Does your website legally compliant?

Would you like to ruin your business just because of a lack of robust legal policy and documentation?

Website is an integral part of the business. The idea of business starts with website making only. During the old days, people expected businesses to have a contact number and a valid address mentioned on their brochure, pamphlet, and advertainment. Now, customers expect businesses to have a website or online presence. Website plays an essential role in establishing credibility and building trust in the country and across the globe.

With this increasing use of online presence and privacy concerns worldwide, website ownership comes with specific legal responsibilities. There are certain rules and regulations that a website owner needs to follow to ensure that the website is legally compliant and mitigating the risk of legal issues.

Nowadays, privacy and data protection is a worldwide hot topic. WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and all other giants collecting a large number of data are under the Govt scanner and getting notices to comply with new laws and regulations.

In India, The Information Technology Act of 2000 (“IT Act”) governs various issues relating to the internet, maintenance of websites and e-commerce. Later, this Act was further extended to criminalize additional activities like theft of computer resources, identity theft, cheating by impersonation, cyber terrorism, transmitting obscene content, child pornography, sending offensive content etc.

Hence Privacy Policies and Terms of Website use became an integral part and legal requirement of a website in India. As per the Privacy Laws in India, businesses and websites must be cautious while collecting and dealing with sensitive personal data or information. A civil provision has been introduced that prescribe damages for negligently using reasonable security practices and procedures while handling the sensitive personal data and information that is resulting in wrongful loss or gain. Further, criminal punishment is also provided for disclosing sensitive personal information without the person’s consent or in breach of the relevant contract. Sensitive personal information includes:

•  Financial information i.e, bank account, debit card, or credit card information
   Passwords
   Medical records, history and health condition information
   Sexual orientation
   Biometric information

Privacy Policy

As per IT Act, all businesses require to publish a privacy policy on their website. The privacy policy must describe the data collected, the purpose of using the data, sharing of data, reasonable security practices followed to safeguard such information.

Terms of Website Use

The “Terms of Website Use” or “Terms & Conditions” is a legal document that describes the terms and conditions for using the respective website and that the user must abide by them while using the website. The website terms and conditions agreement describes the license of the copyright in the website, includes a disclaimer of liability, an acceptable use clause, a variation clause, a clause specifying the applicable law and jurisdiction and other legal information.

Cookies Policy

Every website collects some cookies. Hence, cookies policy, especially when the EU and USA individuals are visiting, is also essential. A cookie policy is a declaration by the website owner to the website’s users about the nature of cookies being active on the website, user’s data is getting tracked, the purpose of data collection, and where this data is sent in the world. Whereas most of the remaining privacy policies may be static, the cookies used on a website are dynamic and might change often.

Grievance Officer

Indian Laws also require the appointment of a Grievance Officer whose name and contacts are published on the website. The Grievance Officer requires to act on any compliance within 30 days relating to the privacy policy or user information collection.

Each business is unique and requires customized policies to protect its customer’s data and information. Appropriately drafted documents are the part of risk mitigation plan and exercise of a business that minimizes the litigation risk and privacy issues in future.

If you don’t want to ruin the image of your brand and loss your customers because of a small privacy matter, reach out to us to write customized policies that suit your business. “Compliance” is just a subset of “governance” and not the other way around.

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Be complied and stay safe!