Riseykins Posted June 24, 2008 Share Posted June 24, 2008 I need to create one for my site. I don't know what to write! The stats I collect are stuff like country, state, city, IP, ISP, all that. But that's considered public information, apparently and can easily be hidden. So, what DO I need to write about? I'm really confused. I need to mention cookies, apparently. This is because I am signing up with VCM and their terms require me to have a privacy policy; https://admin.valueclickmedia.com/publishers/agreement_terms.html?lang=en&cg=1 Any help would be appreciated! Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted June 24, 2008 Share Posted June 24, 2008 probably be better off asking on a law(yer) type forum... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riseykins Posted June 24, 2008 Author Share Posted June 24, 2008 I don't know of any. I'm definitely not going to ask an actual lawyer, though. x.x Thanks, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted June 24, 2008 Share Posted June 24, 2008 I don't know of any. I'm definitely not going to ask an actual lawyer, though. lol why not? there's plenty of "free legal advice" type places on the internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted June 24, 2008 Share Posted June 24, 2008 I don't know of any. I'm definitely not going to ask an actual lawyer, though. lol why not? there's plenty of "free legal advice" type places on the internet. In court: But... some dude on the internet told me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riseykins Posted June 27, 2008 Author Share Posted June 27, 2008 LOL! IDK what to do about this one. I can't afford a lawyer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFilmGod Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 If you are creating a facebook clone, or similar website, then just go to facebook.com, copy and paste their privacy policy and paraphrase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolphie Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 If you look around on google, you'll find free articles such as privacy policies, terms of use etc.. which only requires a small amount of changing and are free to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ardyandkari Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 I have done some google searching and found that, although there are templates out there to use, they almost always come with the warning that you do need a lawyer to look over the privacy pol or tos before doing anything with it, because it might possibly leave you open to some sort of unexpected lawsuit if you dont have it custom written to your situation. also, wouldnt copying and pasting other's info be a violation of tos and copyright??? I find that kinda funny, sorry... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 I have done some google searching and found that, although there are templates out there to use, they almost always come with the warning that you do need a lawyer to look over the privacy pol or tos before doing anything with it, because it might possibly leave you open to some sort of unexpected lawsuit if you dont have it custom written to your situation. also, wouldnt copying and pasting other's info be a violation of tos and copyright??? I find that kinda funny, sorry... Disclaimers and policies are only as good as someone's ability to write them, even if the person writing it is a lawyer. You could go retain a lawyer and he could write down the exact same thing as what you found online, or even write one from scratch that's worse than what you found online. The only difference between hiring a lawyer and using something someone posted, is that you can't sue your own lawyer if it doesn't hold up in court. But then, you can't sue anybody from getting it off the internet, either, because a) more than likely you won't be able to prove who actually wrote it, and b) virtually all of them are posted with a disclaimer about it already, just like you do with your code. We have a lot of professional coders helping out for free around here. We supply articles, tutorials, pieces of code, advice, tech support, etc.. to help people out. We do it on our own time, for free. People are welcome to come here and use us as a resource, but they cannot hold us responsible if something goes wrong, because we have signed no contract with them. The content is provided as is, without warranty, etc.. just like the disclaimers you read from the legal places. It's just like when you write a piece of code for someone and you know it works but you put a disclaimer on it anyway, because you don't want to be held responsible if somebody manages to hack it. Technologies change. You can't guarantee things to be 100% secure. Ever. Basically what the disclaimers from "free resources" are really telling you is that nothing is perfect, and even if the policy is bulletproof, they're still not going to back you up, because the bottom line is they gave it to you for free, on their own time. If you want them to back you up, then pay for their services. The problem is not that they think the policy/disclaimer sucks: it's that they won't defend it unless you pay them to do so. Might makes right. Survival of the fittest. Those are idioms that our society of equality tries day in and day out to prove wrong in the real world. But online, this is one of the most truest phrases of all. Why do you think open source projects are the most stable and innovative out there? Websites and products and services and pieces of code and blocks of legal text all hold true by virtue of being scrutinized by the masses. They are either held up, passed around and used because they are strong, or they are laughed at and shoved under the eCarpet because they are weak. Looking on the internet is likely to produce a more solid privacy policy, because the people (even the lawyers) who know what stands the most chance of something online holding up in real life court, are probably the same people who wrote the ones you found online in the first place. In addition to that, you potentially have hundreds and thousands and millions of people of varying degrees of skill reading and scrutinizing it. How many people check over your policy if you go to a lawyer? Just him? Maybe some other people in his firm? Maybe he'll post it online in some lawyer forum he frequents, looking for advice, probably to be answered by the same people who wrote the ones you googled? The fact is, most lawyers don't really know a whole lot of "online" laws, or how laws apply to "online" content. If you walk into a lawyer's office and ask for a policy/disclaimer, he'll promptly go pick up a book and get online and start reading and researching, just like you would have. Only you get to pay him lots of money to do it. So why pay him to do the research you've already done? You do know that if a legal issue comes up, you can always go to a lawyer with your policy/disclaimer just the same, right? He'll be more than happy to defend it best as he knows how, and he'll be more than happy to tell you that winning is not guaranteed (he'd tell you the same exact thing even if he wrote it himself), and he'd be just as untouchable if you lose. I think your biggest problem here is thinking about it in abstract terms, making it out to be a much bigger deal than it really is. Let's face it: even though millions of people go online for something or other, the truth is, very little online activity is actually taken to court. 99% of disputes are handled outside of court. Disputes between two 'customers' are handled by the company. Or if it's you against a company, 9/10 times you just call up your credit card company to stop payment. Failing that, you're usually fucked and end up fighting back by making some hate blog or posting on one of those ripoffreport.com type places, trying to blacklist the company. In today's society, people measure "rightness" by how much money you're making. Why do you think "the customer is always right" came about? As a company, it doesn't matter how "right" you are. The customer could be a complete jackass and totally in the wrong, but you have to decide to either do what it takes to make them happy, or tell them to fuck off and let them tell their friends never to go to your business again. At the end of the day, which one yields more money? Personally, I would tell the customer to fuck off. But then, that's why I'll probably never have a multi-million dollar company. Or even a multi-thousand dollar company, lol. So here's the bottom line: If I were in your shoes, I would look around on the internet for a good policy/disclaimer. There are tons and tons of resources out there. Find one that sounds about right for you, write down what exactly it is your site/service is doing, and post that and your disclaimer on the free legal advice forums. Post it on several. A dozen, even. People are more than happy to put their 2 cents in. They'll offer some edited versions, tell you it's good, tell you it sucks. But there will always be a prevailing 'opinion.' Go with that. If for some reason you run into some kind of legal issue, try to resolve it yourself. If you can't make the person happy or at least tell them if they don't like it then fuck off, then hire a lawyer to defend you. Because I promise you, whether you had hired a lawyer to write it in the first place or not, you would have ended up in that mess, regardless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFilmGod Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 Crayon Violet - beautiful reply. The best advice/reply I have ever seen on this site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ardyandkari Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 ummm....ughhh...hmmmm...CRAP! i dont think that anyone can or will argue with you...i only read about 3 paragraphs in and knew that i was sunk...oh well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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