Legal Policies for Websites (USA)
What You Need To Know!
DISCLAIMER
This information is for educational purposes only and not a substitute for legal advice.
We’re a web design firm sharing legal policy best practices for service-based, small business website owners specifically in the United States.
Every country and state has its own legal requirements. If you need specific legal advice, please contact a business attorney in your local area.
Do you own a website? You need legal policies!
Researching legal requirements for your website probably doesn’t make your “Top 10 Exciting Things to Do This Year List.” Whether you're a solopreneur, small business owner, or a mid-to-large-sized company, your website must have comprehensive website policies that comply with privacy laws, such as the CPRA, GDPR, UK DPA, CalOPPA, PIPEDA, and more.
As brand and website designers, ensuring our clients’ websites are legally compliant with consumer protection laws and regulations isn’t the most exciting part of designing and building a website. However, like business taxes, it’s essential to be aware of the required disclosures to avoid being sued, paying fines, or having your website shut down.
We’re here to provide some baseline insights and inform you about the online provisions applicable to online service-based businesses in the U.S., so you can limit your liability and comply with consumer rights. Let’s get started!
Online Data Privacy Laws
What’s a Data Privacy Law? What’s a Privacy Policy?
A data privacy law is a set of legal rules that govern how personal data is collected, used, stored, and shared. Privacy Policies are where you disclose your practices regarding the collection, use and handling of your users' personal data.
Why isn’t there just one privacy law for websites?
Unfortunately, in the United States, there is no single privacy law that all websites are required to comply with. Multiple state privacy laws are growing in number and changing regularly.
On a global level, privacy laws are mandatory in many countries. Even if you don’t live or conduct business in that area of the world, if your website gets visits and collects data from people there, those laws can still apply to you.
The European Union has GDPR, the United Kingdom has the UK DPA, Canada has the PIPEDA and Quebec Law 25, and Australia has the Australian Privacy Act of 1988. However, there is currently no federal privacy law in the United States.
But, there are some exceptions, such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Gramm-Leach-bliley Act (GLBA). These federal laws have provisions on data privacy and privacy implications that you must comply with.
Because no single law in the U.S. protects consumers’ data collected by websites that can be used to identify an individual, states have been forced to pass their own privacy laws. The avalanche of state-specific privacy laws is unlikely to cease anytime soon, as these laws continue to proliferate in number year after year and evolve.
Technological advancements (such as AI), cultural disagreements (is privacy a fundamental human right?), privacy risks, priorities, and legal interpretations all contribute to the evolution and relevance of privacy laws.
Most people don’t want to think about data privacy laws, but stay with me—knowing which laws apply to your business and protecting your website with up-to-date legal policies is necessary.
What laws require websites to have a privacy policy?
Global and state laws require modern websites to have a Privacy Policy. If your website collects Personal Identifiable Information (PII) — most websites do, even if they don’t realize it — then you probably need a Privacy Policy.
In 2025, the following laws require websites to have a privacy policy. Click the direct links from Termageddon to see if they apply to you:
Delaware Personal Data Privacy Act (DPDPA)
Maryland Online Data Privacy Act of 2024
Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act
Rhode Island Data Transparency and Privacy Protection Act (DTPPA)
General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”)
UK’s Data Protection Act (UK DPA)
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”)
But my business isn’t located or conducts business in that state/country…
It’s worth repeating, even though it’s mentioned before: Privacy laws DO NOT only apply to businesses within that state or country. If your website collects personally identifiable information from visitors (like receiving a contact form submission across state or country lines), data privacy laws may still apply to you.
That being said, not every data privacy law may apply to your business and website. For state-by-state data privacy laws, they are conditional, meaning the law applies if the business or website meets one or more specific criteria, such as a particular business size, the number of site visitors per calendar year, selling data, or surpassing a certain revenue threshold.
Website Legal Policies 101
You should implement the standard legal policies on your site, including a Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Cookie Policy, and Disclaimer. More information on each of these policies is provided below.
In general, policies should be written in plain language and be easy to understand, making them more accessible and transparent for everyone and creating a positive user experience on your website.
It is essential to note that policies should be regularly reviewed and updated as needed to ensure compliance with new laws and regulations. You may want to consult with a local attorney if you have specific needs or coverage requirements.
But if you’re like most small businesses that don’t have the budget or require a privacy attorney, and online data privacy laws aren’t your specialty, we have a solution for you! We recommend Termageddon, the leading website legal policy-generating software that we use and implement for our website clients.
