Legal Documents
If you are thinking of doing any online business or starting any online training courses or even planning any blogging website you should consider three separate or combined important documents exist on your website.
These legal documents will protect you against liabilities that may arise from running your website.
The three most important legal documents are
- Privacy Policy,
- Disclaimer, and
- Terms and Conditions
Privacy Policy
A privacy policy is a statement providing how your website collects, uses, maintains and discloses information from its users. Some websites use google analytics to gather information about the visitor(s) and it is required by the Privacy Act in the US, Adwords, Google, and other countries that you must capture a privacy policy.
It is a legal document binding you and your web visitors, protecting the information he/she leaves on your website. Otherwise, you could be in breach of the Privacy Act and subject to penalties and also may result in blocking or blacklisting your website in many countries.
If your site attracts international visitors, you also need to ensure your privacy policy is GDPR compliant.
Privacy policy usually covers following areas:
- Statement for personal information collected when user visit site and how to manage that data and protect it.
- Statement that website may use any third-party link or contents and no responsibility for any other third-party contents.
- Website uses ads or not and whether ads use cookies or not.
- Cookies policy.
- Compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
- Communications after registration and frequency of communication.
- How users can delete their profiles and/or unsubscribe from periodic communications.
- Your right of updating the privacy policy and the responsibility of users to review it.
- Customer support details.
- Using the website is deemed acceptance by the user on the Privacy Policy.
A link to your privacy policy can be shown in the footer section.
Disclaimer
There is some overlap between disclaimers and terms and conditions. Disclaimers can be part of the terms and conditions and should expressly disclaim any type of legal liability the site owner might experience by the use of their site.
Disclaimers usually covers following areas:
- Disclaiming any lack of accuracy, reliability, suitability and availability of the website and its data.
- Statement that users cannot use your original content without your permission.
- Disclaiming any liability for loss or damage in relation to using the website
- Statement that the site content is informational only and not professional advice and all information’s are time based.
- Disclaiming third party links, ads and contents and statement that such external links are not investigated, monitored, or checked for accuracy, adequacy, validity etc.
- Consent statement that visitors hereby consent to our disclaimer and agree to its terms.
- Statement to aware that when you leave our website, other sites may have different privacy policies and terms that are beyond our control.
A link to your Disclaimers statement usually shown in the footer section.
Terms and Conditions
These are the terms and conditions of use of website. The terms may vary according to the type of site you are creating, but they usually include the following:
- Disclaiming from liabilities resulted from inaccurate data.
- Any misuse committed by any member and how the website will react on such cases and how it will control or review accounts to prevent.
- Right to terminate or suspend any account by website.
- Right to user to discontinue services.
- A site should include a notice of copyright and trademark, if applicable.
- You can establish what state or province and nation your website is operating from.
- It’s recommended to include a statement about events beyond control.
- Your right to amend the agreement and the responsibility of the user to review it.
- The official manners of communication between the website and members.
- Any minimum age restrictions.
The Bottom Line
Online business has its own legal requirements and complications so placing carefully designed legal documents can protect your business from legal claims.
The above summaries may help you in writing suitable legal documents for your website and there are many free and paid template packages on the web that may best fit to your website. It is always recommended to seek professional support from the experts like lawyers on these legal documents before uploading.
Lack of these documents may not only expose you to liabilities, but also may result in blocking or blacklisting your website in many countries.
Note that your website may require additional types of legal documents and declarations such as Cookies statement and many more.
If planning any website please also view our blogging plugins article: https://accountingblogger.com/wordpress-plugins/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Humayun Atif | CMA, CPA, CA (FIN), MS-IT, Oracle Certified, CA Articles from Big4
Atif is passionate about Business, Tech, and the written word. He is the author of the book ‘IFRS Made Easy’. He is a tax and IFRS coach and the founder of accountingblogger.com