A Privacy Policy is a statement or a legal document that states how a company or website collects, handles and processes data of its customers and visitors. It explicitly describes whether that information is kept confidential, or is shared with or sold to third parties.

Personal information about an individual may include the following:

• Name
• Address
• Email
• Phone number
• Age
• Marital status
• Race
• Nationality
• Religious beliefs

For example, an excerpt from Pinterest's Privacy Policy agreement clearly describes the information Pinterest collects from its users as well as from any other source that users enable Pinterest to gather information from. The information that the user voluntarily gives includes names, photos, pins, likes, email address, and/or phone number etc., all of which is regarded as personal information.