Recommended reports
How We Shop in 2010: Habits and Motivations of Consumers
How We Shop in 2010: Habits and Motivations of Consumers is split into two separate documents for the US and UK, examining e-commerce consumer behavior in both countries. Both reports focus on how consumers interact with e-commerce brands, conduct product research and the different factors in the buying decision-making process.
Alternatively, see our Value of Social Media Report or Global Social Media Statistics.
09 July 2009 12:18pm
We have a significant amount of user generated content on our site in the form of visitor reviews of businesses. Something like tripadvisor albeit on a smaller scale.
Most of what we publish should be covered by the "fair comment" defence and we haven't had any serious threats of action against us. But if a user were to write something untrue and malicious on our site, or which infringed copyright and we published it we could be held responsible so I've been looking into insurance, so far without much success. Lots of sites must be in the same situation but there doesn't seem to be much information available about PII for web publishers.
One of the things I want to understand is whether it's better to approve everything before it goes live on the site. Doing so would obviously help to filter out potentially defamatory content, but I've also read that by approving the content, you've accepted responsibility for it so in some ways are increasing your exposure to legal action. Manually approving everything will also slow things down and personally I would find it annoying if, for example, on posting this I received a message saying "your post will appear once we've checked it".
Do any of you have experience of this, can you recommend any specialist insurers or brokers who handle this kind of thing? Any advice would be much appreciated.
CEO at Econsultancy
10 July 2009 10:40am
Hi there
Yes, we've looked into this - for this site, including these forums and blog comments etc. Basically, we couldn't find any insurer at the time that could really even understand what we did let alone try and come up with any sensible cover. It's so open-ended.
So our approach, which I think others seem to follow, is three-fold:
1. We make sure our T&Cs of site usage (see our User Agreement) disclaim pretty much everything and anything. They end up being long and draconian sounding but really it's just a fallback legal position, were it ever needed, which effectively says 'don't believe anything we, or anyone, ever says'!
2. We have some for of user registration in order for a user to post content. So to post to these forums you need to be a member and you need to have registered. Even for blog comments you have to at least give a functioning email address. This is, in part, to help prevent comment spam but it also allows us to identify users and, were it necessary, help track down any 'offenders'. Of course, in reality, people can completely make up an identity but it does show that we have some measures in place.
3. Finally, and probably most importantly, though we don't pre-moderate or filter posts (I don't think this is a good idea as it really undermines the user experience) we do check them regularly and we immediately take down anything 'offending' (as per our T&Cs) and, in the very rare occasions where someone complains to us (e.g. someone has possibly defamed them in our forum) we act very quickly to sort it out.
From what we understand of the almost-non-existent case law surrounding the above the most important thing is to be seen to be trying and to act quickly.
Director at Watson Hall Ltd
13 July 2009 10:29am
Make sure there is are clear, multiple, channels for people to contact you about malicious, inappropriate or potentially illegal content. But "take down" itself can be controversial, so beware of jumping too fast, and make sure you have clear guidance about exactly your policies are. "Illegal" may be difficult to define if your user-base are in more than one legal jurisdiction.
In terms of specialist insurers or brokers, you might first want to read this guide which I blogged about:
E-Commerce and Insurance - The Definitive Guide
http://www.clerkendweller.com/2009/6/5/ECommerce-and-Insurance--The-Definitive-Guide
There are some off-the-shelf packages, but the market is still developing, and I suspect you really need something tailored to your own risks, and what controls you have in place.
Perhaps speak to a broker like Lockton or Safeonline.
Regards
Colin Watson
Director
Watson Hall Ltd for information privacy and security