Termageddon Website Policy Documents

The Importance of Website Policies

The first part of this document helps explain what website policies are and how they help you comply with laws and also protect you by limiting your liability. We are not solicitors and this is not legal advice. We do, however, ask all of our clients to fill in the form at the bottom of this waiver, acknowledging that we have provided you with this information.

What is a Privacy Policy

A Privacy Policy helps website owners comply with privacy laws by providing specific disclosure requirements such as how their website collects, uses, and discloses personal data.

A comprehensive Privacy Policy is required to comply with privacy laws

Today’s modern websites are built to provide a great user experience and motivate prospective customers to reach out and inquire about what you have to offer. This is done through the use of tools such as contact forms, website analytics, and more.

Contact forms ask users to submit their ‘name’ and ‘email’, which are examples of personal data. When a website uses analytics, it collects each visitor’s IP address and shares that personal data with third party data analytics providers. These are just a few examples of the many ways websites collect and share personal data.

The collection of personal data is regulated under multiple privacy laws. For example, a privacy law is in place to protect the personal data of UK residents with fines up to €20 million (about £18 million) or 4% of annual global turnover, whichever is greater. This privacy law (the UK Data Protection Act) requires websites to provide a Privacy Policy with specific disclosures. Privacy laws protect citizens of a specific country (or state or province), and can apply to businesses regardless of their location.

On top of that, new privacy laws are being proposed throughout the world, with several countries proposing multiple laws to protect their citizens. Due to the ever-changing nature of privacy laws, we recommend that you not only have a comprehensive Privacy Policy in place but that you also develop a strategy to keep your policy up to date when these laws are amended or when new laws are implemented.

Google requires your website to have a Privacy Policy

A website utilizing Google Analytics is required by Google to have a Privacy Policy. You can find this requirement within section 7 of Google’s Terms of Service: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/us/

What is a Terms of Service Agreement

A Terms of Service Agreement limits the liability of businesses by stating the rules to using the website.

When a website offers links to third party websites, a Terms of Service can help explain to users that the business is not responsible if a user clicks those links. So, if a third party link brings a user to a hacked website, the Terms of Service disclosure can help prevent you from being sued.

A Terms of Service agreement can also help you comply with consumer protection laws and reduce the likelihood of investigation by the authorities for violation of these laws. The UK has a stringent consumer protection law that requires specific disclosures to be made. Failing to make these disclosures could open you up to liability that could have been avoided with a comprehensive Terms of Service agreement.

There are many additional disclosures that a Terms of Service can make, but these two are the most popular and are easy ways to protect your website and your business.

How to get a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for your website

Urban Haze is a Certified Termageddon Agency Partner

If you have the budget, we recommend hiring a solicitor that focuses on privacy law to write your website policies, monitor privacy laws, and update your policies when the laws change or when new laws go into effect. If you do not have the budget to hire a privacy solicitor for your website policies, we recommend using Termageddon.

Termageddon is a comprehensive website policies generator and will update your website policies when privacy laws change or new laws go into effect, helping you stay compliant and avoid privacy related fines and lawsuits, and they do it at a fraction of the cost of a solicitor. Although Termageddon is a technology company (not a legal services provider), it was founded by a privacy and contracts solicitor and the tool has been recognized as a trusted tech vendor by the largest international privacy organization in the world (iapp.org).

If Termageddon sounds like a good solution for your business, the license costs £75/year, and we are charging a one-time setup fee of £100 to create the policy pages, insert/test the code and ensure your policies stay up to date with changes to the law (these prices include VAT). You will have full access to your policies with your own Termageddon account, and you will be notified via email when new laws go into effect and when your policies are being updated or when new disclosures require additional questions that need to be answered.

Please review and sign the Website Policies Waiver below, confirming that you have received our notice on the legal requirements of Privacy Policies and the additional protections of Terms of Service agreements.