Tag: Privacy Statement

Is your website compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose products or services you promote or use?

As the digital era continues growing at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s vitally important that you stay informed about what’s happening and make sure that your site remains legal, especially if having an online presence plays a significant role in your overall business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for commercial gain, you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau (BBB). Search online for information about “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 has consequences for several business categories, including:

• Any type of advertising, like PPC advertising
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creators
• Blogging
• etc.

Without certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will suspend web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote various advertising and affiliate merchant networks.

If you are not compliant, you could end up facing a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

This guide explains why it’s important to have a compliant website and describes simple methods that will make your site compliant.

Is Your Site Breaking Rules Or Regulations?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice on this website. As previously stated, the aim of this article is to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with the laws governing business practices online and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you offer on your website or blog

Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important

Consider for one minute what could happen to your business if any of the scenarios below were to happen:

• A customer suffers a cardiac arrest 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 letting subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not defined what you’ll do with their personal details.
• Someone copies content from your website and publishes it on their own site.
• You have not divulged to your site visitors that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you will get paid financial benefits if they buy it.
• You don’t spell out the conditions of your refund policies.
• Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are fake and decide to sue you because of it.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your site contains adult information and you did not take appropriate measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider now the real case studies of costly compliance breaches below:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up personal information (including credit card details to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to issue a copy of the judgement to everyone he does business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
• A social networking app developer was slapped with a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details 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, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 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 2 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 with warnings or lose access entirely to the Google program whose policies they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming a target of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdWords User
• Info Product Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

It’s imperative to ensure that your website complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Complying With 3rd-Party Services

Complying with third-party services terms and policies is important.

You are obligated to let your site visitors know that your website complies with all necessary legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will engage with online.

For example:

Google requires you to display certain information when using their services or product features. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Monetizing your blog with Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)

And even promoting your services or products using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell information-based products via merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will be required to add a number of legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale in their marketplace …

(Policy requirements for vendors using ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires that you include clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially if you plan to sell or promote products with the aid of product testimonials or endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many sites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically ends up with 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 selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business interests by ensuring that your site complies with all FTC regulations and guidelines.

Many online resources provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See the additional references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(You must word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance

If you plan to develop social networking applications for your website, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with access to various legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are not sure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting products or services on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to include on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
• If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.

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

Essential Legal Pages To Add To Your Site

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

At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your website should help your website keep out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and external providers, and avoid potential legal issues):

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

As well as the above pages, you may want to consider implementing any of the pages listed below where applicable:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website provides general advice about health or medical areas)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Use Of Media (if you provide users with access to downloadable media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add the right disclosure information to your website. For example:

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

How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

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

Upload Legal Pages Manually

If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload them for you.

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

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

You can then easily add links to these pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu administration …

(WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to all visitors. You can add these to the sidebar (or the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors will be able to access legal information from every web page …

(It’s important to display links to legal pages on all of your site’s pages)

To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar and footer in WordPress, see this tutorial:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In Your Website

Use Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com – Legal forms)

More information:

• FindLegalForms.com

Another option is to purchase a package of legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)

These legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a quick search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new Federal Trade Commission guidelines brought into effect in March 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new page for every 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 described previously.

For more information, go here:

• Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates

Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins

In addition to using templates, another option is to use a plugin.

Here are some legal plugins for WordPress users that you should check out:

WordPress Legal Pages

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

If manually creating legal pages for your site seems too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing WordPress Legal Pages …

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

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

• Built-in 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 a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any WordPress page.
• 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 WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When users agree to your 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 menu item will display inside your main dashboard menu …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, niche websites, medical sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Type of Site dropdown menu)

Choose from various built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages – 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

Visit the plugin site to learn more this plugin:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Compliance Bar is a complete compliance and disclaimer solution for your website …

More info:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)

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 For WordPress – 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 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 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 out of your budget, consider implementing some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance from a solicitor.

We want your website to be legally safe!

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

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

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

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As stated earlier, if you make money online, it’s important that your website stays compliant with all laws and regulations and any guidelines and terms of service provided by third-party sites that you may decide to promote or endorse online. Your internet presence must comply with a wide range of laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may not even 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 cannot provide legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with the law concerning your specific business.

References And Legal Resources

Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your site to comply and meet legal obligations:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• Federal Trade Commission 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
• US Patent and Trademark Office
• US 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
• Google AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
• ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
• Facebook Platform Policies

Hopefully, 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 legal pages to your WordPress site using simple solutions.

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