Privacy Policy

Monday, February 14, 2011

Didn't realize this but did you?

Alright guys, I recently found something that had me a bit concerned, and realized that it was putting my adsense account at risk. That something is a privacy policy. I hadn't realized I needed to make one of these, but it's listed clearly in the program policies.

Knowing this, I searched around, and got to finding some instructions and making a privacy policy, which you can all now see linked in the upper right corner of my blog. If you're using adsense, you *must* also have a privacy policy on your site, or risk getting a nice lifetime ban from the program. So, without further ado, here are those instructions:

1. Open my adsense policy from Click Here
2. Copy and paste it into notepad.
3. Search and replce my url and replace it with yours.
4. Create a new post on your blog and paste it in.
5. Go to the post options at the bottom of the post window.
6. Set the date and time to before your first post date
7. Add a tag(label) called Privacy Policy (if you'd like...not 100% necessary)
8. Submit the post.
9. Navigate to your Privacy Policy and copy the URL

Now, you need to add a gadget on your blog, like you can see I did.

1. Go to the design tab on your dashboard
2. Edit Layout
3. Click "Add a Gadget" where you would like to place the box
4. Scroll down and select the "HTML/Javascript" Gadget
5. Give it an appropriate title
6. Link your privacy policy using the URL you copied earlier

Add the gadget, and you're done!

Hopefully this post will be helpful to many of you guys, as I can't imagine the frustration I'd feel if I got banned for not doing something as simple as this. The reason Google requires us to post this is because it actually violates US law if we don't, and that can turn around and bite them in the ass. They aren't willing to risk problems with the law just because us small fish don't bother posting a privacy policy. I hadn't known I needed one, but as should be apparent by now, I've added one. Adsense is a great program, that allows us bloggers to receive compensation for doing the writing we all enjoy. The least we can do is abide by the rules, and at the same time, insure our continued use of the program.

I hope this post helped you guys out. If you have any questions/comments, as always, let me know in the comments.

18 comments:

  1. Thanks. I'll be doing this, like now.

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  2. I am not sure if this would be covered already by Blogger's policies. And I don't see to many other blogs with a privacy policy. Although, Google doesn't mention any exception for Blogger. The Blogger Adsense page also makes no mention of needing a privacy policy. Can anyone confirm this? I'll keep it in mind if I have trouble in the future though. Good looking out Wolfdog.

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  3. Thanks man. better be safe than sorry. I added it to my blog. thanks man

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  4. I have to agree. The blogger policy should cover this. Its googles own service. I plan to submit a question to google.

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  5. I guess it doesn't really apply for other than US, also it's googles own service, and it should apply by default
    Correct me if im wrong tho...

    Thanks for sharing this!

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  6. Thanks! I really don't want to lose my blog. My followers and I have way too much fun doing this to lose it to something so careless.

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  7. Uh-oh, I better get on this. Better to be safe than sorry. Thanks for the warning.

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  8. Since I am not the original poster of this I do not know all of the details. But from what I have read on my own this is spot on. I just didn't want to see all my followers and myself lose the time we invest daily by an over looked item. Also stay tuned for contest details.

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  9. Good info. Better safe than apologetic.

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  10. Thank you for being the first one in my network to actually explain this. I was wondering what everyone was doing, and then you came along to help. Cheers!

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  11. Good looking out, as they said better safe than sorry!

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  12. I just created one, I would hate to lose all my hard work over something so trivial. Thanks for the great article.

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  13. Thanks for saving our collective asses, you sir are a kind person.

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  14. Wow, thanks for bringing that to our attention! =O

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