In the upper Midwest, there’s a family recreation area where playful tourist attractions blend with natural beauty — the Wisconsin Dells. A brief online perusal of how attractions there are handling the Coronavirus revealed the following liability disclaimer:
“There remains an inherent and elevated risk of exposure to COVID-19 in any public place and any place where people are present. While we are committed to enhanced standards in an effort to keep you as healthy and safe as possible, we cannot guarantee you will not be exposed.”
As summer facilities begin to reopen, tourism and other industries will use liability waivers … [+]
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As global society slowly reopens in the wake of Covid-19, public businesses and events continue to wrestle with how to do business with the possibility of viral infection. Liability waivers, whether signed or publicly posted, will play an important role as services reopen to fend off potential lawsuits and public accusations of irresponsibility.
Meanwhile, contact tracing — the strategy whereby people are hired to play detective and follow infection leads — is hindered by privacy concerns. Those same liability waivers can play a surprising role in contact tracing with the help of social media.
A Salt Lake City, Utah company, WaiverSign, offers a strategy allowing contact tracing digitally. The plan combines digital waivers and social media platforms to create almost instantaneous tracking once an infected contact is reported.
According to CEO Brandon Lake, signed digital waivers that allow people to participate in any kind of access or activity automatically gather demographic and contact information. In this same waiver, businesses open to the public can communicate precautionary measures they’re taking against the virus.
Waiver users can also ask participants to report back to them any positive test results following the event. The waiver can also ask permission to provide contact information to health organizations for contact tracing purposes or give permission to communicate any potential exposure to others involved in the event.
“Implementing digital waivers with COVID-19 bells and whistles is a way that the business and non-profit communities can help our country lessen the burden on an economy that hopes to recover,” Lake says. “Social media can play a role.”
As the public returns to summer attractions, liability waivers can be used for tracking individuals … [+]
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With legal wording, digital waivers give permission to businesses to communicate with followers before, during and after an event via social media. An event organizer could use Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to let participants know that anyone exhibiting symptoms will not be allowed in and will be reported. If an event organizer wants to create a custom audience via a tool like Facebook, the email list from WaiverSign could be loaded directly so that messages can be sent to participants.
“I certainly think social media can play a big part in events in general,” Lake tells Forbes. “Communicating with followers before, during and after the event via social media can often be very effective.”
“Those communications may involve helping attendees understand precautions, protocols and expectations regarding COVID. An event organizer could use Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to let participants know that anyone exhibiting symptoms will not be allowed to participate and that any reported cases will be communicated to the entire group.”
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