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Do I need Ts&Cs and a Privacy Policy on my website?

Website Ts&Cs
We discuss whether you should invest in customised Ts&Cs and a Privacy Policy for your Website.

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Website Ts&Cs

When setting up a website, there are a number of things to consider, including securing the domain name, hosting, the website design, copy and imagery, SEO and your legal Ts&Cs and Privacy Policy. We discuss some of the legal considerations, including whether you need to include Ts&Cs and a Privacy Policy on your website.

What are Ts&Cs?

In the context of your website, the term Ts&Cs is often used to describe your Terms of Use and / or your Terms and Conditions. There is a difference between the two and this is discussed in further detail below.

Do I need to include a Terms of Use on my website?

In short, yes you should. The Terms of Use govern the access and use of your website. Including a Terms of Use on your website allows you to minimise your risks in several ways. For example, they can assist you to:

 

  • protect your intellectual property in the content displayed on the site;
  • limit your liability;
  • prohibit reliance on the content;
  • specify how users may use your site, as well as specify any prohibited actions, such as tampering with the site or making certain comments on the site; and
  • determine which laws will govern the use of the site.

Failing to include a Terms of Use on your website may expose you to unnecessary risk and a Terms of Use should be displayed on all websites.

Do I need to include Terms and Conditions on my website and are these different to the Terms of Use?

If you trade through your website rather than just use it as a form of marketing for your business, you should include your full trading terms and conditions. Your trading terms will cover additional issues not otherwise included in your Terms of Use, such as for example, payment, refunds, delivery and use of the goods or services. They are more specific to the sale of your goods or services as opposed to just the use of your site.

 

Some businesses choose to have one set of Terms and Conditions and set out within the document which additional clauses apply if a user proceeds to purchase goods or services through the website.

Do I need a Privacy Policy on my website?

Under Australian Law, not all businesses are legally required to adopt a privacy policy or to display one on their website. Even if your business is not legally required to adopt a privacy policy, it is still recommended that you do so. Displaying a privacy policy on your website explains to those who access your website and interact with it, how you will handle their information.

 

If you only wish to adopt a privacy policy if you are legally required to do so, you can take the privacy checklist for small business available on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner website to determine whether your business might be legally required to adopt a privacy policy. Generally speaking, businesses with an annual turnover of more than $3 million and operating in Australia are required to have a privacy policy as well as some other small businesses. If you have questions about whether you are required to have a privacy policy, you should contact us for advice. 

 

If you have an establishment in the EU, offer goods and services in the EU or monitor the behaviour of individuals in the EU, you should also consider whether you will need to take any steps to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

 

If you collect any personal information through your website, such as names, email addresses or phone numbers then you should include a Privacy Policy on your Website. Doing so may may make building an email list easier and result in more leads through contact forms as users of your website may be more willing to provide you with their information if they know what exactly you intend to do with that information.   

Can I just copy the Ts&Cs and Privacy Policy from another website?

In short, no. Besides the fact that you would be infringing on another business’ intellectual property by doing so, their Ts&Cs and Privacy Policy may not be right for your business. Your Terms of Use, Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy should reflect the operations of your own business, which is likely to be different to other businesses.

Can I just purchase template Ts&Cs and Privacy Policy?

Some businesses, including law firms, sell template Terms of Use and Privacy Policies. You should review the applicable terms and conditions before purchasing these templates as in most cases, they come with significant disclaimers. Whilst you may think that you have obtained legal advice by purchasing these templates from a law firm, legal advice is often excluded as your specific circumstances have not been considered. The best level of protection is to engage a lawyer to create your Terms of Use, Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy to reflect the specific operations of your business.  

Where do I start?

Contact us to discuss your requirements and we can provide you with a fixed fee quote for preparing your customised Terms of Use, Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Contact us to obtain a customised terms and conditions and privacy policy for your website

Information contained within this blog post is intended to be general information only and is not in any way intended to constitute legal advice. You should not act or rely on any information found in this blog post without obtaining prior advice specific to your circumstances.

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social law co. Privacy policy

Boorman Lawyers Pty Ltd trading as Social Law Co. has developed and adopted a privacy policy, which is set out below.

 

By using our website and / or our services, or otherwise providing us with your information, you consent to us collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information in accordance with this privacy policy.

 

In this privacy policy, personal information has the meaning given to the term in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

 

How we collect information and what we collect


We collect personal information when we are, or propose to be dealing with, or providing or marketing our services to you and other potential clients. We only collect personal information from you which is reasonably necessary for us to know in order to provide our services to you, meet our professional obligations and conduct our business.

