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Generic Disclaimers

Generic Disclaimers

As the Head of support for one of the best known legal document software companies in the business, I get a lot of emails from People about their websites, the FTC requirements and what they mean to them.

One of the more frequent questions I get is:

Can I grab generic disclaimers off the web and use them?

It is important that Legal disclaimers and documentation be customized for each specific site and/or situation. And while generic disclaimers might keep the wolves at bay for a time, should you ever find yourself in court, you will wish that you had taken the time and the trouble to do it right and have them customized for your specific situation.

While it’s true that all sites need to carry a more or less generic set of documents including terms of use and privacy policy, your privacy policy in particular can and should reflect your situation and what YOU intend to do with gathered information about your visitors

And then you also need a COPPA policy (Children’s Privacy policy) whether you cater to minors or not, and if so, what their rights are.

Couple that with whether your site is a blog,or a sales page, or a video site, and your documents need to be even more structured towards you particular situation.

These documents may include (but are not limited to, earnings disclaimers, testimonial disclosures, and Affiliate Disclosures, just to name a few.

All in all, it’s not a good idea to play around with the FTC and take the chance that someone might complain about your site, putting you on their target.

Because once you’re flagged, they will pick your site apart, looking for anything that might not meet their specific criteria.

So go ahead if you feel lucky and swipe your legal disclaimers and disclosures from other sites. But be careful. They might not give you the protection you need.

You also need to be aware that those documents are usually copyrighted too. Which means you might get hauled into court by the copyright holder, as WELL as the FTC.