SaaS Agreements – SLAs – Business Continuity and Escrow Agents

SaaS customers are increasingly asking for disaster recover provisions to be included within the terms of a SaaS agreement to ensure that they have access to their data and continuity of service if a problem arises at the SaaS supplier’s data centre. The costs of providing disaster recovery used to be prohibitive, due to the requirement of having mirrored servers and transferring data, however there is now a new market opening up with former escrow providers offering a variety of disaster recovery options at affordable prices.

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SaaS Agreements – Data Protection – Update on the EU Draft Data Protection Regulation

SaaS suppliers should be aware of the recent changes made by the EU Parliament to the draft EU Data Protection Regulation (Regulation). If this amended version of the Regulation becomes law next year the obligations of SaaS suppliers who process personal data on behalf of customers will radically change. A summary of the current main proposed provisions is set out below.

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SaaS Agreements – Data Protection – Email Marketing and Consent

As a SaaS supplier you will undoubtedly be sending marketing emails in your own name to existing and potential clients to advertise your own products and services, or possibly as a SaaS service on behalf of a customer. In any event you should be aware that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued new guidance on direct marketing, with regard to complying with the Data Protection Act (DPA) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) both of which apply to sending direct marketing to consumers (BTC).

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SaaS Agreements – Hosting – Encryption of Stored Data

Under the Data Protection Act (DPA), SaaS customers are required to take “appropriate technical and organisational measures” to prevent the unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data. SaaS providers who process personal data on behalf of SaaS customers are required to include such obligations in their SaaS agreement (or SLA).

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SaaS Agreements – Terms & Conditions – Insolvency and ERRA

From April 2014 the UK government plans to change the Insolvency Act under the provisions of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (ERRA). This will make the SaaS supplier’s right to terminate or alter the terms of an existing SaaS agreement if a SaaS customer becomes insolvent. From this data no SaaS agreement may be terminated or have the pricing and payment terms changed due to a customer’s insolvency. Furthermore the SaaS supplier must continue to provide SaaS services without receiving any payment or having any right to arrears.

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SaaS Agreements – Data Protection – IT Security Requirements

n January 2013 Sony was fined 250,000 GBP for failing to take “appropriate technical measures” to protect the security of personal data stored on its PlayStation Network (PSN) in breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA). In light of the lack of guidance currently provided by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on data protection security SaaS suppliers should be aware that the ICO plans to draw up new guidelines.

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SaaS Agreements – Social Media – Ownership of Accounts

Increasingly SaaS suppliers encourage employees to use social media accounts i.e. LinkedIn and Twitter to promote their products and business. However this often results in a conflict arising between claims of misuse of confidential information and “ownership” of accounts and contacts when the employment relationship comes to an end.

The High Court has recently highlighted the need for SaaS suppliers to have a clear policy on the ownership of such social media accounts and contacts when they are used by employees for business purposes.

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