Whether or not you have a privacy policy posted on your website can entice or turn away potential customers. Some visitors to your website won't even notice and for others, not having a privacy policy posted can be a deal breaker for purchasing from your website.

If you aren't sure exactly what a privacy policy is, basically it is a statement generated by you that details exactly what information your server collects from your visitors and how you will use that information.

You say your website is hosted on someone else's server and you don't collect any information. Think again. Your webstats alone will tell you the pages a given IP address (the identifying marker of the website visitor), what page they arrived on at your site (entry page), what page they left at (exit page), and many stats programs will tell you how long someone spent on any given page. If the person made a purchase you will have sensitive personal information about that consumer and it is your responsibility to tell them how you handle it and what you do with it.

If you sell, lend, or rent your customer's names to 3rd parties that sell like-minded products, put that in your privacy policy and give an email address for an "out", so people can have their names removed from your listings if they so choose.

Also, if you do nothing with your customer's information beyond processing orders and follow-up emails about their pending orders and shipments, put the in your privacy policy. It will make many people breath a sigh of relief to know you take privacy very seriously.

Whatever your privacy policy is for your website, make sure you have it spelled out for your customers.