Privacy of a visitor to a website

There are a number of rules that are designed to protect website visitors from abuse. It is advisable to pay due attention to these rules, as failure to comply with them can result in no advertising being displayed on your website and possible penalties. All things that you would naturally prefer to avoid. Let's take a look at the steps you need to take and the resources you can use to do so.

Privacy and cookie policy, terms and conditions

There are a number of documents that need to be set up as soon as you launch a website. Some content management systems such as WordPress will already have a blueprint that you can use. You then adapt this to the data you collect and the third party sources you upload to your site. You can check this yourself by making a list; what sources you use can usually be entered into Google. Google takes care of analytics and advertising for most people. If you use other programs to collect data from your visitors, enter that here as well.

Terms and conditions are important for any website, often they include a disclaimer to cover yourself. We are not responsible for any damages, etc. And this can be very important for some websites. Let's say you have an informational website where you share tips and tricks, and someone comes and claims damages after following that tip. Then it is better to have this covered. The best way to do this is to hire a lawyer or internet law specialist who can work this out for you in great detail.

Collecting data from a visitor

You can find out almost anything about a single visitor if you want to, but that's not the case, and that's what you're concerned with as a website owner. That there's a visitor, what corner of the country roughly and where they're from, and whether they liked the content enough to make a conversion. That, of course, is what matters in the end. Internet marketers are obsessed with knowing everything and scrutinizing every visitor. But you have to wonder if that's a good thing. There's a reason browsers like Brave exist, and more and more people are sick of being followed everywhere by ads, social media pixels, and so on. Opinions are divided on this, however.

With the basic settings of Microsoft Clarity and Google Analytics, you can find out enough about your visitors. And with a combination of these two, you can even take it a step further, as Microsoft Clarity also allows you to track the entire individual session. Not only can this be fun, but it can also be helpful. It's a way to learn how visitors experience your content and whether it matches their intentions. This data can't be traced back to a single person, so it won't tell you a visitor's name or address. It can, however, tell you the region and source. This should be sufficient for targeting ads in the future.

You also need to secure any forms that visitors fill out or when they provide information on your website. You can do this by protecting the database where this data is stored with a secure password. And activate an SSL certificate for your website. You can install an SSL certificate for free at MijnHostingPartner.nl or choose a paid option. The free Lets Encrypt certificates are your responsibility and expire every three months. If you have problems with a paid SSL certificate, you can always contact us.

Securing your data starts when you install WordPress or launch your website. Make sure you use strong passwords and enable two-factor authentication if possible. Too many websites are still being hacked or compromised by using passwords that are too simple. It is highly recommended to use our random password generator to set better passwords. It is also important to keep track of a website's permissions. For example, if the website is not worked on daily, it is better to disable write permissions completely. This can prevent malicious code from running on your website.

It is up to you as a webmaster to keep your security and data handling in order. Do you need more help or do you want to outsource your webshop, for example? Then you can contact us at MijnWebshopPartner.nl.