Privacy policies reassuring customers how and when their information will be used are a good start for many businesses, but today that just isn't enough.

The problem has become the fact that information is money. And, when you are dealing with people's personal information, such as vital statistics combined with shopping habits, the information is extremely valuable to ruthless marketers willing to go to any length to sell their product.

And, if you are not careful, you could fall into a trap where you inadvertently compromise your customer's trust, creating a bad business relationship and contributing to the overall problem of broadcasting massive amounts of unsolicited email.

So, what can you do to prevent this when running your business? These three broad guidelines will make sure your customer's information doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

If you haven't already done so, the first step is to establish a Privacy Policy and stick to it. The privacy policy is a page of your Web site that explains to your customers how you will use their information should they decide to submit it to you for whatever reason.

Of course, it is then up to you to police yourself and not use this information for anything beyond what your stated policy implies. For example, some large companies have tricked their customers by stating they won't sell their information to a third party but then offer the information to a marketer under a rental (not sales) agreement.

In other words, they used a wording technicality to gain trust from their customers -- only to unethically breach that trust. The end result is the customer receives the spam they thought they were avoiding in the first place.

Another caveat of the privacy policy leads us into our second privacy issue guideline: Know the policies of vendors you partner with to add features to your personal Web site.

An example of a situation affecting small businesses all across the country deals with shopping carts which allow your customers to purchase your products over the Internet. The catch is, shopping carts can be complex and expensive to integrate into a Web site, so many businesses have decided to partner with companies that specialize in offering shopping carts on a centralized server. You just add your logo to their site for the transaction part of the purchasing process.

So, your unsuspecting customer researches your business on your Web site and decides to make a purchase. Upon entering your shopping cart, they leave your server and are connected to your shopping cart service to complete the order. Many times the shopping cart will look very similar to your site, making it difficult to recognize you have transitioned to a new site. Anyway, they enter in their billing, shipping and order information and get a receipt -- all without knowing the privacy policy of the shopping cart company can be, and probably is, different than the original small business offering the product.

While the company who sells the information to mass e-mail marketers is technically at fault, it is still the responsibility of the small business to be aware of their partners' policies. The small business should make the ethical decision to not partner with companies like this and, if possible, integrate the desired features within their own site, avoiding the switch to a third party offering special features.

So, how do you market your business to your customers ethically? The key is to use a method known as opting in. But, first, I want to mention the other side, known as opting out.

Many companies who send spam defend themselves by saying any customer can request to not receive more messages by opting out or informing them that they no longer wish to receive promotional messages. However, it has become common practice for unethical marketers to take these opt out messages as confirmation of a valid address from a person willing to respond to e-mail. The marketers then resell the address at a premium fee.

So, in an effort to opt out of future messages, an unsuspecting consumer really just worsened their situation unknowingly.

Therefore, the opt in method has become the only true method of guaranteeing that your customers do want to hear from you for legitimate reasons.

One example of an opt in is if your customer checks a box during the ordering process saying they would like to be informed of special deals, industry news or other information concerning their purchase. Then, they receive an automated e-mail asking them to confirm this by clicking on a unique link.

That way, it is impossible to send messages to those who haven't requested information, and it keeps your database free of mistyped or inaccurate e-mail addresses.

And, most importantly, if you follow these three basic guidelines, you will maintain a loyal, happy customer base, leading to increased sales through your online marketing.