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Do Contact Us Forms Need Terms of Use and Privacy Policies?
A Terms of Use and a Privacy Policy are two documents that you have probably seen on most websites and many web forms. The Terms of Use is important for setting out the rules for customers using the website, and the Privacy Policy explains how the website owner will look after and deal with customers’ private information.
But does every page need a link to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy? What about a really short web form like a “Contact Us” form? JotForm provides templates for a number of “Contact Us” forms, but you may need to add some links or check boxes at the end of them to cover off your legal bases. Let’s take a look.
What is a “Contact Us” Form?
A “contact us” form is a form where you can contact the owner of the website by typing in your contact information, name, and your message. Contact forms usually have text input fields for:
- Name;
- General text area box for comments or questions;
- Category selection drop-down menu for details of what type of message or query the customer has;
- Email address, for replying to the customer;
- Relevant customer or account numbers; and
- Customer phone number.
JotForm allows you to make a large number of different “Contact” forms, with over 600 different forms that you can use as templates. Here’s an example of a basic contact form:
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What are some of the Legal Issues?
Terms of Use and User Behavior
A Terms of Use document sets out the rules for your customers using your website, including your web forms like your contact form. The Terms of Use will usually include:
- Description of user content, if your website allows for users to create or share content;
- Copyright infringement terms;
- Warranty information for any products you may have;
- Rules on how to use the website;
- Acceptable and unacceptable user behavior;
- Limitation of Liability;
- Indemnification;
- Arbitration or dispute resolution; and
- Choice of law or Governing law.
Your web forms (including your “contact us” form) may be vulnerable to people trying to misuse them or hack into your customer data, so it’s important to use good security techniques and create a thorough Terms of Use document so that you can ban any offending accounts.
It is important to make sure that your Terms of Use applies to all web forms that you have included on your website, not just the web pages themselves.
TermsFeed can help you to generate a Terms of Use for your website here, and JotForm can help you to create a “Contact Us” form that suits your needs.
Privacy
A contact form usually also collects some forms of personal information of the types I have listed above.
A customer’s name, email address, phone number, or other contact details are all personal information. If you are collecting any personal information from customers you must comply with relevant privacy laws in your country. Let’s look at some of the major jurisdictions around the world, and their Privacy legislation.
In the UK and Europe the Data Protection Directive (EU) and the Data Protection Act 1998 (UK) require that a set of data collection principles must be followed when you collect the personal information of your users.
These data collection principles are:
- Customers must be notified when you are collecting their data;
- Personal data should only be collected for specific purposes;
- The data collected should be adequate and relevant for the purpose;
- Personal data should be accurate;
- Personal data should not be kept for longer than necessary;
- Appropriate security measures should be put in place;
- Personal data must not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory also ensures an adequate level of protection for that data.
In the US there is no federal overarching privacy law that applies to online data collection. There is however a Californian state law (the California Online Privacy Protection Act 2003) which applies to the data of Californians. The Act requires that the website operator must have an easily-found and distinctive link to their Privacy Policy, which must outline:
- The kinds of information gathered by the website;
- How the information may be shared with other parties;
- The policy’s effective date and a description of any changes since then; and
- The process the user can use to review and make changes to their stored information.
If you are running a business or website that has international or American users, it is probable that some of your users will be from California.
In Canada, the law is called the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act 2000 (PIPEDA). This law requires that the website owner must:
- Obtain consent when they collect, use or disclose personal information;
- Supply an individual with a product or a service even if the individual refuses consent for the collection, use or disclosure of their personal information (unless that information is essential to the transaction);
- Collect information only by fair and lawful means; and
- Have personal information policies that are clear, understandable and readily available.
If you are based in any of the above countries, or if you could have users coming from those countries, your “Contact Us” form could collect personal information that is covered by the above laws, so make sure you comply.
The easiest way to comply with these laws is to set up a Privacy Policy on your website that covers the requirements above. A Privacy Policy is a legal statement that explains how user data is collected, used, managed, and disclosed. The Privacy Policy also explains how the individual’s privacy and personal information will be protected.
TermsFeed can help you to create your Privacy Policy here.
How Do you Make Sure Your Customers Agree?
Once you have drafted your Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, you need to make sure your user agrees to them.
There are two principal ways of obtaining agreement to these policies online, called browsewrap methods and clickwrap methods.
On your website, you can either use a browsewrap method and display links to your documents on the “Contact Us” page if it is a separate web page. Browsewrap means that your user has to browse your website to find the terms. Here’s a visual example from Hewlett-Packard of what browsewrap looks like:
This screenshot was taken of the very bottom of HP’s webpage. You can see that the user would need to scroll down to the bottom of the page, then look through the different links until they found the right document.
Or, you can use a clickwrap method and include a tick box at the bottom of your form. Clickwrap means that the user has actually clicked “I Agree” to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Let’s take a look at a clickwrap example from Art Bytes Academy:
The Art Bytes Academy form is a sign-up form, but it is similar to what your “Contact Us” form might look like. You can see the check box at the end of the form is a clickwrap method, as it is a required field and the user must click “I agree” to be able to proceed.
A clickwrap method is legally much stronger than browsewrap, but if you use a browsewrap method make sure that you display the links to your legal documents frequently and prominently.
If you are using a browsewrap method in relation to your web form, make sure that the links to your Privacy Policy and Terms of Use are easily visible on your “Contact Us” page; don’t hide them below the fold.
JotForm makes it easy to include a clickwrap method check box at the bottom of your form, and they also have a Terms and Conditions widget as well. These topics are covered in depth in one of our other articles, here.
Conclusion
All web forms (no matter how short) need to be covered by your Privacy Policy and website Terms of Use. Make sure that you use a strong browsewrap method or a clickwrap method to help make sure that your customers have agreed to both documents.
JotForm can help you to implement clickwrap methods with their basic check box functionality and widgets, as well as making sure that your Contact Us form is comprehensive and legally compliant.