Average cost to create a privacy policy/tos?

[burgerman]

I've read on numerous threads that it's well worth the money to hire a lawyer to create a tailored TOS and/or privacy policy for your site.

Can anyone please give me a rough estimate of how much the typical TOS and/or privacy policy would cost to be created by a lawyer?

Thanks a bunch

[biggedon]

if a TOS is already in use by an established web entity, which has been accepted by the masses or come under scrutiny and survived......then just copy it and alter for your purposes.



imo...

[David G]

Why reinvent the wheel. They are all basically the same.

[burgerman]

Thanks for the responses. Sounds tempting.

But isn't it considered copyright infringement to use only a slightly modified TOS/privacy policy belonging to someone else?

Also, is it a good thing to prevent the TOS page from getting indexed by Google?

[David G]

I meant to say use it only as an example of the wording and for its template value. Modify it extensively. Use your own name and contact details. Most of the ones I have seen sound very generic and use standard language and terms. A one pager should be suffficient and you can easiiy alter just 1 page a lot in a short time. Some sites such as Wordpress (last time I checked) have free privacy policy plugins. Also, since the search engines want you to use a privacy policy or may even require it why would it matter if it gets indexed in the SE? Wouldn't you in fact want it indexed so they know you have a privacy policy? But go ahead and hire an attorney if you wish.

Thanks for the responses. Sounds tempting.

But isn't it considered copyright infringement to use only a slightly modified TOS/privacy policy belonging to someone else?

Also, is it a good thing to prevent the TOS page from getting indexed by Google?

[DC20]

(note: not a lawyer, this is a personal opinion)
There is not that much to it....it's mainly a statement of the rules (TOS) and what you will do. For instance, if it says you can distribute naughty pictures of them to the local press then that is fine. The issue is being open and honest. If you don't share any information, brag on it....if you do, sugar coat it a little but make it obvious how you will use it. TOS...be specific. Oh, and in the TOS be sure to have a segment saying that if any part of the TOS is invalid that it is not to invalid the remainder of the restrictions.

Legally (again, opinion), it more a matter of intent and openness. If you obviously intended to make it plain then there should be too much to gripe about.

[Gerry]

If its a privacy policy, there are plug ins for that, example: for Wordpress sites, the plug in I use http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/...rivacy-policy/, Easy Privacy Policy. This automatically adds a Privacy page to a wordpress site complies with Adsense policy.

It auto-populates the page, you may have to tweak here and there, plus it adds an entire additional page to your site for adsense (or other) affiliates to appear.

Here is an example from one of my sites:
http://gulfwaterfront.com/privacy-policy