Why you need website terms of use

Monday, 31 May 2010 09:15

A woman in the US is suing Google for leading her (via Google Maps) onto a highway, where she got hit by a car reports Search Engine Land.

While the scenario is ridiculous to most reasonable people, it is an illustration of why you should put terms on your website, mainly to protect yourself from people who don't want to take responsibility for their own decisions.

This is particularly the case if you link to other sites or contain any information that could be considered 'advice'.

donttrythisathomeIn the story mentioned above Lauren Rosenberg claims she was led onto a busy highway after Googling walking directions for a trip in Park City, Utah.  She was struck by a vehicle and is now suing Google for damages.   Rosenberg used Google Maps via her Blackberry.  Google provided walking directions to walk for about 1/2 mile along the calm-sounding "Deer Valley Drive" except that this is an alternative name for a highway.  This highway has no footpaths - which is patently obvious when you come to it (check out the the photos).   The lawsuit maintains that Google is at fault because she wasn't warned about it.  There is a warning on the site, but there is some question as to whether this warning shows up on iPhones or Blackberrys.

What happened to common sense?

Common sense sadly seems to be lacking with some people so you need to think about what people might do if they read something on your website or follow a link and then act on it.  You have no control over what they might do, or content on other websites.   Fortunately in New Zealand we're not a litigious lot, but you never know, and sometimes it's just useful to point people to these terms if they are just being troublesome.

It is particularly important if you have information relating to anything with an element of risk such as:

  • Financial advisers
  • Health professionals
  • Business advisers
  • Lawyers

If you have a blog, you should also have a statement relating to the content of posts (ie they are not your opinion and are not an endorsement etc).

E-Commerce sites

If you  are selling products or services directly from the site you will need more than a link at the bottom of a page (which should suffice in most information-only sites).  For E-Commerce sites users must expressly accept the terms of service by clicking 'I agree to x terms' or something similar.  Commonly this is a step in the purchase process.  

Your bank may not provide you with an Internet merchant account without being satisfied that your terms are in place appropriately.

Key requirements for online terms

Clendons (Barristers and Solicitors) outline four key requirements for general website terms:
  • The link to the terms of use should be prominently displayed on all relevant pages
  • It should be easily identifiable as a link to terms of use - ie should say 'terms of use' not just 'about us'
  • You need to have some kind of version control and records kept (ie mark changes with version 1, 2 and the date).  This is so you can prove at a future date that a certain form of terms and conditions (and notice of them) was in place
  • The terms and conditions themselves should be "reasonable" in the circumstances.  Reasonable can mean that you don't bury terms such as refund processing fees within your general terms, rather than specific terms of service.
Examples of terms that have and haven't been enforced are on their site - Enforceability of Website Terms.

If you don't want to pay for a lawyer to draft these up for you, there are sites such as Netlawman or where you can buy standard documents for your website.

 

Tags:
Next >