Tag: Privacy Statement

One of the worst predicaments a business owner can find themselves in is to break the law.

Online laws, regulations, and guidelines were designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes goods or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for material gain, you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the (US based) BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Better Business Bureau Website)

The introduction of these laws has legal ramifications for various business categories, including:

• Any type of advertising, e.g. contextual ads
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

Without certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook could suspend your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to participate in many advertising or affiliate marketing networks.

If your digital presence is not in compliance, you could also face a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

In this article, we discuss the importance of having a legally compliant website and present simple and cost-effective resources and solutions that will help make your site compliant in minutes.

Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice about your website or business. As stated earlier, the purpose of this article is only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations governing business online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of 3rd-party companies whose products or services you promote on your website

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:

• Someone has a heart attack after using your online workout program.
• The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users allergic reactions.
• Your opt-in list provides a statement informing prospective subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not defined what you will do with their details.
• Someone steals your content and puts it up on their own website.
• There is no statement on your site letting visitors know that you are marketing a product as an affiliate that you could get paid a commission if they purchase it.
• You haven’t spelled out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
• Someone claims that your testimonials are misleading and decides to sue you.
• You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your website contains adult-related content and you did not take sufficient measures to keep underaged children from accessing it.

Consider now these actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information (including credit card info to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, he is 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 received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ 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 took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were breaking at least three 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 with warnings or lose access to the Google program whose policies with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk being a target of litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdWords User
• Niche Marketer
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

You need to make sure that your digital presence stays legally compliant.

Compliance With Third-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.

All the big online companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the need of observing the terms and policies of service providers.

You must let your site users know that your business complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you do business with.

For example:

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

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Earning revenue online with your site using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)

And even promoting your products or services through Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell products online using merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will be required to add legal pages before your products are approved for sale …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank product vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site Is Compliant

FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites 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 business 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 by ensuring that your website complies with FTC regulations.

Various sites provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. See the additional references and resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you are planning to create applications that integrate with your website, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others require you to provide access to 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 websites like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting services or products on your site via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or use Google AdWords pay-per-click ads to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.

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

What Compliance Information Pages Do You Need To Add To Your Site To Be Legally Compliant?

If you suspect that your web site is falling short in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following legal pages to your site will help your site stay out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and external providers, and even help to avoid potential legal issues):

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

In addition to the above, you may want to consider adding any of these pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides health or medical content)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Media Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the correct type of web content disclosure is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets your visitors be aware that you will not receive any type of payment for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Lets readers be aware that you may benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and purchase through an affiliate link.
• Review/Sample Copy – Discloses to visitors that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service.
• Sponsored Post – Lets users know that you were compensated in some way to write the article.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets readers 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 Pages To Your Website

Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Upload Legal Pages To Your Site

If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend adding a legals folder to your server and uploading your legal pages to this directory via FTP …

(Upload legal pages to your server via FTP)

You can then add links to your legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu administration …

(WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Pages On Your Site

Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can add these to your WordPress sidebar (or the footer section of your website) so that users can access the information from every page …

(Display legal pages to visitors on all of your site’s pages)

We have created a detailed tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar here:

• Adding Widgets To The Sidebar Navigation Menu

Use Ready-Made Legal Templates

You can find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or going to websites like the ones listed below:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-prepared legal forms)

For more information, go here:

• FindLegalForms.com

Another option is to download a set of cut and paste legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages)

Cut & Paste website legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a simple quick search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your legal web pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use: with 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 added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload these to your server as described previously.

More information:

• Scott Talbert’s Legal Form Templates

Legal Page Plugins

As well as using legal templates, another option is to use WordPress plugins.

Here are some legal plugins for WordPress-powered websites and blogs you may be interested in using:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider choosing WP Legal Pages …

This plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your website a lot easier and save you time.

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

• Pre-written Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the legal pages you will need in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like every other WordPress page.
• Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information will 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 any page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When users agree to the legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will display inside your navigation menu …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Screen)

You can create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, affiliate/review sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page type menu)

Choose from several pre-written legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Built-In 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 about using this powerful plugin, visit the plugin website:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar Plugin is a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your digital business …

For more details go here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

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 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.

More info:

• Legal Suite Pro

If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire a lawyer.

We want your website to be safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (it’s FREE!), or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal forms, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator lets you quickly generate basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your site is compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines of 3rd-party services and products that you may be promoting or recommending online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed to protect consumer rights, you’re breaking the law.

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 cannot offer legal advice. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.

References And Legal Resources

Below is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your website may require to stay compliant and meet legal obligations:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• 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

See Also …

• 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 this article has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress site using simple legal resources and solutions.

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