SaaS apps face legal challenges for launching features

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Legal challenges for SaaS apps

Transcript of SaaS apps face legal challenges for launching features

Legal challengesfor

SaaS apps

SaaS stands for “software as a service.”

Examples

Office 365 adds new features fairly frequently and also presents a seemingly never-ending supply of new templates for documents, spreadsheets, websites, and presentations. Also, it offers additional features for managing emails, calendars, and online meetings.

Another popular SaaS example includes Slack (1), a recent business communication tool. Starting out as an instant message app, Slack now features hashtags for categorizing conversations, search func-tions, and the ability to drag, drop, and share files.

(1) https://slack.com/

However, constantly changing a SaaS product produces a new challenge.

Updating legal agreements as your app expands

Every time you add a feature or make major features, you’ll need to reconsider your policies, including any of the following legal agreements your app may already have:

- Terms and Conditions or Terms of Service- Privacy Policy- Acceptable Use Policy- And so on

When to update the agreements

Generally, if the feature affects how data or privacy is handled, you’ll need to make adjustments to your Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy agreement.

However, if the changes merely fix bugs or change the app layout without any effects on data or privacy, you don’t need to change your policies.

Informing users of updates

Email

Announcing new changes to the app is also a good time to inform users of new developments for your company.

Dropbox used email when it changed its Terms of Service (2) to a wider global audience.

It also explained its new services which went beyond the usual Drop-box: Dropbox for Business, Carousel, and Mailbox.

(2) https://www.dropbox.com/privacy#terms

Hi there,

If you're a user living outside of North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico), we're updating our Terms of Service to better serve you and the growing number of Dropbox users around the world. These changes include the ft that we'll be providing our services (including Dropbox, Dropbox for Business, Carousel, and Mailbox) to you via Dropbox Ireland starting on June 1, 2015. Please note that none of our services or features are changing as a result of this. You can read the updated terms at https://www.dropbox.com/terms.

Have questions about these changes? Visit our Help Center.

Thanks for using Dropbox, The Dropbox Team

Announcements

Dropbox placed an announcement on its website.

Anyone who clicked on its “Terms of Service” (3) could also see the same information indicated in the email, but this time, in a format likely to attract attention.

Placing announcements at sign-in could be more effective than making users have to visit a Terms of Service tab.

Microsoft (4) took this approach when it make its own changes to its privacy and use policies.

(3) https://www.dropbox.com/terms (4) https://www.microsoft.com

Blog and media pages

Some companies enjoy being completely transparent when it comes to changes in their policies and new features.

Slack not only addresses changes through announcements and emails but also through its Medium page (5).

If your app is a quickly developing and constantly changing popular one like Slack, you should have a blog or other type of media page. Many companies like Medium (6) for its wide readership and accessibility.

(5) https://slackhq.com/slack-s-policy-update-what-it-means-to-you-e416e4e3d8d1#.19rlapive (6) https://medium.com/

Acceptance of new terms

The issues of data handling and privacy are important and if you introduce new terms, you likely want to assure they are accepted.

In addition to announcing these terms through any method you believe is acceptable, you may also want to give users an option to accept or decline them.

In the case of Airbnb (7), the changes were considered significant enough that users had to accept them before moving on to making reservations.

(7) https://www.airbnb.com/