What is Personal Identifiable Information (PII)?
Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is any information that could be used to identify you. It’s commonly collected through forms, subscriptions, analytics and tracking pixels.
“But my website doesn’t collect personal information.” Are you sure? When a user visits your website, your site and/or analytics are most likely collecting their data.
A wide range of information can fall into this category. Here are common examples of PII:
Name
Email Address
Phone Number
Form Submissions
IP Address (geolocation or spam prevention)
Page Views
Button Clicks
Credit Card Info
Billing/Shipping Address
If your site has features like these below, it’s collecting user data:
Contact Form
Scheduling Features
Newsletter Signup
eCommerce Store
Account Login
Comment Posting
reCAPTCHA
Google/Adobe Fonts
Analytics Software
Third-Party Video Services (YouTube/Vimeo)
Determine what personal information and data your website collects, the purpose for collecting it, the source of the data, the legal bases on which you process the data, and what third parties you share the personal information with. You’ll need to disclose all of this in your privacy policy.
Why Data Privacy Matters
We believe data privacy is a fundamental human right.
People have become increasingly interested in protecting their online privacy. Why? One primary reason is that the number of data compromises, including data breaches, leaks, and exposures, is on the rise.
What’s the big deal if companies can track you and build a profile based on your browsing history, specific Google searches, geolocation, know your name, home address, and credit card number?!
Data privacy laws exist to protect consumers’ data from misuse, including identity theft, cybercrime, financial loss, and emotional distress. These laws give people the right to control their personal information (opting out), to know how their data is being used, and to request the deletion of their data. These laws enable individuals to make informed decisions about sharing their data.
In 2025, in the golden age of online technology, it’s essential to decide what (potentially highly sensitive) information you’re willing to share, how, when, where, and with whom.
More often than not, though, we quickly check boxes and agree, check out on a sketchy website, or fill something out online and forget about it. We don’t have the attention span to read every single website’s policy pages, application terms, and even if we do read them, it isn’t clear what they mean and how they apply to us.
Businesses and governments rely on surveillance of your personal data to target you with hyper-personalized ads, influence the content you see, affect your purchasing and political decisions, sell your data for profit, or accidentally leak it in a data breach.
Businesses that practice data privacy are protecting consumers' information. This transparency builds trust and better relationships. It also helps businesses avoid fines and penalties, which can be quite steep (for example, $2,500 per visit or violation), as well as reputational damage.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
GDPR is not the first data privacy protection law, but it is one of the most comprehensive. It prompted global action and accelerated the movement of privacy protections in many countries and states. It was created in 2016 to replace the 1995 Data Protection Directive and went into effect in 2018.
GDPR is a European Union law that protects the privacy of EU residents. By default, the collection, use and disclosure of PII of EU citizens is not allowed. Users must give consent to a website before the site can collect and process their personal data.
Some exceptions permit the processing of personal data, such as when the user has given consent or when data processing is necessary to provide a service. Still, these must be disclosed in your privacy policy. There are also particular requirements on what a privacy policy must contain.
It applies to businesses located in the EU that offer goods and services and/or monitor the behavior of EU residents, regardless of the business’s location.
Users can withdraw their consent at any time and request to know how their personal information is being used, as well as request that their data be completely deleted. GDPR requires websites to post and enforce an accessible privacy policy. Here is a comprehensive GDPR compliance guide.
Legal Policy Website Pages
Don’t consolidate all your policies on a single, comprehensive “legal page”. Each policy, such as the Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Cookie Policy, and Disclaimer, requires its dedicated page because users must be able to clearly distinguish between all of your policies.
It’s also important not to bundle your policies on one page due to GDPR and other state privacy policy acts. Not only is it legally required to post each policy conspicuously, but it’s also good user experience to use a descriptive hyperlink (ie, website.com/privacy-policy) listed in the footer of the site. Hence, it’s accessible from every page of your site.
Privacy Policy
It’s legally required by many countries and state laws that a website have a privacy policy when collecting personally identifiable information (PII).
A privacy policy is a legal document that outlines how a website collects, uses, and shares personal data.
It informs users about their data rights, the security measures taken to protect their data, and the company's adherence to relevant regulations. A privacy policy provides users with assurance that their data is kept safe, used only for legitimate purposes, and that they are aware of their rights to access and control their data.
