5 ms·

How can a website / service be operated in 2015 without any contact or legal information? How am I supposed to use this for my personal information without bein

by tjosten 11y ago

How can a website / service be operated in 2015 without any contact or legal information? How am I supposed to use this for my personal information without being able to read the privacy statements or knowing who's operating the service to what purpose? Edit: To make the reason for my comment clear, there was no link in the footer like there is now at the time I wrote it.

zyxley 11y ago
Not to mention some jurisdictions requiring a privacy policy, like California.
- yitchelle 11y ago
  http://www.faqt.co/terms-of-service.html http://www.faqt.co/terms-of-service.html may be enough?
  - tjosten 11y ago
    The link in the footer has just been added and wasn't there when I wrote my comment.
  - zyxley 11y ago
    Nope. Has to be linked from the homepage, among other requirements. http://leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=bpc&group=22001-23000&file=22575-22579 http://leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=bpc&group=...
    - danieltillett 11y ago
      What is the consequences of ignoring this if you are outside of California?
      - zyxley 11y ago
        If any user of the service is in California, then the state can potentially take legal action against you. Whether this really matters to a particular company depends on where they are, but full-faith-and-credit means that at a minimum anyone based in the US has to worry about it.
        danieltillett 11y ago
        Has the State of California ever taken legal action against any company located outside of CA for not complying with this regulation or is it just another one of those laws that are on the book but are never enforced?
- 15155 11y ago
  Believe it or not, the online world doesn't revolve around California or the European Union. One of the best "features" of the internet is that it is jurisdictionally grey. Otherwise, why not just subject the entire world to the stringent requirements of China?
  - adambatkin 11y ago
    While it's true that it may not be a legal requirement (in some jurisdictions) to post a privacy policy, it's probably not a good idea to trust a service without one, particularly if said service is designed for posting potentially private personal information. In other words: They should post a privacy policy - not because it's a legal requirement (though it may be) - but because it's good business. And no one will trust them otherwise.
    - Karunamon 11y ago
      Serious question: Do people treat privacy policies any different than EULA's? (To wit: Abstruse legalese that doesn't really tell anyone anything?) I can summarize 95% of privacy policies right here: * We won't sell your info (directly) * We "may" provide your info to third parties based on ill-defined criterion * We can change this at any time without telling you first * If we get bought (which is likely), this is all rendered invalid * If we break our word here, your recourse is precisely jack
    - mirimir 11y ago
      I trust no privacy policy. Once something is online, it's no longer under my control. So it's either for public use, or it's securely encrypted.
  - hyperpape 11y ago
    So, good observation in the abstract, but: 1) you're responding to someone who said "some jurisdictions" 2) siavosh's Twitter profile suggests that they're in San Francisco.
- OldSchoolPro 11y ago
  I'm sure there a lot of strange requirements in random states of India, China, Russia, Egypt, etc as well.
siavosh 11y ago
Yep, was meaning to add that in, added!
jwr 11y ago
As someone who recently launched a service — among a zillion things you have to do to deploy a software application online this one seems markedly less important, especially if you are launching an MVP on a small budget. If your MVP won't fly, legal info won't help and is a waste of time and resources. If it will, you can always add it in the future. The percentage of people who will complain or not use the service at all without reading the Terms of Use first is… well, I have no idea what it is, but let's just say it won't move the needle. Contact information is more important, and easy to add, so it should be there.

by tjosten 11y ago

zyxley 11y ago

Not to mention some jurisdictions requiring a privacy policy, like California.

yitchelle 11y ago
http://www.faqt.co/terms-of-service.html http://www.faqt.co/terms-of-service.html may be enough?
- tjosten 11y ago
  The link in the footer has just been added and wasn't there when I wrote my comment.
- zyxley 11y ago
  Nope. Has to be linked from the homepage, among other requirements. http://leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=bpc&group=22001-23000&file=22575-22579 http://leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=bpc&group=...
  - danieltillett 11y ago
    What is the consequences of ignoring this if you are outside of California?
    - zyxley 11y ago
      If any user of the service is in California, then the state can potentially take legal action against you. Whether this really matters to a particular company depends on where they are, but full-faith-and-credit means that at a minimum anyone based in the US has to worry about it.
      - danieltillett 11y ago
        Has the State of California ever taken legal action against any company located outside of CA for not complying with this regulation or is it just another one of those laws that are on the book but are never enforced?
15155 11y ago
Believe it or not, the online world doesn't revolve around California or the European Union. One of the best "features" of the internet is that it is jurisdictionally grey. Otherwise, why not just subject the entire world to the stringent requirements of China?
- adambatkin 11y ago
  While it's true that it may not be a legal requirement (in some jurisdictions) to post a privacy policy, it's probably not a good idea to trust a service without one, particularly if said service is designed for posting potentially private personal information. In other words: They should post a privacy policy - not because it's a legal requirement (though it may be) - but because it's good business. And no one will trust them otherwise.
  - Karunamon 11y ago
    Serious question: Do people treat privacy policies any different than EULA's? (To wit: Abstruse legalese that doesn't really tell anyone anything?) I can summarize 95% of privacy policies right here: * We won't sell your info (directly) * We "may" provide your info to third parties based on ill-defined criterion * We can change this at any time without telling you first * If we get bought (which is likely), this is all rendered invalid * If we break our word here, your recourse is precisely jack
  - mirimir 11y ago
    I trust no privacy policy. Once something is online, it's no longer under my control. So it's either for public use, or it's securely encrypted.
- hyperpape 11y ago
  So, good observation in the abstract, but: 1) you're responding to someone who said "some jurisdictions" 2) siavosh's Twitter profile suggests that they're in San Francisco.
OldSchoolPro 11y ago
I'm sure there a lot of strange requirements in random states of India, China, Russia, Egypt, etc as well.

siavosh 11y ago

Yep, was meaning to add that in, added!

jwr 11y ago

As someone who recently launched a service — among a zillion things you have to do to deploy a software application online this one seems markedly less important, especially if you are launching an MVP on a small budget. If your MVP won't fly, legal info won't help and is a waste of time and resources. If it will, you can always add it in the future. The percentage of people who will complain or not use the service at all without reading the Terms of Use first is… well, I have no idea what it is, but let's just say it won't move the needle. Contact information is more important, and easy to add, so it should be there.