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There is a browser add-on which summarizes terms of service warnings for web sites requiring an all-or-nothing click-through to use their services. The add-on tosdr uses crowd-sourcing to digest scores of pages into short, concise sentences or paragraphs warning what is hidden behind excessively verbose legalese. The database has been around for years but has recently been converted into a wiki.
What if, before you consented, you could at least read the SparkNotes? That's the goal of ToSDR—short for Terms of Service; Didn't Read—a website that turns lengthy terms of service agreements into bulleted summaries, and then rates those terms from Class A (very good) to Class F (very bad). It functions as a sort of Wikipedia for terms of service agreements. Anyone can submit a bullet point and share their analysis of a service's terms, which get turned into a rating of a site's overall policy. The site, which has existed since 2012 but is relaunching next month on a new platform, hopes to create a broad network of shared knowledge.
Unlike written contracts where it is easy to cross out offending paragraphs and clauses before both parties sign, these online forms are all-or-nothing. In some of the sites with larger network effects, such as Facebook, it might be that such a forced agreement could be construed as extortion.
Sources:
Wired: Welcome to the Wikipedia for Terms of Service Agreements
Boing Boing: Terms of Service; Didn't Read: a browser add-on that warns you about the terrible fine-print you're about to "agree" to
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @08:02AM
Stuff like that is precisely why I try my best to remain anonymous on the internet. Anonymous also meaning that I cannot BUY.
We all know by now that the internet is not a real safe place - there is a helluva lotta fraud going on... worse than a door-to-door salesman. You better know who you are dealing with, or the loss of your purchase price will be the *least* of your worries... the one who scammed you now has your payment credentials!
Oh yes, businesses *love* to scare the hell out of me by presenting me with what they want me to think is a legal binding document that looks more like an income tax demand from the federal government.
Yes! Mr Business Executive.. it DOES scare me!
Enough to make me try my best to hide from you so you don't know who I am... so you won't come after me for doing business with you.
Why would I want to BUY music, for instance? Its NOT the buck. Once I am "in your system" and I have agreed to the terms and conditions of sale, I am now LIABLE.
I find it much easier to avoid LIABILITY by avoiding as much of these "agreements" as I can. That means finding any other way I can get what I want, without having to "agree" to anything... especially long lengthy things I really don't have the time to read and understand.
I realize in the business world, if its YOUR time wasted, you take whatever steps it takes to optimize your business model, you know, that "time is money" thing. I have to do the same thing. It takes your server microseconds to dish out a lengthy agreement but it would take me hours to read some of those things. I will "work with you" and try to understand your business need for me to agree to such things, and I will try my utmost to NOT involve you in it! If I can get what I need without rattling all the cages, I will do it gladly, for the same reason a polite motorcyclist will not wake the entire neighborhood at 2AM so he can demonstrate how loud he can run his machine.
This is one of the things I hate so much about PAID software... its now they have a name if I PAID for it. A name they can do anything they want with, and use with as much reckless abandon as employers that present prospective employees with burdensome non-compete agreements. Again, note the word PAID - that means they also have your payment credentials as well! If I can find an open-source alternative, I am all for it.
Believe me, if Home Depot was as reckless with my payment credentials and forced me to sign all sorts of agreements in order to buy a bolt, I would be scrounging bolts off of whatever junk I could find in order to avoid involving Home Depot in my life. Often Businesses and customers don't think alike at all, and it quickly becomes a predatory arrangement, where businesses are after "customer lock-in", and the customers steal - and neither one got what he wants.
Do I think Piracy is right? No. I do not. But for quite some time, it was the only game in town if you wanted a copy of some music. I can tell you this, though: requiring me to agree to something I haven't the time to read is damn good reason for me to go through any other alternative means available to me other than legally committing myself to some unread legal crap.