First, a quick note on this guide
We build websites; we aren't lawyers. What follows is a plain overview of the things small business owners in Malta usually ask about, so you know which questions to raise. Your situation depends on what you collect, why, and what you do with it.
For anything you're unsure about, check with the IDPC's guidance or a lawyer for your situation. The IDPC, the Information and Data Protection Commissioner, is Malta's data protection regulator, and its website at idpc.org.mt publishes guidance for organisations.
Does any of this apply to a tiny business?
Being small doesn't usually take you outside these rules. A one-person salon with a booking form, or a café with a newsletter sign-up, is still handling personal details. A name and a mobile number count. So does an email address someone types into your contact form.
The good news is that a small site usually collects very little, which keeps things simple. Start by making a list of every place your website takes in information: forms, booking tools, chat widgets, analytics, embedded maps or videos, and any newsletter tool.
Your privacy notice
A privacy notice is a page that tells visitors, in plain words, what you collect and what happens to it. People should be able to find it easily, usually through a link in the footer and next to any form.
It typically covers points like these. Your own notice should match what your business really does.
- Who you are and how to contact you about their data.
- What details you collect and where they come from.
- Why you need them, such as replying to an enquiry or confirming a booking.
- Who else handles the data, like your email provider or booking tool.
- How long you keep it.
- What rights people have and how they can ask to use them.
Contact and booking forms
Look at each form and ask whether you truly need every field. For a simple enquiry, a name, a way to reply and a message box are often enough. Asking for an ID number, date of birth or home address just in case creates more for you to protect.
Add a short line near the submit button linking to your privacy notice. If you want to send marketing emails to people who enquire, that's a separate question from replying to them, and the IDPC's guidance or a lawyer can tell you what's needed. Where form submissions land matters too: a shared inbox that half the staff can open isn't ideal.
Cookies, analytics and embedded content
Some cookies are needed for a site to work. Others, such as those used by analytics tools, advertising pixels and some embedded content, track visitors in ways that often need consent first. That's why many sites show a banner letting people accept or refuse.
Check what your site actually loads. A plain three-page site with no tracking may need very little. Add analytics, a Facebook pixel and an embedded video, and it's a different picture. Make sure any consent banner really does hold back the optional cookies until someone agrees, rather than just showing a message.
Keep only what you need, and keep it safe
The simplest protection is having less data. Delete old enquiries you'll never follow up. Don't export customer lists into random spreadsheets on personal laptops. Decide how long you keep booking records and stick to it.
Use strong, different passwords for your website, email and booking tools, and switch on two-step login where it's offered. When a staff member leaves, remove their access the same day. If something does go wrong, like a hacked inbox, the IDPC's site explains what organisations are expected to do.
Where a web designer fits in
A designer can build forms that ask for less, add a footer link to your privacy notice and avoid loading trackers you don't need. The content of the notice and your compliance stay your responsibility, because only you know how you use the data.
When Boost builds a site, we keep forms short and can add the privacy page you provide. If you'd like to talk through what your site should collect, send us a brief and we reply within 1 working day.