Author: WP Compendium

Is your website legal? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose services or products you are doing business with?

As the digital economy continues to grow at such a fast pace and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s absolutely vital to stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your website remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if having a digital presence plays a significant part in your overall business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau, also known as BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

The introduction of these new laws affect various business categories, including:

• Any form of advertising, like contextual advertising
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

Without legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo will not approve your digital products for sale, PayPal may suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could reject your web applications, and you won’t be allowed into most advertising and online merchant networks.

You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.

The purpose of this guide is to help make you aware that your website(s) may be subject to certain legal requirements according to laws that govern online businesses, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be selling on your website, and that there are solutions that can help your websites become compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.

Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice in this article. Do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all laws wherever you do business.

Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant

Consider for a minute what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:

• A person has a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care products you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link an adverse reaction.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t spelled out exactly what you plan to do with it.
• Someone copies your content and puts it up on their website.
• There is no statement on your website telling your site users that you are promoting a product as an affiliate and may derive an affiliate commission if visitors buy it.
• You have not spelled out the conditions of your refund or return policies.
• Your visitors claim that your testimonials are all fake and decide to sue you.
• You have not disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your site publishes adult-related content and you didn’t take appropriate measures to keep underage children from accessing it.

Consider now the following real examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, they’re now required to provide a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
• A social networking app developer copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape Users IDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had infringed at least 3 of Google’s policies. Although the website owners could technically be sued by Google, more than likely what could happen, is that they would be issued notices or lose access to the Google program they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how you could easily become exposed to the risks of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdSense Publisher
• Info Product Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

it’s important to make sure that your website is legally compliant.

Complying With 3rd-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.

Leading online companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.

You are obligated to let your site visitors know that your business complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you interact with online.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires you to display certain information when using many of their products and service. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Earning revenue with your WordPress blog with Google AdSense advertising …

(Google AdSense policy requirements)

Or promoting your business via Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell products online using merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add various legal pages to your website before your products can be approved for selling via their network …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you display clear disclaimers and disclosures on your website, especially when using testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site Is Compliant

FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As is already the case, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute site owners for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by making sure that your website is compliant with all FTC regulations and guidelines.

There are many online business resources that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. We provide references to some of these at the end of this article …

(It’s important to word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Don’t Forget Social Media Applications

If you are planning to create social networking applications that integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with information about various legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure as to whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything on your site via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue online with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you’ve ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

What Compliance Pages Does Your Website Need To Be Covered Against Legal Compliance Issues?

If you suspect that your website or blog falls short in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following compliance pages to your website will help keep your business out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and external providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):

• About Us Page
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

In addition to the above pages, you may want to look into implementing one or more of these pages:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides general money-making advice)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Video/Audio Terms (e.g. if you allow users to download media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add correct disclosure information to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets visitors know that you are not receiving any form of compensation for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs users that you may be compensated if they act on your recommendation and buy through one of your affiliate links.
• Review Or Sample Copy – Explains to site users that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service you’re writing about.
• Sponsored Post – Informs your visitors that you have been compensated in some form to write the article.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets users know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Content To Your Site

Ideally, you should consult your lawyer and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Upload Legal Pages Manually To Your Website

If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload them for you.

We recommend adding a legal directory to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. using FTP) …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages via FTP)

You can then easily add a link to these pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …

(WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Website

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and display clearly to all visitors. You can add these to your sidebar (or place them in the footer of your website or blog) so that visitors can access legal information from all your pages …

(It’s important to display links to your legal information to users on all of your website’s pages)

We have created a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your WordPress sidebar using widgets here:

• How To Add And Configure Widgets In WordPress

Legal Templates

You can easily find downloadable attorney-prepared website forms and agreements by searching online, or going to sites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

For more details, go here:

• Find Legal Forms

Alternatively, you can purchase a set of cut and paste legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)

Cut & Paste website templates were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your legal pages.

The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Page Templates include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines that came into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google, DART, etc.
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new page on your website for each legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as described previously.

Visit this website to learn more:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins

In addition to using templates, you can simplify things using a plugin.

Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages

(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)

If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider using WP Legal Pages instead …

WP Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you time.

Some of the benefits of using the WP Legal Pages are:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages like any WordPress page.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When the user agrees to the legal terms, the page unlocks.
• Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will display inside your dashboard section …

(WP Legal Pages – Menu)

This allows you to view, create and edit legal pages from the admin area …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Screen)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, affiliate sites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Type of Site menu)

You can also select from various pre-written legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Pre-configured Templates)

Legal page templates include:

• Terms of Use (Users are forced to agree to Terms and Conditions before using site)
• Linking Policy
• External Links Policy
• Terms and Conditions
• Refund Policy
• Affiliate Disclosure
• Privacy Policy
• Affiliate Agreement
• Facebook Privacy Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• Antispam Policy
• DoubleClick DART Cookies Policy
• Disclaimer Template
• FTC Disclosure Statement Template
• Medical Disclaimer Template
• Testimonials Disclosure – As per FTC guidelines
• Amazon Affiliate Disclosure Template
• DMCA Policy Template
• California Privacy Rights Policy Template
• Digital Goods Refund Policy Template
• COPPA – Children’s Online Privacy Policy Template
• Blog Comments Policy Template
• Newsletter Subscription Policy and Disclaimer Template
• FTC Disclaimer Widget

Go here to learn more about using this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

total website compliance and disclaimer solution …

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin lets you easily install professionally-written legal pages such as:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• Social Media Disclosure
• Medical Disclaimer
• Terms of Use
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin – Professionally-written legal forms)

Additionally:

• Drag & Drop FTC Disclaimer Widget: Add an FTC Disclaimer to any WordPress sidebar or widget area.
• Customizable EU Cookie Compliance Bar: Display an EU cookie compliance bar if you are getting traffic from the EU and your sites use cookies.

With just one-click you can install almost all of the legal pages your site needs and these professionally written legal pages can be created in your theme and/or as a standalone page outside of your theme.

The plugin developers secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress powered site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

Visit this website to learn more:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring lawyers to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford a lawyer.

We want your website to be legally protected!

Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal page templates, or a plugin as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to easily generate basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you make money online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your website is compliant with all government legal requirements and any terms of service and guidelines required by 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or use online. Your website must comply with various regulations, some of which you may not be aware of.

Non-compliance puts you at risk of suffering both financial losses and the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements in your country or region.

Resources

Below is a time-saving list of websites we recommend you visit to better understand what may be required of your website to stay compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program
• Dot Com Disclosures: Information About Online Advertising
• Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act
• CAN-SPAM Act Guide
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule
• FTC Regulatory Review Web Page
• FTC Rules and Guides Currently Under Review
• The Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force – Commercial Data Privacy and Innovation in the Internet Economy: A Dynamic Policy Framework
• FTC Staff Report: Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising
• FTC Final Guides Governing Endorsements and Testimonials
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• US Copyright Office

And …

• Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
• Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
• Google AdSense Help – Required Content
• Google AdWords – Information Collection And Use
• Google AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
• ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
• Facebook Platform Policies

We hope you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add essential legal pages to your site using simple legal resources and WordPress plugins.

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