We use Termageddon to help comply with privacy laws such as the CPRA, GDPR, UK DPA, CalOPPA, PIPEDA, and more. We also help you comply with consumer protection laws, provide eCommerce disclosures, and limit your liability.
Did you know if you have a contact form on your website that you’re collecting personally identifiable information or PII?
Governments around the world have passed privacy laws to protect the PII of its residents. These laws require most websites that collect PII to have a Privacy Policy with specific disclosures. Each of these laws has its own set of unique requirements as to what your Privacy Policy needs to disclose, as well as unique penalties for not complying.
Penalties can be strict too with fines starting at $2,500 per violation per website visitor.
To make matters more complicated, privacy laws are constantly changing, and new ones are regularly going into effect – meaning a compliant Privacy Policy today, might not be compliant tomorrow.
Some proposed privacy bills include private right of action, meaning those individuals could even sue businesses regardless of their location for not having a compliant privacy policy. And because privacy laws protect people, website owners may need to comply with multiple laws regardless of where their business is located.
That is why we have partnered with Termageddon. The most comprehensive website policies generator on the market.
Termageddon is a website policies generator that helps you identify which privacy laws apply to you and bases your Privacy Policy on the disclosures you are specifically required to make.
Termageddon then monitors privacy laws, notifies you of changes, and can even automatically update your Privacy Policy through an embed code on your website to reflect the new disclosures required by changing legislation.
With Termageddon, you get a full set of policies to protect your business all for just $12 a month or $119 a year – saving you both time and money. We charge a $100 one time setup fee to implement the privacy policies on your website.
Discussion points
What is a Privacy Policy?
A BRIEF OVERVIEW
A Privacy Policy is a document that discloses what personal information you collect on your website, what you do with that information, and who you share it with, amongst other disclosures.
Your website needs a Privacy Policy if you use it to collect personal information such as names and emails. Most websites collect personal information through the use of contact forms or email newsletter sign up forms.
Why is a Privacy Policy important?
IT CAN HELP YOU AVOID FINES AND LAWSUITS
Currently, there are multiple privacy laws in the United States and across the world that require most websites that collect personal information to have a Privacy Policy:
Fines for violations of privacy laws start at $2,500 per violation (per website visitor).
Why you need to keep your Privacy Policy up to date
NEW PRIVACY BILLS AND THEIR EFFECT
Se willveral states have proposed privacy bills that, if passed, would require websites that collect personal information to have a compliant Privacy Policy. These bills all have different requirements for the disclosures that need to be made in a Privacy Policy and would impose heavy fines for failing to include those disclosures. In fact, some states are proposing to allow consumers to sue businesses directly for not having a compliant Privacy Policy.
More information can be found here: https://termageddon.com/us-privacy-bill-tracker/
If your website gets inquiries from across state lines, your business may be required to comply with multiple state privacy laws.
The solution: Termageddon
AN AUTO-UPDATING PRIVACY POLICY TOOL
Termageddon is a Privacy Policy generator that will automatically update your website's policies whenever the laws change.
For $12/month or $119/year, you will receive the following policies to protect your website:
* We charge a $100 one time setup fee to implement the privacy policies on your website.
Termageddon is the longest running Privacy Policy generator listed as a trusted privacy technology vendor by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP.org).
The solution: Termageddon
AN AUTO-UPDATING PRIVACY POLICY TOOL
Termageddon is a Privacy Policy generator that will automatically update your website's policies whenever the laws change.
For $12/month or $119/year, you will receive the following policies to protect your website:
* We charge a $100 one time setup fee to implement the privacy policies on your website.
Termageddon is the longest running Privacy Policy generator listed as a trusted privacy technology vendor by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP.org).
Since you are collecting personal information (e.g. name and email on your contact form), you are required to have a Privacy Policy. Currently, the following laws require Privacy Policies for most websites:
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR);
• UK Data Protection Act 2018;
• California Online Privacy and Protection Act of 2003 (CalOPPA);
• California Privacy Protection Act (CCPA);
• Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA);
• Delaware Online Privacy and Protection Act (DOPPA);
• Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 603A;
• and More
There are also about a dozen other states that are proposing their own privacy laws that would require most businesses to have a Privacy Policy and would affect how that Privacy Policy is written, requiring you to make changes on a pretty regular basis (see article). We’ve partnered with Termageddon because we think it’s the best service to be protected from lawsuits and fines considering that you need a Privacy Policy.
