Benefits of having Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy on your Website

WHAT IS TERMS AND CONDITIONS?

Terms and Conditions agreements act as a legal contract between you (the company) who has the website or mobile app and the user who access your website and mobile app. Having a Terms and Conditions agreement is completely optional. No laws require you to have one. It's up to you to set the rules and guidelines that the user must agree to. You can think of your Terms and Conditions agreement as the legal agreement where you maintain your rights to exclude users from your app in the event that they abuse your app, where you maintain your legal rights against potential app abusers, and so on. Terms and Conditions are also known as Terms of Service or Terms of Use.

BENEFITS OF HAVING T&C ON WEBSITE:

• Prevent abuses:

This is the agreement that sets the rules and guidelines that users must agree to and follow in order to use and access your website or mobile app. In this agreement, you can include the necessary sections to inform users of the guidelines of using your website or mobile app, what happens if users are abusing your website or mobile app, and so on. Examples of actions of abusive users can include spamming other users, posting defamatory content or attempting to infect the website or app with malware.

• Own your Content:

As the website owner, you're the owner of your logo, content, website design, graphics, written content, audios, videos, software source code, and other creative works (except for user-generated content, as most websites will inform users that any content created by users is theirs), the design of the website, and so on. In the Terms and Conditions, you can inform users that you are the owner of such content and that the content you own is protected by Copyright laws. This kind of clause is commonly referred as the Intellectual Property clause.

• Provide better services:

A set of terms and conditions will enable you to service your users better. It will make it clear to your users that you utilize third parties and explain how you do so. These third parties can be payment processors, shipping companies, affiliates, business partners, email providers, marketing companies, shopping cart services, and others This not only gives users a better picture of what your company does and doesn’t do, but it also helps you disclaim liability for anything a third party might do. Terms and conditions also help you service your users better by allowing your energy and resources to focus on continuing to improve your business model, rather than get into petty user arguments and answering the same questions over and over.

• Terminate Account:

Another benefit for having terms and conditions are that you can clearly outline for your users when their accounts or access to their accounts will be subject to immediate termination. This is an important tool to have at your disposal for difficult users, or people that would continue to access your website in an illegal or otherwise not allowed manner.

You can partially or totally limit your users’ access to your website unless they agree to follow all the rules and guidelines in your terms and conditions. For users that act irresponsibly regarding your website, you can end their access and user privileges without fearing repercussions.

• Set the Governing law:

One of the most important benefits of terms and conditions is that you get to set your own rules for dispute resolution. Many website owners choose to have an arbitration clause in their terms and conditions, so that they don’t ever find themselves in the middle of an expensive litigation. Still others think that litigation is okay, but have a provision forcing the user to try to mediate before bringing any lawsuit. And, if you do decide that litigation is alright for you and your users, you are going to want to properly choose your law and venue. Good terms and conditions will make this possible.

• Limit Liability:

Terms and Conditions agreements commonly include a warranty disclaimer that tries to limit the website owner's liability in cases where errors are found in the content presented on the website. This kind of clause notifies users that the owner can't be held responsible for any errors in the content presented, or for the information provided being accurate, complete, or suitable for any purpose.

WHAT IS PRIVACY POLICY?

A privacy policy is a legal document that discloses the ways in which a website collects, processes, stores, shares and protects user data, the purposes for doing so and the rights of the users in that regard. All websites interact with and collect data about their visitors in one way or another. This is even more applicable in the case of an e-commerce store. E-commerce sites typically collect personal data like names, email address, IP addresses, session activity and payment details, to name a few. For this reason, a privacy policy is vital as it protects website owners and customers alike, while also ensuring that your website complies with legal obligations. Some industries are required by law to maintain a privacy policy. These industries include banks, medical professionals, and many others. Most of the privacy regulations to which these industries are subject to apply on and off the internet.

BENEFITS OF HAVING PRIVACY POLICY ON WEBSITE:

• Builds the trust:

Being transparent towards your users is possibly the most important moral reason. Providing your clients and customers with a clear picture of why and how you process their personal data makes your clients feel secure. In addition to having a clear, concise, transparent and easily accessible Privacy Policy, trust-building can be reinforced by a visual “privacy safe trust seal”. Such a visual representation, apart from emphasizing on the fact that you have an up-to-date Privacy Policy, immediately increases the levels of trust between you, as a business owner and your visitors and users.

• Third-Party Compliances:

Many third-party web services typically those that collect and use data from visitors -- require the use of a privacy policy page. If your website uses Google Analytics, for instance, you'll need a privacy policy page to comply with Google's terms and conditions. Specifically, your privacy policy page must disclose that your website uses Google Analytics and explain how it collects and uses visitors' data.

• Higher Search Rankings:

A privacy policy page may indirectly boost your website's search rankings through increased visitor engagement. A privacy policy page encourages visitors to stay longer on your website by providing them with peace of mind knowing their data isn't being used for nefarious purposes. When search engines see visitors are staying on your website for a long period, they'll assume your site is popular and, therefore, worthy high rankings.

• Returning Visitors:

Your website may attract more returning visitors if it has a privacy policy. If a visitor lands on your website only to discover it's missing a privacy policy page, he or she may leave and never return because of privacy concerns. A privacy policy page encourages visitors to come back to your website by easing their privacy concerns. Privacy-conscious visitors can access this page to learn more the type of data your website collects from them and how your site uses this data. As a result, they'll feel more comfortable returning to your website in the future.

With a privacy policy page, you'll provide visitors with greater transparency into your website's collection and usage of visitors' data, but keep in mind that you may need to update it. If your website changed the way in which it collects or uses visitors' data, you should modify your privacy policy page to reflect this change. Furthermore, copying and using another website's privacy policy page could be considered copyright infringement. If it's a generic privacy policy page that's considered in public domain, you can generally copy and use it. Unfortunately, most privacy policy pages are copyright, meaning you can't legally copy and use them on your website. Instead, you must create your own privacy policy page either manually or with the help of a tool.

Research by - 

Sameeksha Shukla

 BB.A LL.B (Hons.) specialization in Corporate Law ( 5^th year)