Enhancing legal protections for users became a top priority following the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal, which garnered significant public attention in 2018. Also in 2018, the European Union implemented the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which has become the global standard for data privacy and redefines the concept of online consent.
Navigating compliance with these laws can be challenging, and confusion can arise, especially since there is no single overarching federal privacy law in the United States.
As a website design agency, we help our clients understand, to the best of our ability, the importance of privacy policies so they’re not sued for non-compliance with privacy laws on their website. Ultimately, it’s up to the website owner to ensure their site is compliant with applicable laws.
Depending on your business, you may want to consult a privacy attorney to help navigate the process of creating a bulletproof policy. We recommend a cost-effective policy generator service to ensure your site is compliant and up-to-date.
Terms of Service
The terms of service, also referred to as terms and conditions and terms of use, is a legal agreement between the website and the user.
The user must agree to the terms when using the website, which states the rules of use. It’s highly recommended but not legally required that a website have terms of service.
The terms of service policy defines the rights and responsibilities of both parties, outlining the use of the content, expectations for users, acceptable behavior, and what actions are prohibited on the site.
They help protect your intellectual property (IP), provide contact information, choose the location where you’d like to resolve disputes, and lessen the number of damages you may be responsible for.
If you own an e-commerce website or sell products or services on your website (e.g., consultations, memberships, digital products), it is strongly advised and best practice to have a Terms of Service (ToS) agreement in place.
You’ll want to clearly state the rules regarding cancellations, refunds, warranties, and other policies. Not surprisingly, there are additional legal requirements surrounding online sales that vary depending on your business type, industry, and location, including taxes, payment processors, shipping, age restrictions, and other relevant factors. For a guide on eCommerce laws and regulations, check out this article from BigCommerce.
Terms help protect the site owner and enable users to understand your company before making a purchase.
Disclaimer
A disclaimer outlines the limitations of the website and the liability for using the site and the information it contains.
It’s not legally required that a website have a disclaimer, but you do need one if your website:
participates in affiliate programs/marketing
advertises third-party products/services
sells/displays health products
provides health or fitness advice
provides info that could be seen as legal advice
We all read disclaimers—they’re everywhere…
From the “This medication can help with your symptoms but may cause moderate to severe pain or even death” pharmaceutical commercials to the statement under a YouTube exercise video “Always consult a physician prior to starting a new exercise routine” to the “Caution: Contents Hot” label found on most disposable drink cups.
Heck, we included a disclaimer at the top of this blog post stating, “This information is for educational purposes only and not a substitute for legal advice.”
These types of disclaimers serve to reduce your liability by outlining the risks associated with using the website. They protect your business in the event that someone gets injured or something goes awry.
Making users aware of the potential risks helps ensure a safe and secure experience for all. Additionally, if someone takes legal action against you due to an injury, the resulting damages can be costly.
Create a disclaimer and implement it as soon as possible if the above conditions apply to you, to minimize your liability.
Accessibility Statement
An accessibility statement is a document that explains a company’s commitment, current status, and any barriers to making its website accessible to users with disabilities. It also includes contact information, allowing users to provide feedback and request assistance.
Unlike the European Union, which has the European Accessibility Act (EAA) that mandates businesses operating within the EU must make their digital services accessible, requiring an accessibility statement, the U.S. has more complex rules.
While not legally required for all websites in the United States, the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) mandates that certain websites must comply with its requirements, including websites for or funded by state or local governments and websites for businesses open to the public, referred to as public accommodations.
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 applies to federal agencies or organizations that receive federal funds, including contractors, which requires agencies to make their digital content accessible to people with disabilities.
Some businesses are exempt from ADA compliance; however, it’s generally recommended to make your site as accessible as possible.
Designing and building websites that are easy to use, understand and helpful to every visitor is something we strive for. We believe in inclusive design: the method of creating buildings, products, and environments that are accessible to all people, regardless of age, disability, or other factors. Web accessibility is not only the right thing to do ethically, but it also helps protect your business from lawsuits.
The ADA standards for accessible design don’t provide guidelines on making a website compliant. Instead, the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the accepted standard for digital accessibility. Their website provides numerous tips, includes an accessibility statement generator, and offers compliance testers, among other valuable resources.
Depending on your business, your website may be required by law to conform to one of the following accessibility levels: Level A, AA, or AAA. There is no such thing as 100% accessibility, but you can do things to make your site more compliant.
