RE: Web Designer Legal Obligations

Good evening

I am thinking of having some 'Terms & Conditions' and a 'Privacy  
Policy' on my website: www.beecroftprecision.com which is hosted by  
'Freehostia'. This is because when I created a website for Beecroft  
Precision it was my first and it gave me a great sense of acheivement,  
I want to continue to learn about web design and maybe offer my  
services to other companies or people in need (for a fee once I am  
more knowledgable). When I searched the web for: 'How much to charge  
for web design?', I
came across a lady that answered: "If you are designing a site for  
say, Joe Bloggs Ltd then the terms & Conditions of Joe Bloggs Ltd,  
such as payment terms etc must be shown as also the privacy policy  
outlining what you do with names and addresses of people who come to  
your site - i.e. that you respect their privacy and do not pass on  
their details to 3rd parties."

As the world authority in web standards, I thought that here would be  
a good place to come to for advice.  I was hoping you could help me  
with this by pointing me in the right direction.  Is there a help  
system set up for web designers where we can grab templates from for  
'Website Terms & Conditions' & 'Website Privacy Policy'?

I enjoy the creative side of web design, as in taking the photos and  
coding the pages, actually building the site, but I wouldn't have a  
clue on the legal side of things as in drawing up a terms and  
conditions and privacy policy for each client.  Are web designers  
generally expected to get their heads around this technical legal  
stuff too?!

I just wanted to ask advice on this, really.  It's just because I'm  
not sure which parts of the example terms and conditions I have seen (http://www.sarahgawler.co.uk/privacy.php 
  &http://www.sarahgawler.co.uk/terms.php) would be applicable for the  
website which I have already created and therefore which parts may  
cause problems if left in for example.

As I start to think more about it and look into it, I think the  
paragraph on cookies, as follows:
"We may send a cookie which may be stored on by your browser on your
computers hard drive. We may use the information we obtain from the
cookie in the administration of this website, to improve the websites
usability and for marketing purposes. We may also use that information
to recognise your computer when you visit our website, and to
personalise our website for you."

My thoughts are that as my website is hosted by Freehostia, under my  
current hosting plan I do not receive any traffic stats, so I would  
not be able to collect any of the information as described above, and  
use it to help me improve the site.  However if I upgraded my hosting  
plan, the site stats may make that stuff a lot more feasible.  Is it  
perhaps a good idea to keep a paragraph like that in as standard?  It  
does use the word 'may' in all cases.  In that case if I did upgrade  
the hosting plan at any time, I would not have to revise the terms and  
conditions to reflect that.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. This would be much  
appreciated.

Kind Regards
Jennifer Beecroft
Lions_fan86@Hotmail.com





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