Building a website? An app? Or perhaps a SaaS platform? Probably the last thing on your mind is to get yourself a tough “Terms of Service & Privacy Policy” to protect your platform, users, data, money and of course yourself!
So how do you go about it?
Probably generate one online? Or pickup one of the many templates already lying around? Or perhaps take one from a competitor/bigger player and edit it as per your needs?
One of the most common problems we have seen with startups (And we have seen a lot of startups, and worked with tonnes too) is the minimal amount of effort and time they want to spend hashing out the legalities behind their product which very often lands them in a soup later.
This is what we call the No ToS sadness cycle! Yes! We don’t realize this, but not having an effective ToS can actually lead to tangible losses for your startup! Want to know how? Here is how-
1) Your eCommerce website has no clause to protect you from an “act of god” (Yes! Legal terms can be this bizarre!), simply because the place you picked it up from never accounted for it. Your warehouse is flooded and the goods can’t be delivered on time. Customers ask for refunds, when you can’t get the product to them. What? Did you say the television set that got waterlogged cost Rs 90,000? Boy!
2) Chinese hackers hacked into your site and made away loads of private data of your users. The Singaporean site you picked up your Terms of Service from never accounted for such a situation. Your Terms of Service never made you immune to any sort of data loss. What’s more? A user brings a case against you for release of his private information. *RED ALERT*
These are just some of the cases where a a “not so perfectly” crafted Terms of Service can land you in a soup (or raita if you like it). A perfect Terms of Service and Privacy Policy needs to be crafted keeping a specific business in mind and the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines), 2011. Specialist lawyers need to vet the Terms of Service and see if it protects all your interests and secures your business model
A watertight Terms of Service ensures that it remains a compact insurance policy, you buy for Rs 1999/- that ensures you don’t end up paying huge settlement amounts later.
All it takes is a little time and effort to make sure you don’t lose money, and more importantly sleep later.
Credit- Manik Gupta ( Expertise in Startup Website Terms of Services )
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