While we can’t provide advice about making your site compliant with specific accessibility laws, regulations or standards, we do include a general statement about accessibility on our website and client sites, accompanied by a disclaimer that, despite our efforts to make all content accessible, some content may not have been fully adapted to the strictest accessibility standards due to the lack of identification of the most appropriate technological solution.
We build our websites on the Squarespace platform and rely on their built-in tools for accessibility as well as our combined 30+ years of best practices for designing and structuring content.
Accessibility is essential, and we've written a blog post to help you learn more about website accessibility standards.
Additionally, here is an introduction to accessibility, along with an advanced approach that includes more resources and helpful links.
Cookie Policy and Cookie Consent Tool
A cookie policy is a document that informs users about how a website uses cookies and tracking technologies, including the types of cookies used and how users can control them.
A cookie consent tool is a software that websites use to manage cookie consent in accordance with data privacy laws. It helps websites obtain user consent before storing cookies and tracking tech on their devices, ensuring compliance.
Cookies are small data files stored on a user’s computer browser or device by a website they visit. There are different types of cookies: essential, functional, and marketing.
Essential: These technologies are required to activate the core functionality of the website.
Functional: These technologies enable the website to have third-party functionalities.
Marketing: These technologies are used by the website to analyze and measure the website's performance.
If your site uses cookies (most websites do), you’ll need to disclose this information in your privacy policy, as required by privacy laws. In the U.S., it’s not federally mandated to have a separate cookie policy; however, state privacy laws require businesses to disclose the use of cookies, the data collected, and the purpose of collection.
We highly recommend that your website have a cookie policy that explains to users what cookies will be placed on their devices by your website and for what purposes. Everyone’s cookie needs are unique because every website might use different cookies and analytics tracking technologies.
For example, Squarespace has essential built-in cookies to enhance the browsing experience, as well as analytics cookies that help track user behavior. Additionally, when you add third-party cookies, such as reCAPTCHA, Adobe/Google fonts, YouTube, Vimeo, and other tracking software like Google Analytics or Facebook Pixel, the number of cookies can start to add up.
In addition to a cookie policy, you also need a cookie consent tool, such as a banner or pop-up, as required by specific data privacy laws, including the GDPR. A cookie consent tool is used to inform users about the cookies in use, link to your privacy policy, and obtain consent for cookies (opt-in or opt-out) before they are run.
But not all cookie consent tools are created equal. For example, Squarespace’s built-in cookie banner allows visitors to accept all cookies, reject all non-essential cookies, or manage their cookies and customize preferences. It is a valuable tool that has been improved from its previous version. However, to be GDPR compliant, you must receive a visitor’s affirmative consent to use non-essential cookies, which restricts your analytics cookies until after a user has clicked to accept them.
You can disable Squarespace analytics cookies altogether or use the cookie banner to notify visitors and offer consent options. Still, the built-in Squarespace cookie banner doesn’t restrict ALL cookies placed by third-party services (they do restrict some third-party cookies), so if your site uses third-party services or similar tracking technologies, you’ll need a more advanced cookie consent management tool to meet your legal requirements.
While blocking third-party scripts that drop non-essential cookies can make analytics info inaccurate, it’s more important to comply with privacy laws and give users their right to consent.
In our aim to become more transparent and compliant, we implement the Usercentrics Consent Management Platform (CMP) cookie consent solution in partnership with Termageddeon (our website legal policy generator).
Usercentrics is an EU-based Consent Management Platform (CMP) that helps websites with GDPR cookie compliance.
Copyright
A copyright notice makes users aware that your website content is legally protected and that they don’t have the right to use it without your permission.
Copyright is the legal protection of the tangible expression of ideas, such as writing, music, graphics, and a website! All materials published after 1964 are under copyright protection.
It’s not legally required to include a copyright designation on your website. However, it’s a good idea for several reasons, including automatic protection, creating a public record, deterring infringement, and mitigating potential damages.
Adding it is also extremely easy: place a copyright designation in your site’s footer. Use the copyright symbol ©, enter your business name, and the year, and you're done. Keep it up to date and/or use a date range like we do.
If you do want to grant permission for people to use aspects of your content (written or visual), you must clearly state the terms of usage. This is typically done with Creative Commons licenses, which allow for the sharing and distribution of intellectual property (IP) with limited or no restrictions, while retaining the rights the creator wants to keep.
When using any content on your site that’s not yours, you’re not only plagiarizing, but you may also be liable for copyright infringement, which people can sue you for.
