Happy New Year!
Now, let’s get to work.
It’s 2020—a new year, a new decade, and let me guess: you have the same business or you are starting a new one. (I won’t claim to be a genius… yet.) If you operate in the online sphere, which most of us do, it might be the case that you need a Terms of Service (“Terms of Use”—tomato, toe-ma-toe) and/or a Privacy Policy. Perhaps, you have one or both of these documents already on your website but you grabbed them from a random but similar business’s website and tweaked them somewhat (or not at all). You might be in the camp of knowing that California’s new consumer privacy law takes effect TODAY, but you don’t know what that means for your existing Privacy Policy. Hey, you might not know why a business even needs either one of these documents. Regardless of which descriptor resonates with you, this post is for ALL of you. In the next five or so minutes it will take you to read the remainder of this page, I will touch upon: (1) who needs a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service; (2) how these documents can protect you; (3) what California’s new law says about consumer privacy; and (4) how I can deliver those to you with a shiny, but affordable virtual bow.
(1) Who Even Needs a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service?
Privacy policies are not legally required for every business that has a website. Let me start there. However, there are federal and state laws that require privacy policies in specific circumstances for consumer privacy and data security reasons. If you do any of the following on your website, then I will try to make your life easier and recommend that you put a privacy policy in place, like, yesterday:
Collect information that’s connected to a specific person, computer, or mobile device.
Do you require an online account to access certain content, sign up for services, buy products, or post comments? Do you accept online payments? Do you have a contact form on your website? If YES, then in doing any of these things, do you collect peoples’ names, email addresses, home addresses, telephone numbers, etc.?
Use cookies (not the edible kind) or other tracking technologies and CA residents access your website.
You may need to ask your website developer about this.
Track user’s online activities over time for targeted marketing.
Have users under the age of 13.
Unlike privacy policies, there aren’t specific laws requiring businesses with an online presence to have a Terms of Service. However, there are disclosure laws for specific types of online transactions that require certain information to be in writing AND TOS’s can be invaluable to businesses since they function as a contract between a business and its website users thereby governing users’ use of websites. If you are a business who, on its website, does any of the following, then I highly recommend that you to have a TOS:
Sell services or products.
Allow users to create individual accounts and interact with your website using those accounts, including interactions via comments.
Publish blog posts or feature your own photographs, logos, or other unique creations (“intellectual property”).
(2) Why would I bother?
Privacy Policies.
First, it may be legally necessary. Second, are your targeted ads on Facebook too relevant? Do you find yourself thinking that your phone is listening to every conversation you have? Alexa. Russia. Needless to say, there is a good percentage of us who are concerned about our privacy and who has access to our personal information. In addition to the legal compliance piece, having a privacy policy will allow your users to know exactly what information you collect when they access or use your website and how you (a) collect; (b) store; (c) use; and (d) disclose that information. #transparency
Terms of Service.
Like any other contract you use in your business, a TOS exists to provide protections and clarity for YOUR benefit! A TOS can limit your liability. It can protect your intellectual property. It can allow you to take certain measures to ensure that nobody is using your website to steal your content, commit crimes, spread hate, or incite violence. It’s 2020 and I have no reason to think that crazy sh*t will no longer happen on the internet, so why not put specific processes, procedures, and language in place to give you the tools to address problems efficiently and effectively and not leave things up to fate?!
(3) California’s Always Blazing a Trail.
California is always blazing trails legally-speaking (though, sadly, in the literal sense too). In fact, California has been a leader in the consumer and data security world by putting in measures to protect CA residents’ privacy for quite some time. Did you know that if you have Californians using your website, then you may have to make sure you’re complying with not just 1 but 3 consumer privacy laws? Did you know that 1 of those laws is effective TODAY (January 1, 2020)? It’s called the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and gives Californians certain rights and protections concerning others’ use of their personal information. Perhaps some of you feel even more compelled to get a privacy policy in place after reading that; some of you may feel a fire under your a$$es to update your existing policies to ensure that CCPA-required notice language is present. Good; let’s talk more about whether the CCPA is something your business needs to care about.
(4) But More Legal Fees?
Yes, however, as enticement to getting your legal sh*t in order, I am offering a special throughout Q1 2020 on my website contracts bundle (website Terms of Service + Privacy Policy). Shoot me an email at hello@namastelaw.com to learn more!
Merry Everything and Namaste,
CW
PS: Keeping it PG is not on the list of 2020 resolutions; I am still not above using profanity to grab readers’ attention and convince you that I’m a “cool” attorney.