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].

I took notes on what I liked and what was applicable and came up with a TOS and privacy statement for my site.

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.

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?

I'll also consult with the lawyer on this, but was hoping to your thoughts as well. Appreciate the help.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=990375

[2] http://en.wordpress.com/tos/

[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.

[matt1 → davidu]

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

[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.

[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.

[adrianscott]

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

[matt1 → adrianscott]

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

[adrianscott → matt1]

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

[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.

[coryl]

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

[matt1 → coryl]

Why not?