 

Personal information that we collect may include:

  1. your name, date of birth, contact details (including email addresses), occupation, job title or position, your expertise or your business name;
  2. copies of photographic identification;
  3. information that relates to your interests and any professional memberships and associations;
  4. usernames which identify social media accounts operated by you;
  5. your payment details;
  6. other information which assists us in conducting our business, providing and marketing our services and meeting our legal obligations;
  7. in cases where you have applied for a job with us, information such as your name and contact details, your work history and information collected when conducting relevant reference checks; and
  8. other personal information collected in the course of providing legal services to you or to someone else.

We may collect information from you in a number of different ways, including:

  1. online via our contact form, by email, via our email subscription service provider, or through social media direct messages;
  2. face to face with you;
  3. on the telephone with you; and
  4. from third parties.

Where reasonably practicable, we will collect your personal information directly from you.

 

Collection of your personal information on this website

Sometimes we may collect your personal information via this website when you provide it to us, for example, when you fill out and submit a contact form.

When you visit this website or download any information from it, our Internet Service Provider makes a record of your visit and may record the following information:

  1. your Internet address;
  2. your domain name;
  3. the date and time of your visit to the website;
  4. the pages on our website that you visit;
  5. the type of browser that you are using; and
  6. links from other sites that you have accessed in order to access our website.

We use this information for website development purposes and the data is displayed to us as a statistic, without reference to your name.

Our website contains links to other websites and we are not responsible for the privacy practices adopted on other websites.

 

Our use of cookies


We may from time to time use cookies on this website to measure your use of our website. We may also use cookies to improve the functionality of our website.

Whilst most internet browsers are set to accept cookies, you can set your internet browser to reject cookies, or to notify you when they are being used. If you reject cookies, you may limit the functionality of the website during your visit.

The Facebook pixel is installed on this website and captures your use of this website for Facebook ad retargeting purposes.

 

How we store your personal information


We use a variety of physical and electronic security measures, including restricting physical access to our printed files, password access to our online systems and secure databases to keep your personal information secure.

If you use the Internet to transmit to us any information, including your email address and contact information, you do so at your own risk. There are security risks in the use of the internet.

 

How we use your personal information


We use your information to deal with you, market our services to you or others (including direct marketing by email, text, calls or targeted advertising), provide our services to you and invoice you. We also use your information to comply with certain laws and regulations.

We may disclose your personal information for the purposes for which it was collected to:

  1. entities or individuals who assist us in providing our services, including our employees, any agents and barristers;
  2. courts, tribunals, regulatory authorities and law enforcement officers;
  3. any third party to whom you authorise us to disclose it;
  4. social media channels on which we have a presence; and
  5. where we are required or authorised to do so by law.

This may in some cases involve sending and / or storing your information in an overseas jurisdiction.

We are bound by professional obligations of confidentiality and legal professional privilege. We will always deal with and protect information we receive (including any personal information) in accordance with these obligations.

We may use and/or disclose your personal information for other purposes that are secondary to the purpose for which we collected it and for which you would reasonably expect us to use it. These might include purposes:

  1. for which you have given your consent;
  2. to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights; or
  3. which we are required or permitted by law.

Storage of information outside of Australia


We do not generally transfer personal information overseas unless required by law or enforcement activity or unless otherwise working with international service providers. There may be times when we store personal information with parties who have been contracted to provide technological solutions. For example, we utilise international cloud computing services for e-mail storage and to store personal information that we collect. Countries in which such data may be stored may include (but are not limited to) the United Kingdom, Japan, Netherlands and the United States. Although information is encrypted where possible and efforts are made to protect your personal information, when you agree to this policy you acknowledge that we will not be responsible for the overseas third party.

 

Your access to your personal information and your right to correct it


You have a right to access most personal information we hold about you and the right to ask us to correct any information that you believe to be incorrect. We will require you to provide us with suitable evidence to verify your identity as well as to specify which information you require.

Please contact Joshua Boorman on 1300 941 900 or via email to jboorman@boormanlawyers.com.au to request access to your information, or if you have a complaint concerning the privacy of your information. Any complaint will be appropriately investigated and the outcome of that investigation communicated to you within a reasonable period of time (allow for 30 days). If you are not satisfied with the outcome or the handling of the complaint by us, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by calling 1300 363 992 or by sending an email to enquiries@oaic.gov.au.

 

Changes to this policy


We may modify this policy from time to time by publishing revised versions on our website. We encourage you to check our website regularly to ensure that you are aware of our current privacy policy.

Website Terms of Use

This website is operated by Boorman Lawyers Pty Ltd trading as Social Law Co.

