Tag: Website Legal Compliance

If you plan to grow a successful business online, the last thing you want to do is to learn the hard way that you have broken the law.

As the digital realm continues growing at breakneck speed and the rules keep changing, it’s vital to stay on top of what’s happening and to make sure that your website or blog remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if having a digital presence is important in the success of your overall business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your site for material gain, then you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the (US based) 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.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – Better Business Bureau)

These laws has consequences for various business activities, including:

• Any kind of advertising, e.g. PPC advertising
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creators
• Blogging
• etc.

If you do not include certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook could suspend your applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote various advertising and online marketing networks.

In addition, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.

The purpose of this post is to help make you aware that your website are required to comply with legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern online business practices, the importance of complying with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be endorsing online, and that there are plugin-based solutions for WordPress that can help your sites become compliant, such as the plugins listed further below.

Does Your Website Comply With The Law?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law wherever you do business.

The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

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

• A person suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care products you promote as an affiliate gives a number of users an adverse reaction.
• You’ve told subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t informed them exactly what you plan to do with their details.
• Someone copies your content and puts it up on their own site.
• There is no statement on your site letting your site visitors know that you are promoting a product as an affiliate and will earn a sales commission if they end up buying using your link.
• You don’t spell out the conditions of your return policies.
• A visitor claims that your testimonials are fake and tries to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose that you received a free copy in a product review.
• Your site includes adult content and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to keep underage children from accessing it.

Consider too these documented examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information (including credit card information to complete an offer they were promoting. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer copped 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 dollars in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking at least 2 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 cautions or lose access to the Google program with the violation, 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 risk of litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Niche Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

It’s imperative to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your digital presence remains fully compliant with the law.

Complying With 3rd-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.

Leading online companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the need of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.

You are expected to let your site visitors know that your business complies with laws and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your website, it’s also required by most companies you will engage with online.

For example:

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

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Earning revenue with your online properties using Google AdSense online advertising …

(Google AdSense display advertising - policy requirements)

And even promoting your services or products through Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell digital products through merchants such as 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 …

(Policy requirements for selling via ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you display clear disclaimers and disclosures on your website, especially if you plan to use testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines 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 sites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this will most likely prompt the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any type of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business interests by ensuring that your site complies with all FTC guidelines.

There are many sites that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. See the references and resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(You must word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you plan to develop social networking applications that will integrate with your website, you will also be required to provide sites like Facebook, Twitter, 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 organizations like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote products or services on your site via affiliate marketing, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, 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 are required to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
• If you’ve been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies)

What Compliance Information Does Your Website Need To Be Legally Compliant?

If your website or blog falls short in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following compliance pages to your website will keep your business out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and third-party service providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues):

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

Additionally, you may want to look into adding any of these compliance pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides health or medical information)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Audio/Video Terms (e.g. if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

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

• No Material Connection – Lets users know that you’re not being paid for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Informs your visitors that you may be compensated if they buy through your affiliate link.
• Sample/Review Copy – Discloses to readers that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Lets visitors be aware that you have been compensated in some form to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors 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.

Adding Legal Content To Your Website

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

Uploading Legal Pages Manually

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

We recommend creating a legal directory in your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory via FTP …

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

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

(WordPress Menu)

Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to all visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to the sidebar (or place them in the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors have access to the information from every web page …

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

For a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer in WordPress using widgets, see this tutorial:

• How To Add Widgets To Your WordPress Sidebar Area

Templates

You can easily find attorney-drafted downloadable forms and agreements by searching online, or going to sites like the ones shown below:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

More information:

• FindLegalForms.com

Another option is to download a package of legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

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

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new FTC regulations that came into effect in March 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new WordPress 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 these to your web server as previously described.

Visit this website to learn more:

• Website Legal Pages

Legal Pages – Plugins

As well as using templates, another option for adding legal pages to your website is to use plugins.

Here are some great WordPress plugins you should check out:

WP Legal Pages

(WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to spend time creating legal pages manually, then consider installing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages …

WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you a great deal of time and effort.

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

• Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any 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. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When users agree to your legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• Additional Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will appear in your navigation section …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Screen)

You can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, niche websites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Create different legal pages)

You can also select from various pre-configured legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – 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

Visit this site to learn more about this great plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

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

More info:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro)

Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress 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 Use
• 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 powered 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 this plugin on all of your sites.

Go here for more info:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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

We want your business to be protected!

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

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to easily generate necessary 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 engage in any form of commercial activity online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your website complies with regulatory agencies and any terms of service and guidelines of 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or offering online. Your website or blog must comply with various laws and regulatory guidelines, many of which you may not even 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, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice on this website. 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 better understand what your site may require to comply and meet its legal obligations:

• 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 – 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

Plus …

• 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 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 presented above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your site.

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