

Ask HN: $2K for a lawyer to revise your TOS & privacy statement - matt1

Before launching my web app, I spent several days reviewing other sites' privacy statements and terms of service. I noticed [1] while doing this that many sites use the same or similar documents, many of which are based on WordPress's TOS which they make available under a Creative Commons Sharealike license [2].<p>I took notes on what I liked and what was applicable and came up with a TOS and privacy statement for my site.<p>I'm working with a local lawyer to take care of some administrative stuff, and he offered to review and rework the TOS and privacy statements for somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5K to $2K, depending on how long it takes.<p>That's a nontrivial amount of money for my relatively small web app so I'm wondering: How important are these documents? What are risks if I miss something by doing it on my own?<p>I'll also consult with the lawyer on this, but was hoping to your thoughts as well. Appreciate the help.<p>[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=990375<p>[2] http://en.wordpress.com/tos/
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davidu
I made our Terms of Service reusable under a creative commons license:
<http://www.opendns.com/terms/>

Our Privacy Policy is more specific, but you can rip from it as long as you
make it read as if it's yours, clear it is not ours, and it has no reference
to OpenDNS: <http://www.opendns.com/privacy/>

_Very expensive valley/startup-savvy lawyers have reviewed both many times
over._ :-)

But to answer your question, NO. Don't spend the money. This decision is
always about the right thing for the right time. This does not matter right
now. Seriously. You are not big and nobody will sue you. Ignore any other
advice. Later, you can spend the money to redo it.

That said, make sure YOU understand your privacy policy and ToS. Make sure you
think it covers how you'll look and use the customer data. Then make sure you
abide by what it says and change it if you need to.

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matt1
Thanks, I think this is excellent advice, and double thanks for offering your
terms of service as a template.

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bdickason
I've built a few sites that aren't huge but definitely pass the 1 million
unique user/month mark. Most were content sites, ad-supported. The only time a
privacy policy was ever brought up was when Remnant Ad providers required
them.

As suggested in other comments, I'd say put up a generic ToS, apologize for
anything that comes in, and pay for a lawyer to analyze it when you really
have the money to do it.

And to answer your question, $1.5-2k is fairly standard for a document like
this.

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nratlos
Save the money, you are not doing anything different than what a lawyer would
do (and you would have to explain to a lawyer lengthily what your app/business
is all about before he/she can custom-tailor your agreements).

The fee quoted by your lawyer represents a couple of hours of work, which
includes at least two hours, understanding what your business is all about.

From a business perspective, do a risk/reward analysis. How likely is it to
get sued for having TOS that are not fine tuned ? I consider the risk very low
and you can reduce your personal liability further by incorporating (which I
always suggest).

Having said that, I am a lawyer, but this does not constitute legal advice.

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adrianscott
There are probably better things you can spend the money on if it's a
nontrivial amount of money for your app.

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matt1
Can you elaborate? What things? And how do I decide?

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adrianscott
Sure!

Judging by your note, you've already spent a good chunk of several days
working on this already, and that's not low-brain-usage time, so it's a pretty
expensive investment already.

Looks like you're already doing a good bit of this already... Pirate
Metrics... look at activation, then retention, then acquisition. cohort
analysis. user testing. customer development / talking to customers. Those are
going to be higher-leverage investments of resources.

And if you don't have an easy way to spend money in those areas, save it for
when you can find something that'll give you great leverage, return on
investment in your proj.

Hope this helps, -A

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evanwolf
Be one of the first to draft a Portability policy.
<http://portabilitypolicy.org> outlines the questions you answer about your
users' power over their data.

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coryl
Don't do it. Not worth the $2k IMO.

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matt1
Why not?

