Tag: Privacy Statement

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

Internet laws and regulations were designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person who sells, markets or promotes goods and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not prevent someone from taking legal action against you.

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, you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the (US based) BBB, or Better Business Bureau. 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 implications for several business categories, including:

• Any kind of advertising, including pay-per-click advertising
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your website does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t approve digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will reject web applications, and you won’t be allowed into a number of advertising or online marketing networks.

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

The purpose of this post is to help make you aware that your website are subject to legal requirements, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of other providers whose products or services you may be using on your site, and that there are solutions that can help your online properties become fully compliant, such as the tools listed further below.

Is Your Site Breaking The Law?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on this website. As stated earlier, the purpose of this article is to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations that govern online business practices and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of providers whose services or products you recommend

Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider for a moment what would happen to your business if any of the following incidents were to occur:

• A customer has a heart attack after using your online fitness workout.
• The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives someone who purchases from your link an adverse reaction.
• Your opt-in list provides a statement letting subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t defined what you’ll do with their details.
• Someone copies your content and publishes it on their site.
• There is no statement on your website or blog letting your visitors know that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you may earn a sales commission if they purchase it using your affiliate link.
• You have not spelled out the terms of your return policies.
• Your visitors claim that your testimonials are all fake and decide to sue you because of it.
• You have not disclosed that you were given a free copy in a product review.
• Your website includes adult content and you did not take sufficient measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider too these real case studies 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 (including credit card details to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer copped a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes UIDs. 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 independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, 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 violation of 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 notices or lose access entirely 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 a website owner can easily be exposed to the risks of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA or PPA Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

It’s vitally important to make sure that your digital presence complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Compliance With Third-Party Services Terms And Policies

Complying with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.

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

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires websites to display certain information when using their services. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Making money online with your blog using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense ads policy requirements)

And even promoting your products or services using Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell information-based products via companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you are required to add certain legal pages to your website before your products are approved for sale in their networks …

(Policy requirements for selling digital products through ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to include clear disclaimers and policy statements on your site, especially if you plan to sell products and services online with the aid of product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Site Is Compliant

New 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 has happened in the past, this typically results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting 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 interests by ensuring that your website complies with FTC guidelines.

There are many online resources that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you are planning to create applications for your website users, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others require you to provide access to various legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure as to whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote anything online as an affiliate marketer, or make money 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 all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts terminated.
• If you’ve ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business.

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

Basic Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Website To Ensure Compliance

If you suspect that your web site lacks in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your site will help your business keep out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and 3rd-party service providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):

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

In addition to the above pages, you may want to look into implementing any of the pages listed below:

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

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding the right web content disclosure information is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs visitors that you will not be receiving any kind of payment for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs site users that you will benefit financially if they buy through an affiliate link.
• Sample Or review Copy – Disclosure that informs readers that you have received a sample or review copy of the product you’re reviewing or writing about.
• Sponsored Post – Lets your visitors know that you were compensated in some way to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets your visitors 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 website publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Website

Ideally, you will have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Upload Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Site

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

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

(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)

You can then add a link to your pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu admin area …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

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

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

To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar and footer menu using widgets, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Add And Configure Widgets In The WordPress Sidebar

Using Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can find downloadable attorney-drafted internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or going to websites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms)

To learn more, visit this site:

• Find Legal Forms

Another option is to purchase a package of website legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)

These templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your legal web pages.

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

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

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

More information:

• Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

In addition to using cut & paste legal templates, you can keep things really simple by using a plugin.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress-powered sites worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WP Legal Pages)

If setting up legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using WP Legal Pages instead …

This is not a free plugin, but it’s an affordable and well-supported plugin that will help make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site a lot easier and save you loads of headaches.

Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin:

• Pre-written Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any other page on your website.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when published.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks only when the user agrees to your terms.
• New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

This lets you create, view and edit your legal pages from the admin area …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)

With WPLegal Pages, you can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, niche sites, medical sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal pages)

Choose from several pre-configured legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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

Visit the plugin site to learn more this plugin:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

The Compliance Bar Plugin is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your site …

For more details go here:

• Compliance Bar – WP Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)

Legal Suite Pro 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 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 flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.

More information:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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

We want your website to be safe!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or consider choosing one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal forms, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator quickly generates essential 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 is found to comply with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) required by third-party sites that you may be promoting or recommending online. Your website or blog must comply with a wide range of regulations, many 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on our website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.

Additional Information

Here is a time-saving list of websites we suggest you visit to better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet 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
• Better Business Bureau
• 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
• United States Copyright Office

Plus …

• Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
• Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
• 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 why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website using inexpensive solutions.

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