Changes in the features and operation of your website or mobile app usually require changes in your Terms of Use and/or Privacy Policy. However, when you make changes to your Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, you must also ensure that the changed terms are enforceable against your users. Courts have held that a unilateral right to alter the terms of a Terms of Use or Privacy Policy without notice and consent can render such documents unenforceable; however, if the terms have a notice mechanism and can provide for affirmative assent, it has the effect of creating a new agreement. Accordingly, when you make changes to your Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, you should also have a mechanism for notifying your users of such changes, whether it be a messaging system on your platform, or sending notification to the email accounts associated with user accounts. Then, you must also have a mechanism for obtaining affirmative assent. This can typically be accomplished by alerting users that continued use of the site or app after a certain date will serve as their assent to the new terms; the new terms can be made retroactively effective to the date the new agreement was posted.
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