Legal Question in Technology Law in New York

Re: Legal problems with a HS website

The legal rationale for the privacy, terms of use and other web site agreements is to cover yourself (and your employer's, etc.) in the event of abuse. In terms of drafting the agreements, you need to ensure that you are protecting against known and possible contingencies in areas of privacy, publication (libel), etc. In short, you need to spell out the terms of use of the site(s), your rights as the admin/op, and the users' individual obligations.

Re: Legal problems with a HS website

Website activities, including e-commerce, are now subject to extensive government regulation (Federal Trade Commission and state Attorney Generals) in terms of consumer privacy as well as their advertising, marketing and promotional functions. If you are dealing with minors, there is an additional regulatory aspect of compliance (COPPA) and if you are using email for direct marketing campaigns another legislative twist (CAN-SPAM Act). In short, privacy policies (and, to a lesser extent, Terms of Use) serve to facilitate compliance with federal and state laws in this area. If you are sued, properly drafted website agreements may be of significant help to the website owner and operator. Recently, both federal and state law enforcement has been quite active in pursuing websites that do not comply with the law or which generate customer complaints so if legal exposure is your concern you may want your website agreements to be prepared/reviewed by legal counsel.

This reply is in the nature of general information, is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such.