Do I need legal documents for data privacy? I have a pretty new blog (less than 3months) and I am not able to collect emails because I heard that one has to get a privacy policy document from a lawyer which is expensive. I am just publishing content. And I don't know how to handle the legal issues. Do I need a lawyer for my blog? Do I need to even care about it?
It depends: If you do not collect any information on your site, that is, if you do not use Google Analytics or any contact or sign up form, then you may not need one. If you do, I am afraid you need them.
My understanding is that if you want Google to rank your website for searches, you need to have a Privacy statement page on it. If you Google "free website privacy statement templates" I suspect that you will find some boilerplate that you can freely use. If you do decide to ever collect emails and plan to collect emails from people living in Europe, you will also need to follow the GDPR regulations and post a more complex privacy statement, of which you can also find examples online.
It depends on where your website is based. In Europe we have to abide by GDPR rules which means we need a privacy policy which covers off date we hold, how we use it, why we need it which have to be accepted (rather than opt out). I believe the US/Canada have similar laws. Under GDPR we also have to have a document which outlines who has access to what, where we obtain the data, why it is needed, where it came from when we will get rid of it and a process on how the customer can get in touch to remove their data. If it is just a blog and not a business as such with no real aims of marketing and/or you are outside the EU I am sure you will fall under the radar.