They file thousands of cookie-cutter privacy suits a year and bank on you settling. Here’s how I made two disappear without writing a check – and the free playbook so you can too.
My company has been sued twice in the last year by shady law firms on completely meritless claims. Both times I was sued, I made them go away without paying a dime.
If you have a website, there’s a decent chance you’re next, so I want to give you the complete playbook (no charge) so you don’t have to stroke a check to these vultures.
These firms file thousands of claims a year, and most companies just write a check for $15K-$25K to make them go away.
They make their money by mass-producing demand letters under statutes like CIPA, ADA, and session-replay privacy laws. They pick a piece of technology that’s common across thousands of websites – a tracking pixel, a chat widget, a session replay tool – build the legal theory once, and then file thousands of nearly identical claims. The settlement ask is usually $25K-$50K. Low enough that because you have to pay legal fees, paying them off is cheaper than fighting. High enough that doing it a thousand times a year is a great business for the law firm.
Pretty much, an extortion racket.
But it breaks the moment it costs them more to bring the case than they expect to make from settling it.
Here’s how I got them to go away, and you can too.
I’m a former lawyer, so I rewrote my website’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy with a stack of clauses designed to make my company an unattractive target for these firms going forward.
The clauses also contain “tripwires” that could force these firms to disclose their unethical business practices on the record – which can later be used in disbarment hearings.
Then I extracted the whole thing into a public playbook so you don’t have to figure it out from scratch.
I’m in a peer group of CEOs called Hampton, and here’s what some of them had to say about the playbook:
What’s in the playbook:
- 8 drop-in TOS and Privacy Policy clauses (notice gate, anti-fraud disclosure screen, class waiver, etc.) – tiered by likely enforceability so you can decide how aggressive you want to be
- A 10-step response protocol and a objection letter template for if you’ve already been served
- An AGENTS.md file so you can point Claude Code, Cursor or your favorite AI agent at the repo and have it merge the relevant clauses into your existing TOS
How to use it:
- If you’ve already been served, start here: I just got served
- If you want to fortify before it happens, start here: README
- If you use AI coding tools (Claude, Cursor, etc.), there’s an AGENTS.md that lets your AI integrate the clauses into your existing TOS for you
- Have your lawyer review before you publish anything
This is not legal advice. I’m sharing to help you avoid getting smacked with these, but consult your own attorney. Heavy disclaimers in the repo. Free to use. MIT licensed – use it, fork it, send it to your friends.
