Get startup privacy and user terms that match how your product actually works

It helps to separate the two documents by purpose. A privacy policy explains how your business collects, uses and shares personal information. User terms set the rules for access to your website, app or platform, including acceptable use, account conditions, payment or subscription wording where relevant, and liability limits. Many startups need both because they solve different problems. If users can sign up, upload content, make purchases, book services or interact with your platform in a meaningful way, relying on one document alone is often not enough.

The short answer is that the detail matters more than the label. Two startups may look similar from the outside but handle information very differently in practice. Your product may collect account data, usage analytics, location information, uploaded content or support enquiries in a way that another business does not. Privacy wording works best when it is matched to your real collection, use, storage and disclosure practices. Copying another set of documents can leave gaps, create inconsistencies with your real processes, and make your public statements harder to stand behind.

A privacy policy usually covers the kinds of personal information collected, why it is collected, how it is stored, when it is disclosed, and how users can access or correct their information. User terms often cover account creation, acceptable use, intellectual property, user content, subscription or payment wording if relevant, disclaimers, suspension rights and liability limits. The exact content depends on your product. For example, an app with user-generated content raises different issues from a simple marketing website or a SaaS tool with paid accounts.

We usually need a practical picture of how the product operates. That can include what information you ask users for, what tracking or analytics tools are in place, whether third parties help deliver the service, whether users create accounts, whether payments or subscriptions are involved, and whether users can upload content or interact with each other. We also need to understand your customer journey, because the legal position depends on the way the business handles information in practice. If your setup changes, your documents may need updating too.

These documents are an important part of your legal setup, but they are not a once-and-done answer for every future change. This gives you a stronger basis for decision-making, but it should be applied alongside the way your business actually operates. If you later change your onboarding flow, add new features, start sharing information in new ways, or expand into different channels, the documents may need to be reviewed. Good drafting works best when it stays aligned with your real operations rather than sitting untouched while the product evolves.

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 Startup Privacy And Terms Starter Pack service, pricing starts from $1,200.00.

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.