Tag: Privacy Statement

As a business owner, you do not want to learn the hard way that you have broken the law.

Online laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes goods or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not protect someone from taking legal action against your business.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for material gain, then you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the US-based BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(Better Business Bureau)

These laws affect several business activities, including:

• Any kind of advertising, like Google AdWords or AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your site does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t let you list your digital products for sale, PayPal could close down your account, Facebook could disapprove your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote various advertising or online merchant networks.

Plus, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.

The purpose of this post is to help make you aware that your website or blog(s) are subject to legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern online business practices, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of external providers whose products or services you may be recommending online, and that there are plugin-based solutions for WordPress that can help your online properties become compliant, such as the plugins listed further below.

Is Your Website Breaking Rules Or Regulations?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice on this website. As stated earlier, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws 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 on your website or blog

Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Are you at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be if any of these situations were to happen:

• A customer suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online workout program.
• The skin care products you sell as an affiliate gives people skin rashes.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you’ll do with it.
• Someone steals content from your website and publishes it on their own site.
• You haven’t advised your site users that you are an affiliate for the product you are recommending that you could get paid an affiliate commission if visitors buy it.
• You don’t spell out the conditions of your return policies.
• Someone claims that the testimonials on your site are all fake and tries to sue you as a result.
• You haven’t disclosed that you have received a free copy of a product you are reviewing.
• Your website publishes adult-related content and you didn’t take appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged persons.

Consider also these actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up personal information to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to provide everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private information.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 2010 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% had infringed at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken 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 with warnings 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 become exposed to the risk of litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdSense Publisher
• Info Product Marketer
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

It’s vitally important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your online business complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Complying With Third-Party Companies Terms And Policies

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

You must let your site visitors know that your website complies with all necessary laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your website, it’s also required by most companies you will engage with.

For example:

Google requires websites to display legal information when using many of their services or features. This includes Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Generating revenue online with your blog with Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense advertising - policy requirements)

Or promoting your services using Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell information-based products through places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will need to add a number of legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale in their networks …

(Policy requirements product vendors selling through ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and disclosures on your site, especially if you plan to sell products and services using testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant

FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As is already the case, this typically prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any type of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by ensuring that your site is compliant with FTC regulations and guidelines.

There are many business resource sites that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See the references and useful 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)

Social Media Applications - Don’t Forget These

If you plan to develop apps for your website, 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 as to whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting services or products on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generating revenue online with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or using Google AdWords pay-per-click ads to drive visitors to your pages, 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 have been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to 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 policies)

Common Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Site

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

Adding the following compliance pages to your website should keep you out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and third-party providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

Additionally, you may want to consider including one or more of the following pages if applicable:

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

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding correct disclosure information to your website is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets users know that you are not receiving compensation for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Lets visitors be aware that you will be compensated if they buy through your affiliate links.
• Sample/Review Copy – Discloses to your visitors that you have received a sample or review copy of the product by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Informs your readers that you were compensated in some form to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets visitors know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Website

Ideally, you will consult your lawyer or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been done, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Website

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

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

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

You can then easily add a link to your pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to all site visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into your sidebar menu (or the footer section of your site) to ensure that users have access to legal information from all of your pages …

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

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

• Configuring Widgets On The Sidebar

Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

More info:

• FindLegalForms.com

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

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Page Templates)

These legal pages were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick 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 Legal Templates include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.

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 pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as previously described.

More info:

• Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

Plugins – Legal Pages

As well as using cut & paste templates, you can simplify things by using a plugin.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress-powered websites and blogs worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal web pages manually, then consider choosing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages instead …

This is not a free plugin, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you loads of headaches.

Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin are:

• Built-in Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages like any page on your website.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
• 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 lock down. When users agree to the legal terms, the page unlocks.
• New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will be added to your navigation menu …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Screen)

You can create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, review websites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal pages)

Select from various pre-configured legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Pre-configured 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 great plugin, go here:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-powered websites and blogs that contains over 20 customizable legal templates for your website …

Go here to learn more:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro)

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. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell).

To learn more, visit this site:

• Legal Suite Pro

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

We want your website to be legally protected!

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

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator lets you easily generate essential 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 make money online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your site complies with government regulations and any terms of service and guidelines of 3rd-party services and products that you may decide to promote or advertise online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed to protect the rights of consumers, you’re breaking the law.

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 providing legal advice on our website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law concerning your specific business.

References And Legal Resources

Below is a useful list of websites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to comply and meet legal obligations:

• Federal Trade Commission 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 – BBB
• 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
• United States Copyright Office

Plus …

• Google Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
• Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
• 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 you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add essential legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.

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