The legal terms and notices a service provider may need for its website or mobile app will depend on a host of factors, such as the purpose of the site or app, the data collection practices on the site or app, and the functionality available on the site or app.
Service providers typically implement “terms of service” that apply to the use of their sites and apps. These terms often are designed to mitigate risk for the service provider (e.g., include warranty disclaimers and limitations on liability and prohibit users from seeking remedies as a part of a class proceeding), establish rules regarding use of the site or app (e.g., prohibit certain uses and behaviors on the site or app) and grant the service provider certain rights (e.g., rights to end-user content transmitted to the service provider through the site or app). Depending on the functionality on a particular app or site, the terms of service may include other provisions and concepts (e.g., notices regarding paid-for subscriptions, terms pertaining to the process for the removal of infringing content and terms required by third party vendors or business counterparts).
Terms of service are not legally binding on users unless they are presented to users and accepted by them in a manner that indicates their agreement to the terms. Whether online terms legally bind end-users is an active area of litigation in the US, so it’s important to confer with your attorney on how to implement terms of service appropriately.
Service providers also may include privacy policies on or in their sites or apps. More information about privacy policies can be found here.
If a mobile app includes open-source software, a service provider also may include a document in the app that notifies end users of the open-source components included in the app. This is because commonly used open-source licenses impose certain notice and attribution requirements on service providers when they distribute open source outside of their companies, and including open-source software in a mobile app constitutes such a distribution.
Beyond open-source notices, terms of service and a privacy policy, a website or app could include other terms depending on its functionality and purpose (e.g., terms of sale, where physical goods are sold through a site or app). It’s important to confer with your attorneys to ensure your website and app have the appropriate legal terms and notices.