Having a clear and compliant Privacy Policy is a must when you're setting up to send text messages to your customers, especially for 10DLC (10-Digit Long Code) registration. Your Privacy Policy is your promise to your patients about how you handle their personal information.
What Your Privacy Policy MUST Include
Your Privacy Policy needs to clearly explain:
How you use their data: What information you collect from them and what you do with it.
Who you share it with (if anyone): Be very clear if you share their data with other companies.
How they can reach you: Make it easy for them to contact you if they have questions or concerns about their data.
Crucial for Texting Registration: To make sure your Privacy Policy gets approved quickly for texting, it must include a statement that you will not share mobile opt-in data for marketing purposes.
Here's a great example of this statement: "Mobile information will not be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes."
Our Recommended Privacy Policy Template
Here's a good starting point for your Privacy Policy. Remember to read it carefully and update it to fit your specific business practices!
Privacy Notice
This privacy notice explains how [Your Website Name URL] handles your privacy. This notice applies only to information collected by this website. It will tell you:
What personal information is collected from you through the website, how we use it, and who we might share it with.
What choices you have about how your data is used.
The security steps we take to protect your information from misuse.
How you can correct any wrong information we have about you.
Information Collection, Use, and Sharing
We are the only owners of the information collected on this site. We only get information that you freely give us through email or other direct contact.
We will not sell, share, or rent your Mobile Opt-in data to any third parties for marketing or promotional purposes.
We will use your information to reply to you about why you contacted us. We will not share your information with any company outside of our organization, unless it's necessary to fulfill your request (for example, to ship an order).
Your Access to and Control Over Information
You can choose to stop receiving contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us using the email address or phone number on our website:
See what data we have about you, if any.
Change or fix any data we have about you.
Ask us to delete any data we have about you.
Share any concerns you have about how we use your data.
Security
We take steps to protect your information. When you send sensitive information through the website, your information is protected both online and offline.
While we use encryption to protect sensitive information sent online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to do a specific job (like billing or customer service) are allowed to access personal information. The computers and servers where we store personal information are kept in a secure place.
Cookies
We use "cookies" on this site. A cookie is a small piece of data stored on a website visitor’s computer to help us make your visit better and identify repeat visitors. For example, if we use a cookie to identify you, you wouldn't have to log in with a password more than once, saving you time. Cookies can also help us track what our users are interested in to improve their experience on our site. Using a cookie is not connected to any personal information on our site.
Some of our business partners might use cookies on our site (for example, advertisers). However, we do not have access to or control over these cookies.
Links
This website may contain links to other websites. Please know that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of those other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of any other site that collects personal information.
Surveys
Sometimes our site will ask for information through surveys or contests. Participating in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary, and you can choose whether or not to take part and share this information.
Common Questions
Why do I need a Privacy Policy for texting? A Privacy Policy is required for 10DLC (10-Digit Long Code) texting registration. It shows customers how you handle their personal data and helps get your texting services approved quickly.
What is the most important thing to include in my Privacy Policy for texting? You must include a clear statement that you will not share mobile opt-in data for marketing or promotional purposes with third parties/affiliates.
What kind of information should my Privacy Policy explain? It should explain what data you collect, how you use it, who you share it with (if anyone), and how customers can contact you with questions about their data.
What does "Mobile information will not be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes" mean? This means that any phone numbers or other mobile data you collect from customers for texting will not be given or sold to other companies for their marketing or advertising efforts.
How can customers control their information? Your Privacy Policy should state that customers can contact you to see what data you have, change it, delete it, or express concerns about how you use their data.