If you have a website with even one visitor, the importance of a disclaimer has never been as important as it has in the current climate on the Internet. With the rise of viruses and malicious coded malware, your website and your visitors are constantly at risk from the vulnerabilities of servers, computers and browsers, so it is vital to make sure that you cover yourself from any liability.
A website disclaimer shows and states to the user limitations of your liability when it comes to the use of your website and the information it contains. It is basically the same as terms and conditions when you are buying something, it shows what is covered and most importantly from your point of view, what is not covered. Although the cases of webmasters being sued or taken to court for anything that has happened due to problems with their website, there is bound to be a time when these cases begin, so it’s important to make sure you are covered.
Although all webmasters have a duty to ensure to the best of their abilities that their website is secure and free from malicious issues, there are times in every webmasters and site owner’s life that you do get caught out, often through no fault of your own. There have be instances where big hosting companies have been hacked and the sites on their servers have been targeted, so by making sure you do all you can and offering a disclaimer, you should be doing all you can to cover yourself in the event of a problem arising.
A disclaimer basically will help to ensure that if someone’s computer became infected or damaged to due to an event arising from the visitor landing on your website, you have no liability. This means that the webmaster or site owner can limit their liability when it comes to how much in damages the person could theoretically sue for should this case ever arise, which as we mention, is unlikely but could start happening as people become more savvy on the Internet.
Getting a disclaimer for your site is quite simple, many website offering a great sample selection of website disclaimers that you can download, amend and then add to your own site. Here’s a lists of samples:
Or, you can write your own based on looking at other websites within your industry or niche if you want to be really specific in terms of what you are using the disclaimer for.
If you use WordPress for your website you can use a plugin that we built ourselves, its name is Disclaimer Popup, which can help you create a popup with your personalized disclaimer in all aspects, even the graphics.
Although many people dismiss the importance of having a disclaimer on their site, for the sake of a small link at the bottom of your page, is it really worth not having one. How many times have you just ticked “yes” to the terms and conditions on a website and just gone through to use it without reading them? If you have done this, then you would quickly learn that should something go wrong when your on the site, the company have already covered themselves by making sure they had, in writing, something to stop you from taking things further.
Always better to be safe, rather than sorry.
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