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I'm running a site where users generate their data and store it. I do not share it or plan to share it ever with 3rd party. How do you specify that the site is not going to share information with third party? I'm assuming that you do it in Terms of Service. If so, is there a standard text that I can add to Terms? What would it be?

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4 Answers

Policies concerning the use of your users' data are part of the privacy policy. Your TOS might mention it briefly but it should be separate nonetheless.

If you don't have a lawyer (which you should), take a look at Legal River's TOS Generator and Privacy Policy Generator.

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I have added the following to my Terms of Service.

I hope this does the job.

Data Protection. [MY COMPANY NAME] recognizes that any data provided by the User to [MY COMPANY NAME] is extremely important to the User, and [MY COMPANY NAME] shall therefore be particularly sensitive in handling such data. [MY COMPANY NAME] shall comply with all applicable legal provisions regarding data protection (German Data Protection Laws, European Data Protection Directives and any other applicable data protection legislation). In particular, [MY COMPANY NAME] shall not provide or otherwise disclose any personal data of the User to any third party without authorization.

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Have you run this by a lawyer? Do you know what German Data Protection Laws and European Data Protection Directives are? Do you know how to comply with them? – dnbrv Jan 26 '12 at 15:16

Be careful in defining what "information" means. You might not share user generate data, but if you use google analytics you actually do share user data - although aggregated and anonymized - to a third party.

Have a look at this generic privacy policy template (from a law firm): http://www.docracy.com/33/privacy-policy-for-websites

I also like Ghostery language:

Ghostery does not share personal information you have provided to us without your consent , unless:

doing so is appropriate to carry out a user’s request; we believe that doing so is legally required; or to otherwise protect our property, legal rights, or that of others. If Evidon, Inc. should ever file for bankruptcy or have its assets sold to or merged with another entity, information Ghostery receives from you from this website is an Evidon asset and may be transferred.

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You can simply state that you won't share any personal information with third parties, but keep in mind that if you are using Google Analytics, have Twitter or Facebook button or run any syndicated ads then you are sharing information with third parties. If you want some language to start off with Creative Commons' Privacy Policy is CC licensed so you can use it with attribution:

Disclosures of Personal Information In general, it is not Creative Commons’ practice to disclose personal information to third parties. We may share personal information in two instances:

First, Creative Commons may share personal information with our contractors and service providers in order to maintain, enhance, or add to the functionality of the Websites or the OpenID service.

Second, we may disclose your personal information to third parties in a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) take action regarding suspected illegal activities; (b) enforce or apply our Master Terms of Use and Privacy Policy; (c) comply with legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order; or (d) protect our rights, reputation, and property, or that of our users, affiliates, or the public.

If Creative Commons is required to provide a third party with your personal information (whether by subpoena or otherwise), then provided we have collected and retained an email address for you, Creative Commons will use reasonable means to notify you promptly of that event, unless prohibited by law or CC is otherwise advised not to notify you on the advice of legal counsel.

This is easy to read and covers some great conditions. Some simple edits and you should be good to go.

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