 

By accessing this website, downloading any of our content or accessing any of our social media channels, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use and accept them and our Privacy Policy as they appear on this website at the time. We may amend these Terms of Use at our discretion at any time and without notice.  If you do not accept these Terms of Use and / or our Privacy Policy then you must immediately cease using this website and our social media channels.

 

Information on this website is not legal advice
Any information found on this website, or accessible via this website, or on our social media channels is intended to be general in nature and is not in any way intended to constitute legal advice. You should not act or rely on any information found on this website, in our downloadable content or on our social media channels without obtaining prior advice specific to your circumstances.

 

Whilst steps are taken to ensure that the information appearing on this website remains current, delays, errors or omissions could affect its accuracy or currency.  It is your responsibility to assess and verify the accuracy, completeness and reliability of any information found on this website. We do not guarantee the currency of any information found on this website.

 

No solicitor-client relationship is created by your use of this website or any actions taken by you or on your behalf after having viewed information on this website, in our downloadable content or on our social media channels.

 

If you download a copy of our free resources, such as our Influencer Agreement Checklist or our Legally Compliant Campaigns eBook (“Digital Resources”), you acknowledge that:

 

  1. it is provided for general information purposes only and no reliance should be placed on any content found within it;
  2. no solicitor-client relationship is established by you accessing the Digital Resources;
  3. you are expressly prohibited from:
    1. using the Digital Resource for any commercial purpose;
    2. publicly displaying the Digital Resource;
    3. copying or creating derivative works from the Digital Resource; 
    4. removing any copyright or other proprietary notations from the Digital Resource; or
    5. sharing, selling or distributing the Digital Resource to any third party.

Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by the law, we exclude:

 

  1. all liability for any and all direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, damage, cost and expense (including, without limitation, loss of revenue, goodwill, profit, damage to reputation, under or in relation to any other contract, data, use of data or anticipated savings or benefits), whether arising in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, suffered or incurred by any person, in connection with, or in any way relating to this website or any content found on it; and
  2. any conditions, warranties, guarantees, rights, remedies, liabilities and other terms implied or conferred by statute, custom or the general law that impose any liability or obligation on us.

Despite the above, if the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) or any other legislation states that there is a guarantee in respect of goods or services supplied, and our liability for breach is unable to be excluded, but can be limited, our liability for such breach is limited to, at our option:

 

  1. in the case of a supply of goods, replacing the goods, supplying equivalent goods or having the goods repaired; or
  2. in the case of a supply of services, supplying the services again or paying the cost of having the services supplied again.

In making information available on this website, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees in relation to the availability, suitability, continuity, reliability, accuracy or currency of the website or any information found on it.

 

We do not represent, warrant or guarantee that this website is free from computer viruses or any other defect or error which may affect your software or systems, and you should ensure that your computer is protected from any such viruses or defects through appropriate security systems.

 

Intellectual Property
Except as otherwise stated, we own, or are licensed, the copyright and other intellectual property rights in any content appearing on this website. You must not reproduce any content appearing on this website without our prior written consent. Unless we have given our consent for any other use, you may only access and use the content on this website, or content accessed via this website, for non-commercial or personal use.

 

Competitors exclusion

You are expressly prohibited from using any content available on this website, or accessible via this website, for any purpose which might reasonably be considered to compete with our business. 

 

Your use of the Website
In accessing and using this website, you must not post or transmit on any part of this website, including in the comments on the blog made available on this website which:

 

  1. breaches any laws or regulations or are contrary to any relevant standard or codes;
  2. interferes with other users of the website, is false, inflammatory, defames, harasses, threatens, menaces, offends or restricts any person or which inhibits any other website user from using the website;
  3. constitutes commercial advertising, the promotion of gambling or the promotion of another website;
  4. infringes anyone else’s copyright or other intellectual property rights;
  5. tampers with, hinders or modifies this website; or
  6. knowingly transmits any viruses or other disabling features to this website.

By accessing this website, you agree to indemnify us from and against all actions, claims, suits, demands, damages, liabilities, costs or expenses (including legal fees on a full indemnity basis) arising out of or in any way connected to your access or use of this website in breach of these Terms of Use.

 

Third party links
This website may contain third party links to other websites which we do not monitor, endorse, edit or review. Any access by you to any such third party websites is subject to any terms and conditions found on those websites. We do not warrant the accuracy of any information found on third party websites, nor do we ensure that such third party websites are free from any viruses or other threats.

 

Applicable Law
These Terms of Use, and your use of our website generally, are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia. You agree to submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the State of Queensland, Australia