Law Office of E.C. Lewis, P.C.

By reading this series and using this website, you agree to my Terms of Service and acknowledge that this is not legal advice but for informational purposes only. If you are a Colorado business with an online presence, please contact me, Elizabeth Lewis, your online business attorney for more information about how you need to structure your business, what you need to do to make sure your website complies with all the laws and protects you, and for all your business needs at 720-530-3405 or Elizabeth.Lewis@eclewis.com.

With the increase of mobile devices with browsing capability, more sites are developing applications or sites for these devices. Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn have applications allowing individuals to use the sites on their iPhones and Blackberries. Twitter, CNN, and others have special pages just for mobile devices. When you use these applications and sites, they may have the same TOS as the normal site or may have their own.

So, why should a company care about whether they have information in their TOS about additional applications? The reason is because if your site uses additional applications, you may gain information that you wouldn’t through your normal website. For instance, if the phone they are using an application with had GPS capabilities, you may be able to access their location which may not be covered in your standard TOS. Therefore, you may want a separate section that covers applications that aren’t made by you.

How does this affect the average business owner? If you use third party applications or have applications that use anything other than a website login, you should probably have your terms of service reviewed by an attorney. If you don’t use third party applications and the only way people use your application is through a computer or laptop with a wired connection, you should still probably have your TOS reviewed but may or may not need to have it reviewed about third party apps or alternative uses. As always, I recommend that you find an attorney in your area that specialized in TOS.

For more information about terms of services, or if you need a terms of service written for your company, please contact me, Elizabeth Lewis, your business attorney at 720-530-3405 or Elizabeth.Lewis@eclewis.com.