Termageddon

Website policies that revise themselves when privacy law changes

A privacy policy written once can be out of date within months, because privacy rules are passed in new places all the time. Termageddon takes a different route from a static template. A business answers questions about how it collects and uses data, the service writes the policy to match the laws that apply, and the policy is displayed on the website through an embed code. When the underlying laws change, the embedded text updates without the owner doing anything, and an email notice follows.

The policies on offer

The privacy policy generator identifies applicable privacy laws and writes the disclosures they require. The company lists CPRA, GDPR, the UK Data Protection Act, CalOPPA and PIPEDA among the laws it works with. A terms and conditions generator covers consumer protection and e-commerce wording and is meant to limit the owner's liability. The site also offers cookie policy and consent tools, a disclaimer generator and an end user license agreement generator. One license covers all the policies for a single website or application, and the owner may change the answers as often as needed when the site adds a feature.

Setting it up

The sequence is short: buy a license, answer the questions about the business and the site, then copy the embed code into the body of the policy page. The company says the whole process can take less than half an hour. Policies can be edited section by section. Sections an owner has customized are left alone, but the service warns the owner when a new required disclosure affects the edited wording.

Where it is available

Termageddon is offered to companies incorporated in the US, Canada, Ireland, Britain, the EU, South Africa and Australia, and the set of policies depends on the country. It sends alerts when new privacy laws pass in Canada, North America, Europe and Australia.

For design agencies and attorneys

Web design agencies receive a free set of policies for their own sites with no limits, and may become resellers or affiliate partners earning recurring revenue by protecting client sites. Termageddon says it is not a law firm but that attorneys use it for themselves and their clients. It was founded and is run by a licensed privacy attorney who chairs the American Bar Association's ePrivacy committee, and it says no other policy generator of its kind has been on the International Association of Privacy Professionals vendor list for as long.