Set clear legal ground rules for your bug bounty terms

A bug bounty programme can create confusion quickly if the rules do not match your actual systems or the way reports are handled. Researchers may test outside the intended scope, submit claims for rewards you did not mean to offer, or assume they have broader permission than you intended. Poorly matched wording can also create issues around confidential information, ownership of submissions and communications with participants. A tailored document helps set the boundaries in writing and gives your team a clearer basis for running the programme consistently.

Most bug bounty terms deal with who can participate, what assets or environments are in scope, what conduct is prohibited, how vulnerabilities must be reported and whether rewards are available. They can also address response expectations, confidentiality, handling of proof-of-concept material, ownership or licence rights in submitted findings, and limits around access to data or live systems. If your programme touches support or service commitments, those points can also be reflected. The right drafting How you collect, use and disclose information will shape both the drafting and the advice..

The legal wording usually turns on your actual programme design rather than the label "bug bounty". We look at the systems involved, whether testing is public or invite-only, how rewards are decided, what kinds of data may be encountered, and how your internal team receives and triages reports. How you collect, use and disclose information will shape both the drafting and the advice, so a programme involving customer data, production systems or third-party infrastructure may need different wording from a limited sandbox or staged testing environment.

You can start from a template as a reference point, but relying on one without review can leave gaps. Overseas examples often assume different legal settings, different privacy expectations, or a programme structure that does not match your business. They may also be silent on practical issues like reward discretion, ownership of submitted materials, or whether testing on connected services is allowed. This service can either produce a fresh document or review an existing draft and adjust it to fit your New Zealand business, systems and operating model.

Timing depends on how detailed your programme is and how quickly instructions are confirmed. After you engage us, your lawyer will gather the key details about the programme, review any existing wording and then prepare or revise the terms. If there are specific questions around scope, rewards, reporting channels or data exposure, those points are worked through as part of the drafting process. Once the document is settled, you can use it as the legal ruleset for your programme. Ongoing programme management or technical rollout sits outside this service.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Bug Bounty Terms And Conditions service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.