I advise my website and care plan clients to have the proper policies in place on their websites to avoid potential fines and even lawsuits. The two biggest issues that clients face are the cost for setup (having an attorney create these policies can be expensive) and cost for changes (privacy laws change often enough to warrant new policies).
I’ve partnered with Termageddon, a cost-effective service that creates website policies that update automatically when the laws change.
Most clients will need one or more of the policies below.
Privacy Policy
If a website has a contact form, it needs a Privacy Policy.
Contact forms ask for a “name” and “email”, which are examples of “Personally Identifiable Information” (PII). A Privacy Policy is already required by law for websites that collect PII. Some states are proposing laws that will enable its citizens to sue businesses (of any size) located anywhere in the United States for not having the proper policies.
Websites that collect email address for email marketing or use Google Analytics also need a Privacy Policy.
Terms & Conditions
If a website offers links to third party websites (eg. Facebook, Twitter, etc), it should have Terms & Conditions.
Terms & Conditions limit a company’s liability. If you provide a link to a 3rd party website that gets hacked, you don’t want to be liable for the users that visited the site because you provided a link to it; adding Terms & Conditions helps with this.
Disclaimer
If a website offers affiliate links, it should have a Disclaimer.
A lot of affiliate programs will require you to have a disclaimer, and consumers want to know when you’re getting paid for links you put on your website.
Websites that display advertisements or give health, fitness or legal advice also need a Disclaimer.
More Information
Termageddon has put together a list of frequently asked questions so that you can learn more. The best part is that it’s really easy to understand for those of us who aren’t lawyers!
If you are interested in implementing these policies on your website, get in touch.