Key Difference: The Privacy Policy should inform the site visitors about the fact that the website will collect the data, as well as what data will be collected and what the data will be used for. A Disclaimer is a statement that warns the audience that the website is not legally responsible for the information provided on it, and what the user does with the information.

One can often find Privacy Policy and Disclaimer on websites and blogs. Some have both, whereas others have only one or the other, while some brave souls may combine the two into one. Privacy Policy and Disclaimer are two documents that are often advised to be included on the website. Both of them are legal documents that aim to help the website avoid liability.

The purpose of the Privacy Policy is to inform the customers that the website will collect some information about its visitors, which all websites nearly do. This information can be collected for a variety of reasons: to collect user data, to get subscriptions, to tweak the website according to geographical location or user preference, etc. The most important reason that websites collect data is for statistics; to see the number of daily views, the number of ad impressions, etc. All of this data is purely used for information and statistics, primarily to improve the website.

The Privacy Policy should inform the site visitors about the fact that the website will collect the data, as well as what data will be collected and what the data will be used for. This reduces the liability of the website, as the customer will not be able to raise a concern later that they were not aware that their data will be saved and used.

A Disclaimer, on the other hand, is a statement that warns the audience that the website is not legally responsible for the information provided on it, and what the user does with the information. The purpose of a disclaimer is to warn the audience and to limit the website’s liability. This allows the website or company to avoid litigations and/or complaints regarding the fact that the information on the website may not be a 100 percent accurate, might be opinionated, and may not be up to date. The company also clarifies that they are not responsible for any problems that the visitor may face if they use the information on the website.

As it can be seen Privacy Policy and Disclaimer are two different statements, each of which are important in their own context. In some countries or jurisdictions, websites are required under law to let the viewer know that their data will be collected. Hence, they have to provide a Privacy Policy, and even if they don’t, it is usually better to do so to be in the clear. Similarly, while disclaimers are not required by law, they are recommended as they provide the website with a safety net that protects them from liability.

Comparison between Privacy Policy and Disclaimer:

Reference: Wikipedia, WhatIs, Cambridge Dictionary, PS Website Design, Terms Feed
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