Website Agreements & Disclaimers

Dentists typically recommend that a person’s teeth be cleaned every six months and that oral x-rays be taken at least once every year. Internists recommend that a person receive a physical examination annually. Pets visit the veterinarian for vaccinations and well-care appointments. Vehicles need oil changes and regular maintenance. Your personal and business legal affairs are no different and require regular “legal checkups.” Much like going to the dentist, the idea of meeting regularly with your attorney is probably not going to excite you; but now more than ever, periodic communication with your lawyer is essential. Unfortunately, far too many web entrepreneurs wait too long and ultimately reach out to their attorneys when trouble has already come their way. In many instances, the legal problems encountered could have been prevented had a “legal checkup” taken place. The law in the United States and throughout the world is constantly changing. It…

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), earlier today (March 8, 2017), Acting FTC Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen spoke about the FTC’s continuing efforts in protecting consumers and educating small businesses on ways to keep consumer data secure. “Failing to take reasonable precautions to secure data from identity thieves and other malicious actors hurts consumers and legitimate businesses alike,” Acting Chairman Ohlhausen said in her written testimony. “Data breaches can harm a business’s financial interests and reputation as well as result in the loss of consumer confidence in the businesses to whom they entrust their data. In the case of small businesses, a data breach can be devastating.” Internet attorney Corey Silverstein has been stressing the importance of data security for years and Silverstein Legal spends a substantial portion of its daily resources on assisting website operators with their data security practices. Website attorney Corey Silverstein continues to insist that…

In 2016, the Consumer Sentinel Network collected more than 3.1 million consumer complaints, which the FTC sorted into 30 top complaint categories. The complaint categories making up the top 10 are:

As a website attorney, one of the more frequent questions that I receive is whether Website Terms of Use and Website Terms of Service are different. In most cases the answer is no. To put it simply, a website’s Terms of Use or Terms of Service is the contract between the website operator and its user(s). The Terms of Use or Terms of Service should contain numerous legally binding provisions between a website operator and its user(s). It is also essential that a website’s Terms of Use or Terms of Service are properly implemented on a website so that the court find them enforceable. A website’s Terms of Use or Terms of Service will differ substantially from website to website, depending on the specific services or products that the relevant website is offering its users. There are far too many website operators who think that it is acceptable and sufficient…

There are far too many online business operators that are not taking legal compliance seriously enough and subjecting themselves to potential liability. A commercial website is still a business regardless of the fact that its home is the world wide web, instead of a traditional brick and mortar facility. In its October 2014 Web Server Survey, NetCraft confirmed that there are over 1 billion websites on the world wide web today. If you think that governments and enforcement agencies across the world have not taken notice of this fact, then you are kidding yourself. In the United States, federal agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) are prosecuting website operators at an increasing rate with more severe penalties. State attorneys are exercising subpoena power and commencing enforcement actions more than ever before and the United States has not been shy about seizing websites that are suspected of violating applicable…