What is a Third Party?

If you've read a contract, or two, or three, you've heard this term a lot. But do you know what it means? By the end of this post, you're going to understand what "third party" means whenever you see it in a contract, or a Privacy Policy or Terms of Use, or Membership Agreement, or any kind of contract.

What does third party mean when you see it in a contract?

An example might be in a privacy policy where there's a paragraph that says, "We don't take responsibility for any third party links or privacy practices for websites that are linked through our website." What does third party mean, in that contract? Well, think of the contract as between two people, you and the other party -- whether it's your course members, or whether it's a contractor, or whoever the other party is -- that's you, and person two.

Think of it as anyone outside of that contract.

So an outside website would be a "third party" website. Third party materials, like in the context of stock photos, would be materials that belong to someone that's not a party to this contract. It's someone that's not part of our contract between us two people. (Or between two businesses.)

I hope that helps you to better understand this super common contract term. Next time you see it, remember, they're referring to someone that's not part of the contract you're entering into.

So you've had your business for a while you feel like you've got a pretty good grasp on the business stuff. But you can't help that little voice in the back of your head that feels like there's some legal issue that could be out there that can come back to haunt you, right? I want you to go to spear-ip.com/quiz to find out the legal blind spot that secretly killing your business.