Most websites now include a reference to a privacy policy, a written statement that describes how a website collects and utilizes personally-identifiable information about its visitors. The inclusion of such a policy is often mandated by law or by interested third parties, such as advertisers. For example, the state of California requires that you display a privacy policy on your site if you collect personal information about California residents. Similarly, Google requires participants in its AdSense advertising network to include privacy information on any site that displays AdSense advertisements. If you don’t already have a privacy policy on your website, it’s something you’ll be adding to it soon enough. Let’s go over some of the basics.

A privacy policy is meant to inform the visitor to a site about what personal information it collects about its users and what it does with that information. As such, the policy should be easily accessible to new users of a site – a link in the header or footer of the home page is often the best choice. It’s also advisable to link to it from the “about” page of the site. Some sites don’t have a separate page for the policy, but rather include it as a section within another page, such as the general terms of use for the site. It needs to be easily found, however, no matter where it is on the site.

You may think you don’t need such a policy, but you’re wrong. Every web server collects some basic information about its users, even if the website owner doesn’t do anything with it. This information includes the IP address of the visitor (which can identify the visitor’s general location in many cases, thanks to reverse IP lookup databases), the visitor’s language preferences, what kind of browser they use, and various other kinds of data. Web servers also generally use cookies or other kinds of tags to track a visitor’s use of a website, whether directly or by using third-party services like Google Analytics. A good privacy policy describes the collection of this routine information, even when it’s not directly attributable to a particular user. » Read more: Privacy Policy Basics

New economic regime has made outsourcing very popular. In this system companies hand over the non-core activities to other companies so that it can center its activities on primary operations. By shedding the non-core activities the companies try to increase their profitability. The operations that are normally outsourced are data operations, customer service and IT related activities.

Mostly big companies opt for outsourcing to earn huge savings. The savings occur due to cheap labor cost in BPO companies located in developing countries like China and India. Outsourcing is fast emerging as a business model which is being replicated by all major companies.

Outsourcing has many benefits, savings in cost being one of them. Outsourcing also helps the companies in concentrating on core competencies. But the system has its flip sides also. The cost competence can only translate to profitability if the products satisfy quality standards. The temptation of outsourcing at lower costs often flops when inadequate service is rendered.

In some extreme cases, the outsourced company comprehends the inadequacy of its BPO partner in the midway. Various legal issues have to be dealt with to abruptly end the contract. For short term contracts the company waits till the contract terminates. But for long term projects other vital issues can further complicate the process. So it is important to team up with reputable companies to get the desired standard of output.

Low price alone cannot be the only factor depending on which such outsourcing decisions should be taken. To avoid unforeseen events the past record of the company should be considered. It is also pertinent to know every detail of the company before getting into any deal.

Often companies are charmed by lower rates and small players in the market manage to grab contracts. But in this age of competition it is crucial to have thorough knowledge about the partners to evade any possibility of sloppy product which in turn may mar the reputation of the outsourced company. » Read more: Background Checking – Major Criteria in Selecting Outsourcing Partners