One of the most frequent questions we get is “I’m building a website. Is there anything I need to do in order to protect myself? Of course, the answer will depend on the type of website you are currently working on (professional services, entertainment, e-commerce, etc.), but as a rule of thumb, there are 2 documents you absolutely should be looking into: terms and conditions and a privacy policy.
Of course, please take this as legal information and not legal advice. If you have any questions regarding essential documents for your website, send us an email at info@artylaw.ca.
Terms and conditions
Terms and conditions set the ground rules for your website, which your users need to agree to and abide by if they want to use your website. They include a variety of information and are particularly useful to limit your liability and to control potential abuse. Terms and conditions usually cover intellectual property, the return and refund policy (if applicable), different disclaimers, reasons for terminating an account, and more. They are also used to determining the governing law in case of a dispute. This is particularly relevant as the last thing you want to be arguing about once a conflict arises is the applicable law. Think of terms and conditions as the contract between you and your website users.
Privacy policy
A privacy policy is a document that discloses the kind of personal information you gather about your website visitors and how that data is used and disclosed by you and the third-parties you may be working with. It is required by law for businesses that collect personal information from users (which is the case for most companies) and should be taken quite seriously. In some cases, having a privacy policy is also required by some third-party apps such as Google Analytics or Amazon’s associates program.
Personal data is any information that allows you to identify an individual. This can include a user’s age, ethnicity, financial transactions (this is particularly relevant if you sell products or services directly on your website), etc.
While very few of us take the time to read terms and conditions or privacy policies, these two documents should not be dismissed. Because every business is different, terms and conditions and privacy policies will be vary from one website to another. It is therefore essential to use documents that are tailored to your needs rather than standard ones found on the Internet.
If you need some advice regarding terms and conditions and privacy policies or would like to get some drafted or reviewed, do not hesitate to send us an email at info@artylaw.ca or click the link below to schedule a consultation.
