Is your website legally compliant? Do you know if you are breaking the law, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose products or services you are doing business with?
As the internet continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s absolutely essential that you try to stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your website remains compliant, especially if having an online presence plays an important role in your overall business strategy.
Recent 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 will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the Better Business Bureau, also referred to as the BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Better Business Bureau)
The new laws has ramifications for several business categories, including:
- Any form of advertising, including Google AdWords or AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your site does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, 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 allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook could suspend web applications, and you won’t be allowed to participate in a range of advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that your site(s) may be required to comply with certain legalities, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of third-party providers whose services or products you may be offering online, and that there are solutions for WordPress that can help your website become fully compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.
Does Your Site Comply With The Law?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice in this article. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all laws concerning your specific business.
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Consider for one moment what would happen to your business if the scenarios below were to take place:
- A user has a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness workout.
- The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- You’ve told subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you’ll do with their personal details.
- Someone copies your content and publishes it on their own site.
- There is no statement on your site letting your site visitors know that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you will earn a sales commission if visitors buy it.
- You don’t spell out the terms of your refund and return policies.
- Online visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are misleading and decide to sue you because of it.
- You have not disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your site contains adult-related information and you didn’t take appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged children.
Consider also the real case studies of costly compliance breaches described:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information (including credit card details to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to issue everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
- A social networking app developer was slapped with a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape Users IDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars 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% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of 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 entirely to the Google program whose policies with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming targeted for non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Product Marketer
- AdWords Advertiser
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Adult Content Publisher
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
It’s imperative to ensure that your website stays legally compliant.
Complying With Third-Party Companies
Complying with third-party services terms and policies is important.
You must let your site visitors know that your website complies with laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you engage with online.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Google requires websites to display certain information when using many of their products. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Making money online with your blogs with Google AdSense online advertising …
(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products via Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell information-based products through companies such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add a number of legal pages before your products are approved for selling via their networks …
(Policy requirements for selling products through ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you display clear disclaimers and disclosures on your site, especially when using testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many business are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this will most likely prompt the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you plan to do any kind of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by ensuring that your site is compliant with all FTC guidelines.
Various online business resources provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references to some of these at the end of this article …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)
Don’t Forget Social Media Apps
If you are planning to create social networking applications that integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with information about your legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting anything online as an affiliate marketer, or monetize your pages 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 need to provide on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you’ve been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies)
Common Legal Pages To Include In Your Site To Ensure Compliance
If your web site lacks in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website should help your business keep out of trouble with most consumer protection authorities and third-party service providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above pages, you may want to look into adding one or more of these pages where applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides information about health or medical areas)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Use Of Media (e.g. if you provide users with access to download media on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
It’s important to add correct disclosures to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – Lets your visitors be aware that you will not receive any kind of compensation for writing the article.
- Affiliate Links – Lets users know that you may receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and purchase through one of your affiliate links.
- Review/Sample Copy – Lets site users know that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets site users be aware that you were compensated in some way to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors 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 Website
Ideally, you should have a lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.
Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend creating a legal folder on your web server and uploading your legal pages to this directory via FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)
You can then add links to your legal pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to all visitors. You can insert these into your sidebar menu (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) so that users can access the information from every page …
(It’s important to display legal pages to users on all of your site’s pages)
If you need help displaying links to pages on your sidebar menu, see this tutorial:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can find attorney-drafted downloadable forms and agreements by searching online, or going to websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
Go here for more details:
Another option is to purchase a package of cut & paste legal templates designed by attorney Scott Talbert …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)
These templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with simple search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your web pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates Federal Trade Commission regulations brought into effect in March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- ToS & Conditions of Use: includes inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.
You can either create a new page for each legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload these to your web server as described earlier.
For more information, go here:
WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages
In addition to using templates, you can keep things very simple using plugins.
Here are some legal WordPress plugins worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)
If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider using a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages …
This plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site much easier and save you time.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- 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 editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages like any page on your website.
- Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other WP page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks only when users agree to your terms.
- New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear in your dashboard menu …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)
This lets you view, create and edit your legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites with products, niche websites, medical sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages – Page Type)
You can also select from several pre-configured legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal 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
To learn more this WordPress plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over 20 customizable legal templates for your web presence …
More info:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)
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 Service
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro – 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.
For more details, go here:
If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some kind of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional legal services.
We want your site to be protected!
Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (it’s FREE!), or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-written legal page templates, or plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software lets you quickly generate necessary legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you are making money online, you need to make sure that your website complies with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business practices online and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines required by third-party products and services that you may decide to promote or sell online. Your digital presence must comply with various regulations, many of which you may not be aware of.
Being non-compliant 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice here. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.
Resources
Below is a time-saving list of websites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your site to stay compliant and meet legal requirements and guidelines:
- Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- Better Business Bureau – 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
- US 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
- AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
- ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
- Facebook Platform Policies
We hope this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your website using simple solutions.
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