Legal Requirements for Your Website – Privacy Policy, T&C’s, Data Protection and More
October 5th, 2009
Did you know your website must adhere to some legal requirements? I have written a series of blogs on 7 important legal requirements your website and E-Commerce site must adehere to.
- Company Information
- Web Accessibility and the Disability Discrimination Act
- The Data Protection Act
- Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations
- Electronic Commerce Regulations (EC Directive)
- PCI DSS
- The EU Anti Spam Laws
Here is a summary of the 7 important requirements.
So What Does My Website Need to Confirm?
To ensure your website is legal you must:
All Websites
- For a registered business, the website needs to display the following Company Information: the Business Name, place of registration, registered number, its registered office address and if it is being wound up.
- Adhere to Priority 1 of the Web Accessibility Guidelines set out at W3C
- If the website collects user data (i.e. via simple enquiry form, or shopping cart), display a Privacy Policy informing the user what the business does with the data and that it conforms to the The Data Protection Act
E-commerce Sites
- Have Terms & Conditions, Delivery and Returns Policy pages to display information as part of the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations and Electronic Commerce Regulations (EC Directive)
- If you collect and process credit and debit card information, you must conform to the PCI DSS.
- To conform to EU Anti Spam Laws, ensure your email database is of opt-in email addresses, and include an opt-out instruction on all marketing emails sent
Part III of the DDA refers to the provision of goods, facilities and services. The Code of Practice which specifically mentions websites, can be downloaded in its entirety from the Equality and Human Rights Commission website.
A privacy policy is of utmost importance. Visitors/customers need to know what you do with their information. Copy pasting another website’s privacy policy is not the way to go. A privacy policy needs to be unique and simple to understand. TRUSTe’s small business offerings provide a simple, reasonable alternative to cutting and pasting a privacy policy. Also, case studies show that TRUSTe seals increase sales and registrations [3-5%]