You could include these disclaimers in the first few seconds of your video or in its description. This type of disclaimer is also frequently used on social media, especially on LinkedIn, when an employee wants to make it clear that the comments that they make or the posts that they share are not endorsed by their employer, even though it may be on a topic that is related to their professional field of expertise.
And a disclaimer than can be found on a personal lifestyle and fashion blog, The Glossier :. This type of disclaimer is frequently used by bloggers, as they often endorse products and share their personal opinions, which they would not necessarily want to be attributed to the brands that they collaborate with. Having such a disclaimer is also essential if you own a website on which readers or other third parties share their opinions on a subject or review products.
While this does not make it acceptable to write just anything online, at least your opinions will not be wrongly attributed to someone else, which could have devastating consequences. Here is an example of a disclaimer of liability from Nanyang Technical University in Singapore:. A no guarantee disclaimer serves to warn your website visitors that, while you are doing your best to ensure the accuracy of the content that you publish, you cannot provide a guarantee for it and, thus, cannot be held responsible for incorrect information and the consequences that could arise from acting upon it.
By way of example, here is a no guarantee disclaimer that appears on the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation website:. While the department makes this list available to its constituents to make financial assurance requirements more intelligible, it does not guarantee the validity of the information. This type of disclaimer can often be found on websites owned by an organization or people who share their expertise or knowledge on a specific subject, especially if the topic is complex or ever-evolving.
This could be the case if you are talking about a brand in a blog post and include their trademarked logo, for example. Or if you are selling products from various brands and include their company logo on the product description page.
Native Instruments , a leader in digital music production, display the following disclaimer on their website:. This disclaimer is followed by a list of all the registered trademarks used on their website as well as the names of the companies that own them, which clears up any confusion for their users. By including a trademark disclaimer, you will be making it clear to your website visitors that you are referring to a registered trademark that is not yours, which could help protect you against a trademark infringement complaint.
Confidentiality disclaimers often appear in the footer of an email, after the signature block. They are used by most companies that exchange sensitive or confidential information over email with the goal of limiting their liability should the email end up in the wrong hands. Here is a very detailed email disclaimer used by Sevocomm , a global telecommunication company,.
Confidentiality disclaimers can be general or more specific, depending on the nature of your business. Past performance disclaimers are notably used by financial institutions, investment firms, and trading platforms to warn potential and current clients that past performance does not guarantee any future results: this is due to the volatile nature of the financial markets.
It serves to protect them from lawsuits brought on by disappointed clients that were expecting a good return on investment or specific results. Zero commission stock-trading platform Robinhood includes this text in their website footer:. This past performance disclaimer addresses the risk inherent to investing in securities and encourages investors to think about their objectives before getting started.
Having raving customer reviews and testimonials on your website or social media profiles can be a great way to attract new business however, you must ensure that you have the proper disclaimer.
IdealShape is a company that sells meal replacement shakes, bars, and supplements that promote weight loss; it uses testimonials and success stories on its websites to promote its products. A disclaimer should contain all areas of potential risk that you can identify.
Over the past few years, there has been a steady growth in litigation over online content, and most of these suits are grounded on defamation. Protect yourself from criminal charges by making the readers of your website or blog aware that its content is merely an opinion and not fact. You should also consider including a disclaimer over the accuracy of the information on your website.
Otherwise, errors in the information you publish, even if unintentional, could expose yourself to legal liability. When publishing information, professionals usually add a disclaimer to say that their content is only informational and cannot be construed as professional advice. After all, this kind of advice can be given only after a personal consultation with a professional. If your business entails dealing with third parties, aside from your customers or clients, you may want to consider limiting your liability for the actions or errors of such third parties.
When you are using websites or social media platforms, this form of disclaimer is also useful. Website or social media accounts may have features that enable comments, user submissions, advertisements, or any form of third-party content. Again, this depends on the content of your website or blog. These are some of the ways that websites and blogs display their disclaimers:.
Browse-wrap is a small hyperlink at the bottom of the web page that redirects the user to another page with your disclaimer. Most websites and applications use a browse-wrap method to display their disclaimer, terms and conditions and other policies.
As opposed to the browse-wrap method, the click-wrap method is characterized by a checkbox. Before proceeding with your website, your clients or customers have to accept your terms and conditions. By making your disclaimer already part of it, you are ensuring that the said disclaimer is part of an enforceable contract. Regardless of where you decide to place your disclaimer, take note of the case of Specht vs.
In this case, the court said:. Although the crux of Specht vs. Netscape was due to the terms and conditions of the product, the same principles should be applied to disclaimers to give it legal effect.