End User License Agreement (EULA)
An EULA is a legal contract between a website and its users, which the user typically must consent to (by clicking “I accept”) before they can use the website, as they’ve agreed to comply with the restrictions outlined in the EULA.
This is necessary for businesses that provide software, mobile applications, desktop applications, Facebook applications, and SaaS (Software as a Service) applications.
It’s not typical for most online small businesses to need a EULA.
Website Legal Policy Generators
A website legal policy generator is a tool that helps site owners create and maintain legal documents for their website, such as a privacy policy, terms of service, and cookie policy.
You have two main options when it comes to getting policies for your website:
Privacy attorneys can write a policy for you, and this is an excellent option if you are a medium– or large-sized company with more resources, budget, and if you require special compliance.
You can also use a generator, which asks conditional questions about your business and website to produce tailored documents that meet your specific needs, ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations.
A generator is faster, more cost-effective, and can stay more up-to-date than a static policy. This is what we use and recommend to our clients.
There are many policy generator vendors to choose from to fulfill your website's legal privacy policy needs, both free and paid options.
We recommend Termageddon (our preferred vendor) because the policies are the most comprehensive on the market. It’s run by Hans Skillrud, a former agency owner who struggled to find suitable, affordable, and extensive privacy law options for websites. His wife and co-founder Donata is a licensed attorney. We love their service because they’re incredibly responsive, and no, they didn’t pay us to say this about them!
Termageddon stays up-to-date with all the changing privacy laws, automatically updating policies with relevant questions and notifying you of updates whenever laws change or new ones take effect.
After sign-up and implementation, review your policies and address any new questions that may arise, which could potentially lead to additional disclosures in your policies.
There are also Termly, TermsFeed, Shopify, Lubenda and many more generators.
Even with these policy generators that are supposed to make things easier for you, you still might be confused by the questions they ask, and that’s when you might need to seek additional help.
We walk clients through the Termageddon setup to ensure they understand what they’re signing up for, filling out, and how they can make future updates. We are a proud Termageddon data privacy certified agency partner, achieving a perfect score of 100%!
FAQS
How can I keep up with all the changing laws?
There is paid software available for tracking changes in bills, such as Legiscan. Alternatively, you can check the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) website for updates. We rely on our policy generator software to update policies before laws take effect.
Is my company too small for compliance?
No. There is no minimum business size requirement for a privacy policy. However, not all laws will apply to your business, depending on certain qualifiers, such as your location, business, and revenue.
Can I copy and paste a template?
We don’t recommend it because this is copyrighted material. Additionally, you may not know if that contract is a good fit for your business, and static documents become outdated.
Who can sue me?
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responsible for data protection for all consumers in the U.S. so you could be sued by the FTC or your state’s Attorney General. A consumer might also be able to sue you for violations.
Can my web designer handle this legal aspect for me?
No, because you are the only one who knows your business inside and out. It’s the website owner's responsibility to ensure full compliance with laws and regulations. A web designer can provide general resources, help you set up a policy generator, and implement the embed codes into your site.
Conclusion
All website owners should carefully consider the personal information that their site collects, processes, and uses. Establish clear legal policies on your website to prevent privacy-related fines and lawsuits, protect users, and provide peace of mind (for both you and your users). It’s essential for site owners to create comprehensive and up-to-date legal policies before launching their site, and maintain them as laws and regulations change.
FAQS
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Every website owner should have key legal policies in place, including a Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Cookie Policy, Accessibility Statement, Copyright Notice, and, in some cases, a Disclaimer and an End User License Agreement (EULA).
It’s also recommended to have a cookie consent management tool for any non-essential cookies in use.
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Changing laws and regulations constantly impact the legal requirements for website owners. Staying compliant requires vigilance and regular updates to policies.
Paid software, such as Legiscan, or resources like the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) can help track changes in laws. Policy generator software, such as Termageddon, can automatically update policies before new laws take effect.
Website owners need to stay informed about legal changes to ensure ongoing compliance.
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Failing to implement proper legal policies on a website can result in privacy-related fines, lawsuits, and potential damage to the website owner's reputation. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general can enforce compliance and sue website owners for violating these standards. Additionally, consumers may have legal recourse if their privacy rights are infringed upon.
While web designers can offer guidance and assistance with policy implementation, ultimate responsibility for compliance rests with the website owner, as they are the ones most familiar with their business operations and legal obligations.
