This being
age of increasing litigation, it is advisable for web site owners to have disclaimers posted on their Internet sites, and to have them accessible from any other part of site. It is unfortunate that we need to do this, but such is nature of beast. Internet Law varies from country to country as to what can be posted on disclaimer and privacy notices, but generally they should cover your terms of use regardings these points:- The quality of content of site
- The availability of services on your site to certain groups of people (e.g. age of visitors) or geographical locations
- Endorsement of links to other web sites.
- Make it clear that information on your site is for information purposes only and not intended to constitue professional advice as circumstances will vary from person to person.
- Clearly state your rights to reproduce or remove material uploaded or posted to your web site.
- That you are not liable to visitors for information posted to your Internet site.
- That others posting to your site cannot hold you responsible for any loss or damages arising from supplying material.
- That you are not liable for actions of users of your website.
Dependant on type of website you have, it may be wise to not allow visitors to enter your site without their acceptance of terms and conditions of site usage. Only after they have indicated that they have read "terms of use" and agree to them by clicking a button will they be allowed web site access.
Web site usage disclaimer example:
Disclaimer. The information contained in this archive is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind. The entire risk as to results and performance of information is assumed by user, and in no event shall YOUR COMPANY NAME be liable for any consequential, incidental or direct damages suffered in course of using information in this archive. Use of information contained in this archive are governed by their respective license agreements and may contain restrictions on use.
Web site forum disclaimer example:
All messages made available as part of this discussion group (including any bulletin boards and chat rooms) and any opinions, advice, statements or other information contained in any messages posted or transmitted by any third party are responsibility of author of that message and not of YOUR COMPANY NAME (unless YOUR COMPANY NAME is specifically identified as author of message). The fact that a particular message is posted on or transmitted using this YOUR COMPANY NAME web site does not mean that YOUR COMPANY NAME has endorsed that message in any way or verified accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message. We encourage visitors to forum to report any objectionable message to yourname@yourcompanyname.com. This forum is not monitored 24/7.
Issues regarding development of privacy policies can be viewed via following article:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles/reassurance.htm
Email Disclaimers With general acceptance of email for business communications, it is becoming increasingly important that we represent and safeguard ourselves effectively in our emails. The proliferation of viruses has raised questions as to whether a company can be sued for sending another company an email with an infected attachment. If you are managing a company with many employees; it is very difficult to keep tabs on way your business is being represented online by your staff, and even more challenging is issue of confidentiality. When we submit a web development draft proposal, we want to ensure that design proposal is going to right people and not being redistributed to competitors. The eight to twelve hours of unpaid work we put into a draft proposal is something that we try to protect.
