

Ask HN: Terms of Conditions, EULA, Privacy Policy, etc.  What to do? - PakG1

Hey guys,<p>My friends and I are hoping to launch an app soon, but we haven't even incorporated yet.  We will eventually.<p>We're only going to be in beta for a couple of months, does it make sense to have things like a Privacy Policy, Terms of Conditions, etc, on the site?  If we should have them, do we need them written up by a proper lawyer?  What are your experiences?<p>We're just playing around, but if user engagement is good, we seriously want to try to run with this.  We've already got some companies on board for trial use during our alpha stage, which starts next week.  But we have no clue if it makes sense right now to invest in a proper lawyer to write up proper Terms of Conditions, Privacy Policy, etc.
======
latch
Automattic (the company behind WordPress) has their Privacy Policy and Terms
of Service under a creative commons specifically for this reason:

<http://automattic.com/privacy/>

<http://en.wordpress.com/tos/>

~~~
dctoedt
Be extremely careful about using WordPress's terms of service; there's a real
danger, IMO, that they could self-destruct. I posted an analysis a while back
at [http://www.ontechnologylaw.com/2010/05/using-wordpress-
coms-...](http://www.ontechnologylaw.com/2010/05/using-wordpress-coms-terms-
of-service-for-your-own-web-site-might-strip-away-much-of-your-legal-
protection/)

~~~
PakG1
Well, that would certainly suck, and I'd trust a quality lawyer and law
professor more than other folks. What would you recommend as an alternative?
Just investing in the services of a real lawyer? Trying to write up the darn
thing ourselves in a simplified manner with bullet points? Fact is, we still
don't even know what we'd do with this service long-term, so hard to envision
what the Terms of Service should be, huh? :) We only know our short-term goals
right now.

------
jhack
I don't know the legalities necessary, but I'd say if you're going to be
storing or collecting any sort of user data a privacy policy is a must.

