Policies

Many states do already have laws in place, and many others are poised to have them soon. You should also be aware that some states have (or are proposing) laws that will enable citizens to sue businesses (of any size) located anywhere in the United States for not having the proper policies.

The laws are mostly designed to protect the users. So, as an example, if your business and its website are in Arizona, but you serve users/customers who are citizens of California, then your website policies need to uphold the privacy laws in both states (as well as any other states or countries where you may have users/customers).

Termageddon offers 4 types of policies:

PRIVACY POLICY
Most websites need a privacy policy. If you are collecting any type of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), including contact forms and email newsletter subscription forms, or if you are using Google Analytics on your site, you need a privacy policy.

TERMS OF USE
Most websites also need terms of use (AKA terms of service or terms & conditions). If your website has links to other (third party, external) websites (even to social media), you need terms. Terms of use limit your liability. If a user clicks one of your links to go to another website and something bad happens on that other site, you don’t want to be held responsible for that.

DISCLAIMERS
Some websites need Disclaimers. If your site contains affiliate links and/or offers anything that could be considered health, fitness, or legal advice, you need a Disclaimer.

COOKIES
If your site is using Google Analytics, has a Facebook Pixel, or uses any other technology that “tracks” users, then your site is setting cookies in the user’s browser and you need to get their consent to do that. Termageddon provides both a cookie policy as well as a cookie consent tool. That said, sometimes I can help you find alternative tools so that your site won’t need a cookie policy/consent.

I advise my clients NOT to use free online policy generation tools. These tools are not specific enough to the needs of your business to really make sure you are covered. They also do not keep pace with changes to the law, and even if they did, how would you know when you need to update them? (And is that something you really want to spend your time doing? You have a business to build!)

The same advice applies to copying and pasting policies from another website. First, copying stuff is wrong, but even assuming someone has given you permission to copy their policies, it’s not a good idea for the same reason explained above.

Termageddon has a legal team of real privacy attorneys (not robots) who write the policies and update them as needed per changes to the laws. Once it is set up on your site, you can pretty much forget about your policies and get back to what you’d prefer to spend your time on!

If you have a large business or a business with unusual policy needs, then it may be better to hire your own attorney to write policies specific to your business. Make sure to choose an attorney who truly specializes in privacy law and stays up to date on the latest changes. This is an area of the law that is changing at a very rapid rate.

For the vast majority of small businesses and non-profits, hiring your own attorney to write your policies (and then continually update them to keep pace with legal changes) is going to be cost-prohibitive. In these situations, Brightgirl Designs + Termageddon is here to save the day!