Risky websites

Websites are risking liability claims and their organisation’s reputation by ignoring the human element in managing content quality, warned Sanjay Morzaria, web content manager at Aon.

Speaking last week at the ‘Streamlining web content publishing and approval’ conference, Morzaria urged his peers to rethink the human element in web technology and introduce service level agreements for relevant employees. This will help ensure accuracy of information and minimize risks to the business.

Sanjay commented: ‘Spellcheck may pick up typos but it can’t tell if your website is legally compliant or if the copy is libellous. This is where you need skilled people to vet the content and take responsibility. Companies tend to rely on their content management systems to manage accuracy as they do not realise the extent of the damage that could be caused without human intervention.’

To supplement the use of technology, Sanjay has designed and launched formal service level agreements for content owners as a quality assurance tool. Steps to creating service level agreements are:

1. create a robust process with management on approving content and reacting to enquiries

2. agree SLA wording depending on your business culture and

employees, bearing in mind technical competence

3. achieve management ownership of SLAs and set out guidelines to

ensure individuals understand why the process is so important.

Jon Upshall, broking director at Aon Global, said that websites are excluded from typical public/products liability insurance policies. ‘This leaves companies unable to claim for legal expenses or any other costs as a result of inaccurate content or copyright infringement, unless specific media liability coverage is purchased.’