Clickwrap agreements are used to present a policy, disclaimer, or statement you need people to agree to in order to access your site, and to record their agreement. They're commonly used to prompt visitors to accept a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), Terms of Service (ToS), or other important policy.

Clickwraps are superior to other types of agreements, such as browsewrap or sign-in-wrap, because people are required to actively and unambiguously signal their assent. If someone does not agree with your Clickwrap, they do not gain access to your site.

Your organization may use clickwraps to maintain compliance with privacy or data protection laws, to protect your business interests and copyright, and to provide transparency in your interactions with other parties. By clearly spelling out your organization's expectations and recording others' acceptance of those expectations, Clickwraps avoid confusion and foster trust.

Clickwrap Text Best Practices

Clickwrap text should contain clear, easy-to-understand language, using any available formatting options to include logical sections and headings. Each link should be obvious and the text around the link should make it clear where the link will take the visitor. Clickwraps should be accessible and work on multiple form factors, including desktop, phones, tablets, other mobile devices.

Files.com Clickwraps help you to follow these best practices. You can format your clickwrap text using Markdown, which allows you to use headings, bold, italics, numbered or bulleted lists, and hyperlinks. Your clickwrap can be as long as is needed, and the presentation will scroll appropriately and maintain accessibility, regardless of the device your visitor is using.

Managing Clickwraps

Only site administrators can create and manage Clickwraps for your site. This is intended to avoid potential misuse or miscommunication by users who do not set policy for your organization.

Site administrators define the text of the Clickwrap that is displayed to your visitors. Clickwrap text can be formatted with Markdown, which supports organizational formatting, such as headings and numbered or bulleted lists. Markdown also allows for italics and bold, which can be used to emphasize critical passages or important words of your text. You can even add hyperlinks within your text to guide the visitor to other published policies.

Site administrators can also add a custom name to each Clickwrap. The Clickwrap name is used for internal tracking purposes only, and is never shown to the visitor during the agreement process.

When Clickwraps Can Be Used

Each Clickwrap has settings that determine which contexts it can be used in. For example, you can choose to show one Clickwrap to new users when they sign in for the first time to create their password. You can choose whether a Clickwrap can be assigned to specific Inboxes, or automatically applied to all Inboxes, or not available for any Inboxes. Similarly, you can choose whether a Clickwrap can be used with various Share Links, automatically applied to all Share Links or never available for a Share Link. Only one clickwrap can be automatically used for each context (new users, Inboxes, or Share Links); once you set a clickwrap to be automatically used, no other Clickwraps can be assigned to that context.

Clickwrap Use Cases

There are a few main uses for Clickwraps in Files.com. They can be associated with registration for Share Links or for Inboxes, or they can be used for self-registration of new user accounts.

Example Use Case: New User Acceptance of Terms

For this example, you want to present a policy document, such as an acceptable use policy or security policy, to your new users. You can define a clickwrap with the relevant policy text, and then require new users to acknowledge the document. Any users who are defined with the email signup authentication method will be required to accept the terms when they access the web interface to create their new password.

Example Use Case: Acknowledging Privacy Policies For Inbox

For this example, you want people who upload to a particular Inbox to be aware of your organization's privacy rules for the submitted data. You can define a clickwrap that can be used with Inboxes. Configure the Inbox settings to display that clickwrap, and new visitors to that Inbox will need to agree in order to continue to the upload step.

Example Use Case: Requiring All Share Link Visitors to Agree to Terms

Many Files.com customers make use of our Share Links feature to deliver digital goods to their customers. They may need a standard agreement about the terms of use presented in every Share Link. A site administrator can configure a clickwrap with the terms that apply, and then set that clickwrap to be shown on all Share Links. All existing Share Links are automatically updated, and every visitor to a Share Link will be prompted to agree to the clickwrap.

Viewing Clickwrap Agreements

When someone visits a Share Link or Inbox, the text of each Clickwrap displayed to them is stored with their registration information. This information is preserved even if the Share Link or Inbox is subsequently associated with a different Clickwrap or the Clickwrap text has been updated since the registration was captured.