Terms of Service is a great way to answer frequently asked customer questions and protect yourself from liability. Terms of Service provides the following:
• If you sell products and services, it provides information on refunds, order cancellations and returns. This will help answer customer questions and will take them further down the path to actually buying;
• It will protect your intellectual property by making sure that everyone who goes onto your website knows that your logo, name, etc. are yours; and
• If you have links to third party sites on your website (e.g. social media links), it will help protect you in case the user gets a virus from that third party website.
You need a Disclaimer if you do any of the following on your website:
• Display advertisements;
• Display or sell health products (e.g. vitamins and supplements);
• Participate in affiliate programs (e.g. Amazon Affiliates);
• Provide health and fitness advice or tips; or
• Provide any information or tips that could be seen as legal advice.
o If you do any of the above, the Disclaimer will help you provide required disclosures, participate in affiliate programs (some programs require you to have a Disclaimer to participate) and will reduce your liability in case something goes wrong.
You need an End User License Agreement if you are licensing software that a user can download. An End User License Agreement will help you with the following:
• Limit your liability in case a user gets a virus or is otherwise injured by using your software;
• Help protect your income stream by making it clear that the software license may not be shared with others; and
• Protect your intellectual property by making sure that the user knows that he or she is not allowed to reverse engineer or otherwise copy your software.
While technically you could write these policies yourself, we do not recommend that you do so. There are a lot of laws, cases and legal opinions on how to write these policies correctly. If you have not spent years studying law and cases, it is very likely that the policy you write would be incomplete, incorrect and non-compliant. Also, there are currently a lot of new privacy laws that are being proposed and passed, meaning that you’d have to constantly stay up to date with these laws and amend your Privacy Policy yourself every time. This would take a lot of time and effort on your part and would take you away from your actual business. That’s why we recommend Termageddon - they take care of all of this for you and automatically update your policies so that you do not have to worry about it.
If you have a privacy attorney, you should definitely ask him or her to write this up for you. If you want to ask your outside attorney to draft these for you, that’s a great idea but it may be a bit pricey. Also, lawyers that do not work in the privacy field often use Termageddon as the solution for their Privacy Policies so that’s something to think about as well.
Some of the laws that are being proposed or passed do not limit enforcement and liability to large companies only so your small business could be liable as well. Also, consumers do not distinguish between small and large businesses when it comes to protecting their privacy and are less likely to buy from companies that do not respect their privacy.
Termageddon charges a yearly fee for its service because it automatically updates your policies whenever the law changes. Over the last year, two new privacy laws went into effect in the US - California and Nevada and we have seen some changes in the United Kingdom as well. Also, there are about a dozen other states that are proposing new privacy laws as well. Termageddon charges a yearly fee because that’s a lot of research, studying and changes to your Privacy Policy that they undertake for you.
You could try and copy and paste someone else’s Privacy Policy, rewrite it to fit your website and then paste it onto your website. However, by doing so, you’d be committing copyright infringement, which could get you sued. Also, you don’t know whether that policy is compliant with the current laws and it won’t auto-update for you, meaning that you’ll have to keep track of the changes to the law which are increasing. Having Termageddon generate a policy for you is much easier, less time consuming and safer.
Using a template that you found online is definitely tempting, especially since there are so many free ones out there. However, when you use a template, you can’t be sure who wrote it so you don’t know whether it’s correct or even compliant with the legal requirements. Also, a template does not automatically update, meaning that you’ll have to keep track of all of the constantly changing laws, which I’m going to guess is something that you don’t have time for. It’s best to use a proven policy generator such as Termageddon because their work is great and they automatically update the policies for you.
You are collecting personal information on your website if you have a contact form that asks for the user’s name, email, or phone number. Also, you’re collecting personal information if you ask for the user’s email to sign them up for an email newsletter.
While having a secure site is awesome, it’s not related to the need to have a Privacy Policy. You need to have a Privacy Policy if you collect personal information on your website, regardless of how secure that personal information is once it’s given to you.
The laws that are in place and that are proposed protect the residents of that state, not the businesses. As you know, people from California aren’t just going to websites of businesses located in California, they go to websites all over the United States. This means that you need a Privacy Policy if you collect personal information on your website, regardless of where you are physically located.
Ask us how you to get set up with Termageddon and protect your business today.