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I'm searching a lot but, I am getting different opinions from different sources.

Some internet sources are saying, privacy policy applicable to country where your websites's data center (hosted) is, because your website physically present there. In one source I read that, it depend on target population, suppose your website is hosted in US and your target population is EU, then you need to comply with EU website privacy laws.

Some sources indicating TLD also contributes. So, I am not getting one clear guideline. I would like to know how shall I decide which country's privacy policy law will be applicable to my website.

  • My country - India
  • My website's TLD - .com
  • My website hosted at - Chicago (USA)
  • Target population - Non specific (General learning site)
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    Does this help at all? webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/39818/…
    – Steve
    Feb 13, 2017 at 10:41
  • @Steve Hi, Steve, thanks for your link and sorry for late reply. The provided link is useful, but after reading both answers again it creates confusion. If I sum up all the things, it means that we need to comply everybody. Because, website is not a country specific thing so it can be accessed from anywhere, and ultimately that anywhere becomes our user. Any idea, how should I go ahead. Very very thanks in advance.
    – CodeNext
    Feb 18, 2017 at 10:33
  • Perhaps the best way to do it is find what privacy policy applies in each country and then display the appropriate one by using geolocation code. If that sounds too hard, have an index page with a list of countries linking to the appropriate provacy policy.
    – Steve
    Feb 18, 2017 at 11:25

3 Answers 3

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You need to look at:

  • Your home country laws on privacy, i.e. India
  • The country where you host/collect/process data through, i.e. USA
  • The countries where your customers are, i.e. USA, Canada, EU

You can look at India IT Act of 2000 act for how to comply, i.e. monitor user-generated content, follow best practices on privacy and user data etc.

USA has two main regulations that you need to look at: CalOPPA and COPPA (if you collect data from children under the age of 13).

Canada has PIPEDA, while the EU has the Data Protection Directive and soon, the GDPR.

Other countries across the world has privacy acts, such as:

  • "Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA)" in Singapore
  • "Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA)" in Malaysia.
  • "Personal Information Protection Act" in South Korea.

A comprehensive list of worldwide privacy acts is posted on our blog

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  • Hi, Thx for this answer, appreciated. I read that entire article on TermsFeed, I came to know many thing. Thanks for that. Just, I stuck with one sentence which in in EU section in that article "This directive requires companies operating from the EU to have a Privacy Policy." ,So same way, again question comes, Operated means - where my datacenter is or website owner is? And from your answer it looks like we need to cover all the countries' privacy policy law as site is going to appear anywhere, because customer can be from anywhere? Thx for any guidance, appreciated.
    – CodeNext
    Feb 24, 2017 at 18:25
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    Unfortunately it's very hard to provide a specific answer here because of all parties involved (home country, hosting provider country etc.). It's best to contact a local lawyer that can advise you after a review of your business, your business model, your needs etc.
    – termsfeed
    Feb 24, 2017 at 18:37
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Technically, EU privacy policy is strictly for web pages within EU.

So, you don't need to put it quite frankly. But... make your privacy policy for the web, look how are they written, then you write it for yourself for your page.

But, then again, you don't need to do that for Indian domains.

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  • Hi Josef, Thank you for your answer. I am reviewing many privacy policies and getting idea. By your sentence "Technically, EU privacy policy is strictly for web pages within EU." You mean that, If my website's is not hosted in EU, then it is not mandatory that, I have to comply with EU privacy laws, Right? And does TLD of domain name matters? like I have .com
    – CodeNext
    Feb 20, 2017 at 14:09
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According to https://www.cookielaw.org/faq/#WereoutsideoftheEUareweaffected technically you don't need to display the cookie consent banner as you do not legally have an entity within the EU, the site is not hosted and domains not registered within the EU zone. I would always recommend a privacy policy as it helps establish trust between you and your target audience.

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  • Hi ThePHPUnicorn, That is clear that I do not have any connection to EU, so I do not need to comply with EU laws. BUT still, question is there which country's privacy policy I need to apply? Any idea? Any help appreciated.
    – CodeNext
    Feb 25, 2017 at 17:44

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