legal relationship between parties. It helps you manage your app, and it gives trust to the users because they know what they can expect from your app.

Also known as Terms of Use or Terms of Service, a Terms and Conditions should set out these key principles:

 

  1. The rules that users must follow.
  2. What an organization is – and is not – responsible for.
  3. Punishable acts for misusing the app, including deleting the account.
  4. Your copyright information.
  5. Payment and subscription information, if relevant.

 

Essentially, a privacy policy minimizes the likelihood of misunderstandings arising between parties. It gives you, the service provider for taking action against users when needed. It may also save you from the financial consequences of legal action.

Most importantly, privacy policies are a binding rule. The implication is that if someone continues to use your app after reading the Terms and Conditions, they’re happy to enter into this agreement with you.

 

Why App Developers and Owners Benefit from Privacy Policy

 

The privacy policy is the rules you expect users to follow if they download and use your app. That is why this is so important for all app developers and admins.

You can suspend or delete abusive accounts if they violate your privacy policy rules. This protects other users and helps you keep your app a safe, trustworthy platform particularly if users can upload their own content.

If you operate a commercial app such as an e-commerce store, privacy policies let you establish guidelines for dealing with consumer issues such as late delivery, payment problems, and refunds. As a consequence, since you can direct customers to the Terms of Use, you speed up the dispute resolution process.

It’s generally up to you to set which laws govern the privacy policies. Most app developers choose the rules where their business is based. In legal words, this is known as picking the forum or venue or establishing the jurisdiction.

A privacy policy lets you specify your intellectual property rights and the action you’ll take if someone infringes your copyright.

Users appreciate the clarity. They have more confidence in apps that clearly explain what rules and responsibilities they have. An app’s privacy policies will help accomplish this.

It’s important to note that while you can set your own rules, that must be a legal agreement.

Some privacy policies are more detailed than others. It depends on:

 

  1. Whether users can buy a product through the app.
  2. If users create or upload their own content.
  3. How limited the communication is – for example, a language translator app, or a news outlet app, will have.
  4. shorter privacy policy rules than a store or a subscription service.