Privacy policy and Disclaimer

How do I frame the policy?

[vibgyor79]

I plan to include a privacy policy and a disclaimer on my website. I know what information we are collecting from our visitors - How do I put these in words?

Does it need to be in any specific format? Or can I just say - "we are collecting IP addresses blah blah blah". Are there any templates available that I can work on?

Also, for a "review" site, how important is it to put a disclaimer? For example, lets suppose my website carries reviews of Cars. Will I get into trouble if I carry a review of a particular car and say "It is terrible - we suggest you avoid it".

Also, my review site will carry "user reviews" too. Will I be responsible for reviews posted by users? Will I get into trouble with the car manufacturer on the receiving end of the reviews on my website?

[Travoli]

Looking over the privacy policies of larger, commercial dot coms, it looks like their privacy policies were professionally scripted by attorneys. In the case of smaller sites, with little at stake, a webmaster-written policy could suffice. Just be very clear about what you collect and what you use the information for.

A disclaimer is very important on a site in which visitors are able to post anything they want. Even more so when the site encourages reviews of companys' products.

The best policy, if you can afford it, is to seek legal help for these. It could be the best money you ever spent.

[jackofalltrades]

If the reviews are from your users, then just state that these are individual opinions and are not necessarily the view of your site.

If you are writing the reviews, then state that these are your personal opinions and people should make up your own mind.

At the end of the day, if your review is fair, then not much can be said about it.

However if you say, "this widget company is crap", then you should make sure that there are good reasons for saying so (and possibly think about re-wording it ;)).

JOAT

[The Contractor]

There are some decent FREE online privacy policy services/scripts that will help you build a privacy policy by going through the questions etc. Do a search on Google.

[Hawkgirl]

Another good resource - if your site is a member of TRUSTe [truste.org], they have to review your policy before you put it up (and before you make changes to it) and they'll make some helpful suggestions.