I have been using a SaaS provider for my business’ app, but I have no way of putting my own terms and conditions and privacy notice on the app. Is this important and if I can’t add my own terms and privacy notice should I move to a new SaaS provider?
When working with a SAAS provider, it's essential that your customers are fully informed about both your terms and conditions and those of the SAAS platform. The SAAS platform's terms are put in place to protect against misuse and safeguard their intellectual property; however, your need to communicate your own terms and privacy policy is equally important.
If you aren’t able to add your own terms of service or privacy notice to the platform or before sign-up, consider sending a welcome email to new users linking to your terms of business and privacy notice. This is not ideal, as terms need to be incorporated before a contract is made, so if it came to it in a court of law they may be deemed not to be incorporated but it’s arguably better than having no terms in place at all. The UK GDPR states that if customer data is collected by a third party (i.e. the SAAS platform) you have to provide your privacy notice as soon as possible after that – so providing your privacy policy in a follow up email would be complying with the GDPR.
Ultimately, if there is no workaround to adding your own terms of business at the point of sign-up, you may want to consider switching to another provider to avoid risking your terms of business not being incorporated.
© Suzanne Dibble 2013-2023
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