The first two sections of this document help explain what website policies are and how they help you comply with laws and also protect you by limiting your liability. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice.
We believe this to be so important to your business that we ask all of our clients to sign the waiver below, acknowledging that we have provided you with this information.
What’s on this page:
A Privacy Policy helps website owners comply with privacy laws by providing specific disclosure requirements such as how their website collects, uses, and discloses personal information.
Today’s modern websites are built to provide a great user experience and motivate prospective customers to reach out and inquire about what you have to offer. This is done through the use of tools such as contact forms, website analytics, and more.
Contact forms ask users to submit their ‘name’ and ‘email’, which are examples of personal information. When a website uses analytics, it collects each visitor’s IP address and shares that personal information with third party data analytics providers. These are just a few examples of the many ways websites collect and share personal information.
Privacy laws exist to protect the personal information of individuals online. Privacy laws can start applying as soon as a website asks for a name and an email on a contact form. The Australian Privacy Act, for example, has imposed strict requirements on certain website operators to have a Privacy Policy that contains very specific disclosures.
Do you know if you need to comply with Australia’s privacy law? Do you receive website traffic outside of Australia which may require you to comply with additional privacy laws? Do you have a strategy to keep your Privacy Policy up to date with new disclosures when new privacy laws are passed or existing privacy laws are amended? These are important questions to ask when running a modern-day website.
For years we have installed Google Analytics on all of our customer websites. It’s massively powerful and it’s free. Because of it’s ubiquity we now need to assess if it’s the right solution.
A website utilising Google Analytics is required by Google to have a Privacy Policy. You can find this requirement within section 7 of Google’s Terms of Service: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/us/
Here’s the ‘but’….
Yep, you heard this right. Google Analytics is now illegal in Europe, because the data of the visitor is transferred to the USA directly violating a ruling by an Austrian court. With GDPR fines being more rigorously enforced this is an area you cannot afford to ignore when dealing with EU residents.
Because options for privacy first analytics tracking are not free, we have some options available as part of our Care Plans.
A Terms of Service Agreement limits the liability of businesses by stating the rules to using the website.
Example disclosures
When a website offers links to third party websites, a Terms of Service can help explain to users that the business is not responsible if a user clicks those links. So, if a third party link brings a user to a hacked website, the Terms of Service disclosure can help prevent you from being sued.
A Terms of Service agreement can also provide a disclosure where people can contact you if they believe that you have infringed on their intellectual property. For example, if you accidentally use an image that you do not have the permission to use, this disclosure can help reduce the likelihood of a copyright infringement lawsuit.
There are many additional disclosures that a Terms of Service can make, but these two are the most popular and are easy ways to protect your website and your business.
If you have the budget, we recommend hiring a lawyer that focuses on privacy law to write your website policies, monitor privacy laws, and update your policies when the laws change or when new laws go into effect.
If you do not have the budget to hire a privacy lawyer for your website policies, we recommend using Termageddon.
Termageddon is a comprehensive website policies generator and will update your website policies when privacy laws change or new laws go into effect, helping you stay compliant and avoid privacy related fines and lawsuits, and they do it at a fraction of the cost of a lawyer. Although Termageddon is a technology company (not a legal services provider), it was founded by a privacy and contracts lawyer and the tool has been recognized as a trusted tech vendor by the largest international privacy organization in the world (iapp.org).
If Termageddon sounds like a good solution for your business, the license costs $150/yr + GST, and we are charging a one-time setup fee of $149 + GST to create the policy pages, insert/test the code and ensure your policies stay up to date with changes to the law. You will have full access to your policies with your own Termageddon account, and you will be notified via email when new laws go into effect and when your policies are being updated or when new disclosures require additional questions that need to be answered.
Please review and sign the Website Policies Waiver below, confirming that you have received our notice on the legal requirements of Privacy Policies and the additional protections of Terms of Service agreements.
By signing this waiver, you acknowledge that we informed you that applicable (province, national, or international) law may require your website to have a Privacy Policy with specific disclosures. We are not lawyers, we do not provide Privacy Policies as a service, and we are not responsible for your business complying with any applicable privacy laws.
We have a relationship with a third-party Privacy Policy and Terms of Service generator called Termageddon and we are able to assist you with linking those policies to your website. You are under no obligation to utilize Termageddon, but it is the service that we use on our own website, have a relationship with (we receive a commission fee or can resell their license to you if you decide to purchase) and recommend. Please note, should you choose to use Termageddon’s services, your relationship will be directly with them, governed solely by their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
You may read more about this service on our Privacy Policy Generator page.