[TomVDB]

You receive an email with a request for a privacy statement? Great, one way or the other, that's work with potential legal repercussion, which means you probably should talk to a lawyer. Additional expenses and hassle for no good reason.

You make a fix in the email system that accidentally emails everybody at the same time? (It almost happened.) Oops. There's your exposure to some nice fine.

You don't need to be abusing somebody's privacy to be concerned about legal exposure. Just like there are asshole companies, there are asshole users as well who can make your life miserable.

Any hobbyist who doesn't take this kind of exposure into consideration is naive.

[Angostura]

I'm sorry but every website collecting personal data should set out clearly and simply what it is used for and how it can be distributed. For asmall hobbyist site you don't need a lawyer, there are plenty of decent templates out there.