Does My Side Hustle Website Need a Privacy Policy?
If your website collects any information from visitors, you almost certainly need a privacy policy. That includes more sites than people expect: a contact form, an email signup, an online shop, analytics, or advertising pixels all count as collecting personal information.
This is general information, not legal advice. The rules depend on where your visitors live and what your site does, and a lawyer is the right call if you handle sensitive data.
When you need one
You collect names, emails or phone numbers. A newsletter signup or contact form is enough.
You use analytics or advertising tools. Google Analytics, Meta pixels and similar tools collect data about visitors, and their own terms require you to disclose it. Google's analytics policies, for example, require sites using the product to have a privacy policy that explains it.
You sell online. Payment and shipping details are personal information, even if a processor such as Stripe or Shopify handles the card itself.
You have visitors from certain places. California's privacy law (the CCPA, as amended) and several other US state laws require specific disclosures once a business meets their thresholds, and the EU's GDPR applies to visitors in Europe regardless of where you are based. Many small sites fall below the state thresholds, but the disclosure requirements from analytics and ad platforms still apply.
You run an app. Apple's App Store and Google Play both require a privacy policy link for apps.
What it has to cover
- What you collect — form entries, email addresses, purchase details, cookies and analytics data.
- Why you collect it — sending orders, replying to messages, sending a newsletter, measuring traffic.
- Who you share it with — email providers, payment processors, analytics and advertising partners.
- How long you keep it and how you protect it.
- What rights visitors have — to see, correct or delete their data, and how to ask.
- How to contact you about privacy.
- When it was last updated.
The FTC's position is simple: whatever your policy says, you must actually do. A copied policy that describes practices you do not follow is worse than a short accurate one.
Three ways to get one
1. Write it yourself. Free, and fine for a very simple site with a contact form and nothing else. The risk is missing a disclosure your tools require, and forgetting to update it when you add a new one.
2. Use a policy generator. You answer questions about your site and tools, and it produces a policy that covers the relevant laws. The better ones update the text when laws change and can add a cookie consent banner. This is the sensible middle ground for most side hustles and small shops.
Termly builds a privacy policy from a questionnaire about your site, hosts it, and updates the wording as privacy laws change. It also offers a cookie consent banner. See Termly.
3. Hire a lawyer. Worth it if you collect health, financial or children's data, or if the business is large enough to fall under state privacy laws in full.
What else a small site usually needs
Terms of service, if you sell anything or let people create accounts. A cookie notice, if you have visitors from the EU or UK. Affiliate and advertising disclosures, if you earn from links: the FTC requires these to be clear and close to the link, not buried in the footer.
If the site is part of a business you have not formalised yet, setting up an LLC for a side hustle and separating the money into a business account come next.
Common questions
Is a privacy policy legally required for a small website?
Often, yes. It depends on where your visitors are and what you collect, but even when no law applies directly, analytics, advertising and app store rules usually require one.
Can I copy another website's privacy policy?
No. It may be copyrighted, and more importantly it will describe someone else's practices. Your policy has to match what your site actually does.
Do I need a privacy policy if I only use Google Analytics?
Yes. Google's own policies require sites using Analytics to disclose it in a privacy policy.
How often should I update my privacy policy?
Whenever you add a new tool that collects data, and at least once a year to reflect changes in the law.
Figures and rules in this article are checked against the official sources below. Where they disagree with us, they win.
