Protect Your Website with These Important Elements
Four documents that should be on every website
There’s a lot to think about when you’re building a website — design, functionality, content, marketing, and more. There are a few elements your web developer might not think of, but your lawyer will.
Whatever your goals are for your website, your site should include these four documents:
1. Privacy policy. If you collect information from your site’s visitors — even if it’s just names and email addresses for your email list — you should have a policy in place to safeguard that data and let your users know what that policy is.
2. Terms of use. Your terms of use statement tells users what they can and can’t do on your site and how you will resolve disputes.
3. Disclaimers. You can’t disclaim all liability, but if you’re selling a product or service that has a warranty associated with it, or if you offer advice or even links to other sites, include appropriate and clearly-stated disclaimers on your website.
4. Copyright policy. In addition to a copyright notice, you should have a copyright policy outlining how users may share the information on your site. If you allow others to post information on your site, including comments on your blog and information on discussion boards, your copyright policy should explain what may and may not be shared and how you will address copyright infringement.
The content of each of these documents will vary depending on your type of business. So how do you create them?
One way is to hire a lawyer, but that’s not economically feasible for many small business owners. If you can’t afford to pay an attorney to write these documents, draft them yourself (you can find plenty of templates online) and have your lawyer review them before you post them.
Do as you say
It’s not enough to simply have these documents on your site — you must follow and enforce them.
Did you promise not to share your mailing list? Then don’t.
Did your terms of use include a notice that profanity may not be included in comments by users? Then monitor those comments and edit or delete inappropriate content.
If you are using a template or language that you found on another site, be sure you understand what it says and that you are actually doing what the document claims.
Remember, these are your policies. You’re making a promise that this is how you operate and this is what you’ll do. If you violate your own policy, you could be held responsible.
This is just a sample of the great information Suzanne D. Meehle shared in the Conversations ebook: Is Your Website Legal? How To Be Sure Your Website Won’t Get You Sued, Shut Down or in Other Trouble.
An earlier version of this article was originally published on my site at CreateTeachInspire.com. You can reach me there or email me at [email protected].
You might also enjoy:
Here’s a little more about me:
I’d love to connect with you! May I send a brief inspirational message every Saturday morning? Visit CreateTeachInspire.com/saturday to receive messages like these:
