
Ask HN: Do you have a Privacy Policy and ToS for your side projects? - mromnia
Do you have a Privacy Policy and&#x2F;or Terms of Service page on your sideproject&#x27;s website? If so, how did you get it? Did you write yourself, had a lawyer write it or used some online generator? What about a cookie consent popup?<p>Myself, I&#x27;ve recently realized I have a few sideprojects online that don&#x27;t provide that information, so I started looking into it. If I find a decent template I&#x27;ll probably add it to some of my sites.
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tsyd
I use a paid generator: [https://termsfeed.com/](https://termsfeed.com/). It
asks you a few questions about how you will be using the data and generates
the text based on your answers.

~~~
tpetry
Termsfeed.com looks really great. Nice find!

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medmunds
Automattic has released their policies under a Creative Commons license:
[https://github.com/Automattic/legalmattic](https://github.com/Automattic/legalmattic)

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jakehilborn
Yes. I created a free app involving speeding in your car so ToS absolving me
of responsibility for misuse was necessary. I also included a privacy policy
about analytics data collected. I worded it in plain terms myself without
involving a lawyer.

[https://jakehilborn.github.io/speedr/](https://jakehilborn.github.io/speedr/)

~~~
smt88
Do you think your app encourages or discourages people to speed?

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jakehilborn
It's meant to be informational. I left out achievements, leaderboards, and
flashy lights/noises so that I wouldn't encourage speeding. You'll find that
for almost all driving scenarios that you save very insignificant amounts of
time by speeding. Furthermore, based on my low daily active user count I'd
conclude that Speedr isn't making speeding all that fun.

~~~
FatAmericanDev
Speeding is not about saving time. It's about excitement and adrenaline...

~~~
smt88
That might be how you feel, but I have many often-late friends who speed only
to save time.

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madamelic
I actually made them for my side project last night.

I just googled around and found a ToS / Privacy Policy generator but they
wanted like $60 for each. They publish a template so I took the mostly
completed template, added a few details (emails are saved, analytics are
collected, I'm not selling or distributing your info, email me if you want
your account deleted, etc)

~~~
mromnia
Could you link the generator here? Perhaps it'll help someone (perhaps even
me!).

~~~
madamelic
[https://termsfeed.com/](https://termsfeed.com/)

It seems to gate the more generic options (to obviously get money).

It does work though. I can't really speak to how well their documents hold up
though legally.

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SchizoDuckie
Yes. Explicitly.

Not worded as a lawyer, but as an actual sane person:

(Since the project is free and open source and deals with torrents, I wanted
to make it clear from the beginning that we're not logging anything)

[https://github.com/SchizoDuckie/DuckieTV/blob/angular/LICENS...](https://github.com/SchizoDuckie/DuckieTV/blob/angular/LICENSE.md)

[https://github.com/SchizoDuckie/DuckieTV/blob/angular/README...](https://github.com/SchizoDuckie/DuckieTV/blob/angular/README.md#privacy-
statement)

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graystevens
Interesting question, and one I've been debating with myself for a bit too - I
have a launch page setup for my new side project, currently in development but
put a page up to gather interest.

Would folks expect a some terms or a privacy policy to be applied to this? All
it is collecting is an email for notification of launch, and this is hosted by
MailChimp. I suspect a ToS is overkill, but a privacy policy may be sensible
for folks?

~~~
mromnia
Technically, you're required by law to have a privacy policy, at least in most
places. If you're collecting emails I'd say you should have one.

I was mostly curious what people do with their free sideprojects being a
single github.io page with possibly Google Analytics or something. You are
still technically breaching the GA ToS by not having one, but it seems a bit
of a hassle.

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tmaly
I have one as there is a CA law that requires it.

I am not sure how I found it, but I got mine from termsfeed.com they were even
nice enough to modify it for me when I realized I did not check the correct
boxes.

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skaplun
Are you providing a paid service? privacy, tos, faq, help, about us, our
mission, etc etc pages can help to confirm your authenticty to someone who
intends to buy.

Cookie layer is mandatory in the EU

~~~
mromnia
If something's generating money, I'd say it's a bit different. I'm mostly
taking about free stuff on your github.io pages.

~~~
chauhankiran
Then it might not needed and ToC or Policy as in most cases it will not going
to take serious user data that user are primarily concern with. But, If you
are storing data from users, then I must say you need to give an idea about
how you will going to use those data.

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skdotdan
Off-topic: this was exactly an idea I had for a side project (a ToS/Cookie
pop-ups generator), but there are already some services providing it.

