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Show HN: Termly – Free Policy Generators for Websites and Mobile Apps

34 points by octosphere 8y ago

Rjevski 8y ago
Why do you bombard me with a bullshit consent box while I was just reading the front page of the website? Requesting one single page shouldn't do anything that would need consent.
- zdkl 8y ago
  I thought this comment was excessive, but getting the same "accept our PP" over said PP is a bit too much.
- basseq 8y ago
  Welcome to GDPR. Processing of any personal information ("any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person") requires "clear, free, specific and unambiguous" consent. GDPR requires that you inform your subscribers of the existence of data processing operations and its purposes. Cookies, for example, may track identifying information. Thus, websites are compelled under the law to inform you of their practices actively and directly. Even requesting one page.
  - detaro 8y ago
    > Processing of any personal information ("any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person") requires "clear, free, specific and unambiguous" consent. That's totally wrong, please don't spread falsehoods like this. Consent is merely one of several possible bases for processing.
  - Rjevski 8y ago
    Depends what the cookies were used for. But even if we assume all cookies require consent, the answer seems simple: don’t set any cookies. There is no functional reason for a content-only website to require cookies.
  - zaarn 8y ago
    Not every processing of personal information requires consent. To display you a webpage I need to process your IP address, this doesn't require any consent as it is necessary to operate the webpage at all. Similarly a cookie that tracks the contents of a shopping bag does not immediately require consent. If you ask a customer for a physical address during the checkout you don't need consent either. You need consent if you want to process this data for anything but the immediately necessary purposes, ie analyzing unanonymized IPs or the contents of shopping bags or using shopping bag cookies to track visitors.
CiTyBear 8y ago
So much difference between annual bill and monthly bill. How do you explain it ?
news_to_me 8y ago
This looks great! I've often wondered what the best way is to get a well-written privacy policy, etc, even though I haven't needed to yet. What about their own privacy policy? > Third-Party Advertisers. We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit the Site. These companies may use information about your visits to our Site and other websites that are contained in web cookies and other tracking technologies in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. See our Cookie Policy for further information. > Affiliates. We may share your information with our affiliates, in which case we will require those affiliates to honor this privacy policy. Affiliates include our parent company and any subsidiaries, joint venture partners or other companies that we control or that are under common control with us. > Business Partners. We may share your information with our business partners to offer you certain products, services or promotions. Maybe these clauses are very standard, but you would hope that a company peddling privacy policies wouldn't have one that's as user-hostile as most. Maybe I'm not understanding it properly?
notavalleyman 8y ago
This feels like a lawsuit waiting to happen. "Disclaimer: Termly LLC is not a lawyer or a law firm and does not engage in the practice of law or provide legal advice or legal representation." And yet the homepage says: - Save Thousands on Costly Legal Fees - Create Customized Legal Documents - Customize one of our attorney-crafted policies for FREE I can imagine a court being asked to determine whether or not Termly is actually providing legal support and advice for its businesses customers.
- tothrowaway 8y ago
  You'll see similar language on LegalZoom, or any legal form website. Legal advice has a specific meaning in each state. Things like legal facts and forms are generally not considered "legal advice".
anthonys 8y ago
I was quite impressed with the service until I found out the only way of using it is via an embed. For documents that (can) be as key as these, I am not 100% comfortable relying on Termly to always work as it should. I contacted support and they advised them embed is the only option which makes it a non starter for me now, otherwise I would have happily paid the subscription as I do think the documents could be quite useful as a starting point.

34 points by octosphere 8y ago

Why do you bombard me with a bullshit consent box while I was just reading the front page of the website? Requesting one single page shouldn't do anything that would need consent.

zdkl 8y ago
I thought this comment was excessive, but getting the same "accept our PP" over said PP is a bit too much.
basseq 8y ago
Welcome to GDPR. Processing of any personal information ("any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person") requires "clear, free, specific and unambiguous" consent. GDPR requires that you inform your subscribers of the existence of data processing operations and its purposes. Cookies, for example, may track identifying information. Thus, websites are compelled under the law to inform you of their practices actively and directly. Even requesting one page.
- detaro 8y ago
  > Processing of any personal information ("any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person") requires "clear, free, specific and unambiguous" consent. That's totally wrong, please don't spread falsehoods like this. Consent is merely one of several possible bases for processing.
- Rjevski 8y ago
  Depends what the cookies were used for. But even if we assume all cookies require consent, the answer seems simple: don’t set any cookies. There is no functional reason for a content-only website to require cookies.
- zaarn 8y ago
  Not every processing of personal information requires consent. To display you a webpage I need to process your IP address, this doesn't require any consent as it is necessary to operate the webpage at all. Similarly a cookie that tracks the contents of a shopping bag does not immediately require consent. If you ask a customer for a physical address during the checkout you don't need consent either. You need consent if you want to process this data for anything but the immediately necessary purposes, ie analyzing unanonymized IPs or the contents of shopping bags or using shopping bag cookies to track visitors.

CiTyBear 8y ago

So much difference between annual bill and monthly bill. How do you explain it ?

news_to_me 8y ago

This looks great! I've often wondered what the best way is to get a well-written privacy policy, etc, even though I haven't needed to yet. What about their own privacy policy? > Third-Party Advertisers. We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit the Site. These companies may use information about your visits to our Site and other websites that are contained in web cookies and other tracking technologies in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. See our Cookie Policy for further information. > Affiliates. We may share your information with our affiliates, in which case we will require those affiliates to honor this privacy policy. Affiliates include our parent company and any subsidiaries, joint venture partners or other companies that we control or that are under common control with us. > Business Partners. We may share your information with our business partners to offer you certain products, services or promotions. Maybe these clauses are very standard, but you would hope that a company peddling privacy policies wouldn't have one that's as user-hostile as most. Maybe I'm not understanding it properly?

notavalleyman 8y ago

This feels like a lawsuit waiting to happen. "Disclaimer: Termly LLC is not a lawyer or a law firm and does not engage in the practice of law or provide legal advice or legal representation." And yet the homepage says: - Save Thousands on Costly Legal Fees - Create Customized Legal Documents - Customize one of our attorney-crafted policies for FREE I can imagine a court being asked to determine whether or not Termly is actually providing legal support and advice for its businesses customers.

tothrowaway 8y ago
You'll see similar language on LegalZoom, or any legal form website. Legal advice has a specific meaning in each state. Things like legal facts and forms are generally not considered "legal advice".

anthonys 8y ago

I was quite impressed with the service until I found out the only way of using it is via an embed. For documents that (can) be as key as these, I am not 100% comfortable relying on Termly to always work as it should. I contacted support and they advised them embed is the only option which makes it a non starter for me now, otherwise I would have happily paid the subscription as I do think the documents could be quite useful as a starting point.