Some options for generating and automatically maintaining your legal policies for your website

If you are already feeling overwhelmed by the information below, let’s just get on a call!
You can find my availability by clicking here.

Complianz

$ 49

per year

*Complianz is the least expensive solution and if you don’t need a Return or Shipping policy, this will work great for you!

Policies included:

  • Privacy Policy Generator
  • Terms and Conditions Generator
  • Disclaimer Generator
  • Return Policy Generator
  • Shipping Policy Generator
  • Cookie Policy Generator

Cookie Consent Manager: Offers a fine-grained consent management tool to ask consent for cookies that require consent for the visitor’s region.

Languages: Fully translated into over 39 locales

Customer Service: No onboarding help, or live chat, but Complianz seems to respond pretty quick to their priority support by email.

Termageddon

$ 99

per year

*Use my referral link below to save 10% off your first year of Termageddon

Policies included:

  • Privacy Policy Generator
  • Terms and Conditions Generator
  • Disclaimer Generator
  • Return Policy Generator
  • Shipping Policy Generator
  • Cookie Policy Generator

Cookie Consent Manager: Termageddon will work with you to determine if a cookie consent solution is needed. If so, they provide one!

Languages: Fully translated into over 39 locales

Customer Service: Termageddon is a small business so they are always there when you need them. They also are offering all of my clients a free personalized onboarding video chat with one of the founders.

Termly

$ 120

per year

*Termly actually charges $15/month, but I put it yearly here for easier comparison

Policies included:

  • Privacy Policy Generator
  • Terms and Conditions Generator
  • Disclaimer Generator
  • Return Policy Generator
  • Shipping Policy Generator
  • Cookie Policy Generator

Cookie Consent Manager: Create a policy for your cookies, build a cookie consent banner, and deliver seamless cookie consent management while complying with global privacy laws like the GDPR, CCPA, and ePrivacy Directive

Customer Service: No onboarding help, but Termly has great live chat assistance.

f.a.q.

I know you probably have questions, so here are some answers!

Okay, Casey, but which one should I pick?

I wouldn’t recommend a tool if I didn’t personally try it out myself first and do lots of research on it. Each of the three companies listed above I have reached out to personally and chatted with either a sales person, a founder, or a support person for more information.

On my website I use a combination of two.
I use Termageddon for my Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Terms of Service and I use Complianz for the Cookie Policy and Cookie consent management. I also considered using Termly for the Cookie Management piece instead of Complianz, but I just tried Complianz first and thought it worked perfectly for what I needed.

I did try out a few other tools that I did not like either because they didn’t auto-update the policies for you when the laws change, or they had poor looking policies and cookie banners. The three tools above all will match and pull styling from your own website design.

Do I really need policies on my website?

Yes. 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;

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.

Can my attorney write policies for me instead?

Yes, yes, and yes!

Theses tools are meant for businesses who do not have a privacy attorney to do the writing of these policies for them as well as regularly update them.

Can I use a free template I found online?

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 they automatically update the policies for you.

Can we get on a call to discuss this more?

Sure thing! Click here to book a call with me to discuss your website policies:  https://calendly.com/applewoodinteractive/privacy-compliance

Is there a fee for you to add the code from the tool I choose above onto my website for me?

Yes, but I’m not charging the usual new page fee for these since it’s literally just copying/pasting code that you send over to me via email or share with me via one of the tools above.

If you have me do this for you, the fee would be $100 for me to install the proper plugin, and link to up to 4 policies for you. You will need to provide me with the code from whichever tool you choose or share the license with me at casey@applewoodinteractive.com.

I will also configure the cookies banner used on your website (using Complianz or Termly’s tool), and add a link to it at the top of your Privacy Policy as well.

As a part of the $100 fee, I will also go into your Google Analytics account and make sure that is set up to only track IP addresses anonymously, which is another legal requirement. If I don’t already have access to your GA account, you will need to provide me with this.

As with everything else on your website, you can also do all of this on your own – these are all great tools that use a wizard format to tell you what you need to do.

The only thing I cannot help with is configuring your policies for you. That would be me giving legal advice and instruction, which I cannot do. Complianz, Termageddon, and Termly can all help you with this though via email, chat, or phone depending on which tool you choose.

Why do I need Terms of Service?

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.
Do I need a Disclaimer?

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.

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.

Do I need an End User License Agreement?

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.
Is my business too small for anyone to care about this?

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.

How do I know if I’m collecting personal information on my website?

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.

There’s currently no privacy laws in my state, does that mean that I don’t need a Privacy Policy?

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.

Now that you’ve got all of the information on legal policies for your website, let me know what you’d like to do!