Part 4: Legal Considerations When Capturing Leads.

I’m not a lawyer and not attempting to give legal advice. But, as a provider of one of the most used lead capture and tracking platforms, LinkTrust, I have seen lead generation campaigns go through dispute resolutions and negotiations. I came to realize quickly that many of these could have been avoided if both parties had a clearer understanding and better documented agreement.

One of the most important things to keep in mind when capturing consumer information is data security. If you’re capturing sensitive information like social security numbers or credit card information, make sure that you use secured URLs to post the data from your landing page to your lead capture system and from your lead capture system to a buyer. You will know if a URL is secured because it will start out “https://”. It’s easy to secure a URL, One great place to purchase a secure certificate is at GoDaddy.com. Look for their Turbo SSL. It is less expensive because it does not require verification of your business. If your website branding is important, get a standard SSL certificate which can run $100 to $200 per year.

In addition to transmitting sensitive information securely, you must ensure that the information is stored properly in accordance with government and industry standards. This means that if you capture a CC number, that it be stored encrypted in DB that is on a separate network from public accessed web servers. Your lead management platform should take all this into consideration so that you don’t have to worry about being compliant.

Consider language changes to your lead Insertion Orders (IO’s). Make sure you specify the data values that are accepted or unacceptable. Set your scrub rates, tiered pricing and lead return reasons. I am not a lawyer and am not offering legal advice, however, below is some sample language I would recommend:

Sample IO Language when Buying Leads

All leads must be residing in the United States and 18 years of age or older. For a lead to be valid, all required fields must be filled out with valid lead information. Fields required are part of posting requirements which have been issued to Client. In the event a lead is fraudulent, we shall notify Client within 5 business days. Fraudulent leads will not be paid for.

Exclusive Leads

Client agrees that all leads sent to us are exclusive and have not been sold to any other company. If a lead is rejected by us, Client may attempt to sell this lead to another company of their choice.

Filters – Lead Requirements

We will set the following filters:

No Duplicate E-Mail Addresses, IP Address, Phone Numbers.

Minimum Monthly Income of $1000

We will not accept leads from Military, SSI, Disability, Benefits or Self Employed

We will only buy leads that have had the redirect link successfully redirected to the consumer.

Lead Stats

We shall provide client with login information for clients account. Client shall invoice us using the stats from our data management and tracking platform.

Payment – Tiers

(Include your tiered payment information here)

Software Development

We will provide technical information for the Client to send electronic information to our data management platform. Client will give us a minimum of 30 seconds to respond. We will respond with a success or reject message to the Client via a direct response or an xml response. Leads shall be posted in accordance to our posting instructions. All tests must have “test” as the first name.

Term of Agreement

The initial term of this agreement shall be for sixty (60) days from the first application submitted excluding test applications. If both parties agree, this agreement shall automatically renew for a period of one (1) year. Lead caps may increase with written approval by us. Either party may cancel this agreement by giving the other party a written 48 hour notice.

Sample IO Language when Selling Leads

All application requests must be residing in the United States, 18 years of age or older and must have an active banking account. Fields required are part of Client’s posting requirements which has been issued to us. In the event a lead is fraudulent Client shall notify us within 5 business days and payment shall not be due for any fraudulent leads.

Exclusive Leads

We agree that all leads sent to Client are exclusive and have not been sold to any other company. If a lead is rejected by Client, we may attempt to sell the lead to another company of our choice.

Lead Stats

We shall provide client with login information for clients account. We shall invoice Client using the stats from our data management software.

Payment

(Include your tiered payment information here)

Software Development

The client agrees to provide technical information to us which will facilitate an instant electronic application transfer. We will allow X seconds for the client to respond. Client will provide a success or reject message to us along with any redirect string. All leads accepted will be paid at lead rate provided that we have redirected the lead and the applicant has landed on Client’s site. Leads shall be posted in accordance to Client’s posting instructions dated MM/DD/YYYY which requires specific fields.

Term of Agreement

The initial term of this agreement shall be for sixty (60) days from the first application submitted excluding test applications. We agrees not to send more than fifty (50) accepted leads per day during this period unless requested by the Client. If both parties agree, this agreement shall automatically renew for a period of one (1) year. Either party may cancel this agreement giving the other party five (5) business days notice.

CAN-SPAM
Ensure that your affiliates follow the Can-Spam Act of 2003. When capturing leads from your landing page where some affiliates may be advertising through email, ensure that you setup a working unsubscribe page so consumers can enter their email address to be added to your suppression list. This data must be made available to your affiliates so they can scrub their email lists against it. Use technologies such as UnsubCentral.com which can help maintain your suppression lists and keep them secure from affiliates who may attempt to send unsolicited email to them.

Lastly, research the legal requirements for the vertical(s) you are attempting to get into. Don’t just guess and put your business at risk. Again, I’m not a lawyer and cannot provide legal advice, so, get a lawyer involved who can give you a clear picture of the legal landscape ahead.

Part 1 of this 4 part series started with, Breaking the Lead Gen Barrier.