The bottom line is: treat a disclaimer as you would a contract. This ensures that your disclaimer will be respected by the court in case of a lawsuit. Generally speaking, a disclaimer is not something that you will need to actively enforce. Rather, it is in place to potentially protect you in case legal action is taken against your website.
For instance, if you are sued because the information on your site was inaccurate and caused someone harm as a result, you may be able to point to the disclaimer in court as a way of protecting yourself against liability. You can make your case stronger by making sure of two things: the terms of your disclaimer are fair and your customers or clients can review them. To make a disclaimer legally binding, you must ensure that its terms are fair to your clients or customers.
As mentioned earlier, there are some things that a disclaimer cannot shield you from. For one, you cannot disclaim liability for negligence or include terms that are contrary to law. You must also make sure that there are no vague terms that might mislead your clients or customers. Your disclaimer should be placed where it is easily seen by your readers.
They shouldn't have to struggle trying to find it. The answer to this question is simple — no. You should not attempt to copy a disclaimer from another site because that site is certain to contain content that is different from your own.
You may wish to look at some of the disclaimers on other sites for a reference on this topic, but you are going to need to create your own custom disclaimer. Again here, the answer is no. The person who created the template cannot possibly know all the ins and outs of your website, so that template may fall short in important areas. This will allow you to consider the discrete terms of your disclaimer. In your disclaimer, cover any and all liabilities for the product or service that you provide.
You should warn consumers of any dangers or hazards posed by your product. You should list specific risks while at the same time acknowledging that the list is not exhaustive. This product [or service] can at times involve substantial risk of injury, property damage, and other dangers.
Dangers peculiar to such activities include, but are not limited to, [list the dangers]. Be as specific as possible. If you received a defective item, please contact us at [inset contact information] with details of the defect.
You can send the item you consider defective to: [insert address]. Limit liability for intangible property. If you provide an intangible good, such as information, then you will want to limit your liability for causing offense or damage. However, in general, you cannot limit your liability if you willfully and intentionally provide false statements of fact. Exceptions may be made in the case of parody and satire. If you are providing information, you might want to include a disclaimer as to its accuracy.
Here is a disclaimer from the U. Department of the Interior: "While the Department of the Interior strives to make the information on this website as timely and accurate as possible, the department makes no claims, promises, or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the contents of this site, and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in the contents of this site.
If you publish information about health and medicine, for example, you may want to include a long disclaimer, stating that you are not providing medical advice and encouraging readers to seek professional medical assistance. Limit liability for services. If your business provides a service, activity, or opportunity to use products or equipment, you will want to protect yourself against being held liable for your customers' use of those things.
Protect your rights. Just as you want to limit your potential exposure to lawsuits, you want to protect your rights in your product and warn others against infringement. For example, if you provide original content created by you, you might want to state: "All content is subject to copyright and may not be reproduced in any form without express written consent of the author. For example, the "fair use" doctrine allows others to use your content in certain circumstances and under certain conditions.
Limit your responsibility for third parties. This is especially important if your business displays advertising, uses outside vendors, or has a website or social media page that is open to public comment. For example, if you run a wedding planning business, you could include in your disclaimer that you cannot be held responsible for the failure of contractors decorators, musicians, etc.
Your liability disclaimer can extend to include third parties such as subcontractors, if you desire. Include terms and conditions and a privacy statement. Terms and conditions spell out the rights and responsibilities of you, the business, and your customer. Your disclaimer can then exempt you from responsibility if the customer does not abide by the terms and conditions. A privacy policy describes how your business will gather and use customer information. You can find a sample template for a privacy policy at the Better Business Bureau website here.
For example, if you sell computers, you could include in your terms and conditions that you are not responsible for damage to the computer if the customer does not use it appropriately. If you own a coffee shop with wi-fi, you could include that you do not collect personal information over wi-fi, but that others could possibly do so. By agreeing to those terms and conditions, the customer agrees to be responsible for any information sharing if she uses your wi-fi.
Include your contact information. Provide as many different ways of contacting you as possible, unless you feel uncomfortable providing personal information. At a minimum, you should provide an email address. Contact information also helps generate business. If someone wants to license your image, song, poetry, or essay, then providing contact information helps facilitate that.
All rights are reserved and content may not be reproduced, downloaded, disseminated, published, or transferred in any form or by any means, except with the prior written permission of [insert your name]. Requests for permission to reuse copyrighted content should be submitted to [your address]. Make customers aware of your disclaimer. You should place the disclaimer in a place where it will be visible to the public.
If you are using a risk disclaimer, then it must be highly visible. Use boldface so that it is conspicuous. The easiest way to do that is to ask them to sign an acknowledgement or click through, if you are online. Cover all of your bases. Have your legal disclaimer on any paperwork that your customer might come across to guarantee that they see it. Sample Disclaimer Sample Disclaimer for Website. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube.
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