Why Do I Need a Disclosures Page?

• Tweet

Last night, I received a question regarding disclosures and privacy policies:

I was checking out this site, and as with other blogs, I see the disclosures page. My question is why are these needed, and how in the heck do you come up with all the information like cookies and all that stuff? I do plan to eventually move to self-hosted so was wondering about this. Thanks.

This question can get a little complicated to answer, but I’ll do my best to make it easy to understand. *Please note that this relates to blogs in the United States - if you’re in another country, the laws and regulations may differ.

The Federal Trade Commission

In 2009, the Federal Trade Commission issued a set of regulations concerning the use of various types of media, including blogs, for testimonials and endorsements. Because bloggers often receive free products in exchange for reviews (or a fee in exchange for text links or other ads), we are required to abide by the same guidelines as magazines, newspapers, and even TV commercials.

For a more comprehensive overview of the FTC requirements, check out this document from the FTC. The first page is boring legal stuff, but the other pages contain specific examples of what is and isn’t okay.

What This Means for Bloggers

If you fail to disclose a connection with a particular company or entity, you could be fined up to $11,000 per post. Now, I’ve never known of that happening, but it could, according to the FTC. Personally, I’d rather play it safe and never find out!

A Disclosures page gives you a spot to explain the possibility of ads, affiliate links, and paid or compensated reviews on your site. Basically, you’re covering your butt in case there is ever a question about your relationships with other websites or companies.

Ideally you would also disclose the nature of the compensation in individual posts; that’s why you’ll see things like This post was provided by Blah Blah Company or I received a free copy of Book About Stuff in exchange for this review. The exact wording isn’t as important as the fact that it’s there - no one can question the fact that you disclosed what you were supposed to.

For help in creating a disclosure page for your blog, go to DisclosurePolicy.org - you answer a few questions, and you’ll get an automatically generated policy to paste onto your blog.

Disclaimers

As of this writing, I haven’t posted a disclaimer on this site because I’m a blogger talking about blogging - I’m pretty sure I’m qualified. However, on my personal finance site, I do have a short disclaimer because I’m not a finance professional. I don’t want anyone mistaking me for someone who should be giving them financial advice, and I definitely don’t want to be sued because someone listened to me and it turned out badly.

A disclaimer can be placed in your sidebar, footer, or About page (or anywhere else you choose) and only needs to be a sentence or two. Here is the one I use on So Over This:

I am not a finance professional and I am sure as hell not qualified to give financial advice. I can only share what works or doesn’t work in my specific situation. If you read something here, choose to apply it, and it sucks, it’s not my fault.

Privacy Policies

Both Google and the FTC like privacy policies. Because of phishing scams and online fraud, it’s important to let your readers know how you’re going to use their information.

You might be thinking, But I don’t sell anything or get any information from my readers! Think again. Do you have options to subscribe via email or RSS? You’re collecting information. Comments? You’re collecting information. Even the fact that you use Google Analytics or other stats software means you are collecting information about your readers.

Google Adsense specifically requires a privacy policy to be present on websites that use ads, per the Adsense Terms and Conditions.

You can generate a free privacy policy at GeneratePrivacyPolicy.com. Again, you’ll just need to answer some questions and copy and paste the results onto your blog.

The Bottom Line

Even if you have a little tiny blog that you think no one reads, it’s fast and easy to include disclosures, disclaimers, and privacy policies on your site. I highly recommend doing this as soon as you start a blog, just to be on the safe side. Ignorance of the law doesn’t prevent you from getting into trouble - know your responsibilities and make sure you understand what you need to do to keep blogging happily.