December 11, 2008

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Dear {!firstname}:

Welcome to Your WEBSITE LAW ALERT by Chip Cooper and DigiContracts.com

Chip's Commentary:

2008 is winding down fast... and I've started looking ahead to '09.

With all that's going on in the economy now, it's difficult to get a handle on where we really are right now. Is this a once-in-a-lifetime threat to our entire economic system... the end of our economic model?

Or, is it really a typical recession (with a new twist added by the financial markets just to confuse us) that we weather in typical form -- in 18 months from the beginning (and where was the beginning)?

Amid the confusion, one thing's clear... the overwhelming issue in the recent Presidential election was "stabilizing the U.S. economy". All else took a back seat.

Data Security -- Contractual Requirements:

2008 has been an eventful year for data security violations by online businesses. More than a few times, I've been asked: how do I know if our site is in compliance with data security requirements?

More often than not, when considering this question our attention focuses on technological measures, and rightfully so. However, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), one of the clear requirements is a contractual one.

Early in 2008, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced 2 litigation settlements that provided some concrete guidelines for online businesses regarding data security compliance. The FTC press releases for these settlements are excellent sources for what the FTC expects of online businesses.

For the FTC press release in January regarding the Life is Good case, click here.

For the FTC press release in March regarding the TJ Maxx case and others, click here.

In each of these press releases, the FTC imposes the same 5 requirements on the violators who settled their cases.

This is requirement no. 4 in each settlement - "Develop reasonable steps to select and oversee service providers that handle the personal information they receive..."

Think about it... if you outsource services such as website development, hosting, maintenance, SEO, and the like, these service providers must be compliant with data security requirements, or your entire data security program fails. This requires that you bind your service providers contractually to be data security compliant.

As you'll see below, we've added a document to our site that you should consider for your data security compliance program.

Comments From Digicontracts.com:

We've just added a new document to our ContractMaker online drafting service: Website Privacy-Security Agreement (Service Provider). It's recommended that you draft a version of this agreement for all service providers who have possession of, or right of access to, your website server.

To learn more about this cost-effective solution, click here.

Regards,

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"Determine Which Legal Documents Your Website Really Needs",
"Draft Your Own Website Privacy Policy", and
and "Write Your Own Website Marketing Copy - Legally",
with your colleagues and business associates.