Tony;
I need your legal advice or opinion on the following subject that go along with re design and supporting the website that the City of Richmond put to the public(RichmondGov.com). I believe that I have detailed this question by examining the following list of items. While I am educated on the subject I am outside my comfort area when it comes to legal issue and I look to you to guide me on subjects that I may need to better serve the city in this project.
1. Is the webpage a public document and if it is a public document that is under a large amount of change how long must we keep a record of that document. (we would prefer that the Web site note be a public document but a reference to public document. and the Business unit be the repository for record keeping.) We would want a statement that reflects this that we can post to the website and discusses what to do for FOIA.
2. We will need a statement for the website that covers the protection of private information and the protection of minors information. (What information are we suppose to be protecting and how does it change if the information is HIPA information.)
3. We use Software as a service (SaaS) for several things. Should there be a statement that tells people that we use SaaS’s. This also includes payment online services which handles credit card information.
4. Do we need a statement that discusses our linking policy. Including that we make no promises about the information that is provided on an outside site, that the information will still be there or How a outside company gets a link on the cities site and if we can decline a site and what reason we use to decline them.
5. What do we need to say about Security, Security Breeches and what procedural steps must we take if there is a breech of security.
6. Email falls under public record keeping and is FOIA-able(sp?) do we need to list this in our disclaimer and does the person writing a letter to the city lose intellectual property to what they write in that email.
7. Do we need a statement about e-commerce?
8. Do we need a statement that we collect analytical information about each person that visits the website?
9. Do we statement that spells out copyright and trademark of online material. (this might also want to cover what we will do if we find someone with a site acting like an official site of the City of Richmond or mis-representing the content of our site.)
10. Do we need a hold us harmless statement which we are currently calling Indemnify statement?
11. Section 508 of the ADA – What level of commitment do we have to this federal law. And what guide-lines do you have for an online statement for this subject.
Next Topic
As we start to use SaaS which each come with a Term of Service. What must we be aware of and whom should be sign for the City of Richmond when it comes to Terms of Service.
I am sorry that this is such long a list of questions but each of them will effect how we will complete this work. So Thank You again.
Steven Hagen
DIT Systems Support(Graphic Artist)
804.646.7289
You raise a lot of interesting questions in this letter – I’d love to see the response when you get it!