A few years ago, two professors conducted a study with over 500 students to see if they would take the time to read the privacy policy(PP) and terms of service(TOS) agreement of a fictitious social networking site they created called NameDrop.
To no one’s surprise, almost everyone spent no more than a minute or so reading each policy and then clicked the accept button. In fact, 97% accepted the PP and 93% agreed to the TOS.
Buried in the TOS were two devilish provisions, however:
*MOUSE PRINT:
3.1.1 NameDrop Data […] Any and all data generated and/or collected by NameDrop, by any means, may be shared with third parties. For example, NameDrop may be required to share data with government agencies, including the U.S. National Security Agency, and other security agencies in the United States and abroad. NameDrop may also choose to share data with third parties involved in the development of data products designed to assess eligibility. This could impact eligibility in the following areas: employment, financial service (bank loans, insurance, etc.), university entrance, international travel, the criminal justice system, etc. Under no circumstances will NameDrop be liable for any eventual decision made as a result of NameDrop data sharing.
This one said that NameDrop may share all the user’s information with the National Security Agency, other agencies, third parties, and possible employers.
*MOUSE PRINT:
2.3.1 Payment types (child assignment clause): In addition to any monetary payment that the user may make to NameDrop, by agreeing to these Terms of Service, and in exchange for service, all users of this site agree to immediately assign their first-born child to NameDrop, Inc. If the user does not yet have children, this agreement will be enforceable until the year 2050. All individuals assigned to NameDrop automatically become the property of NameDrop, Inc. No exceptions.
This provision provided that applicants would assign their first born-child to NameDrop.
As it turned out, 98% of the students missed these gotcha clauses. And aren’t we all likely just as guilty?
Of course we are. Well. at least I am. The companies’ lawyers have seen to it that TOS are written in such a way that only they are sure what the terms are and the sheer length of the TOS seems designed to greatly inhibit users’ review. It even infects/affects software that costs only 20 bucks, making me wonder if the whole TOS is nothing but boilerplate.
Terms of Service, Privacy Clauses, and acceptance of Cookies. If we want or need something, we know if we don’t agree to these terms, we won’t get the service or item. One good thing is anything that is illegal can’t be signed away.
So, your first born is safe. That is why we don’t read pages and pages of fine print. It is another case of our government representing the people. They can’t even fix the little things in life, let alone the big things.
This a systemic issue that has actually caused some ToS to be ruled as unenforceable. I’m sure what the solution is, but certainly having to agree to a 30 page document in order to join a social network isn’t the answer. The entire service contract for the phone company I used to work for was about 2.5 pages, but somehow the ToS for WinZip needs to be like 17.
Oddly, by coming to this site, I’m bring told that it uses cookies and that by clicking Accept, I agree to having then used on my device.
The only option I have is to accept or ignore the intrusive message. I chose to ignore.
Rob… I assume you can set your browser to reject cookies, and it would be interesting to see what happens. I know you would get the newsletter subscription popup every time you visit Consumer World or Mouse Print* (rather than with a cookie, it only comes up once every 21 days or so).
Coincidentally, I was watching (actually enduring) one of the Tom Selleck commercials for a reverse mortgage and at the end, there was an entire screen full of conditions that weren’t even on the screen long enough to get an idea of what they said. I have a 55 inch tv. I could read the lettering but that’s about it.
Same thing with some of the medication side effects notifications. I’ll bet that many patients learn more about their drug from the commercial than they will be informed by their doctor or pharmacist.
Pretty much everyone is. I remember this post: https://www.mouseprint.org/2020/05/11/bored-at-home-try-reading-terms-of-service-agreements-to-fill-your-days/ that said reading the Microsoft terms of service took an hour. Who’s going to be willing to spend an hour trying to open an account?
We need someone to get a bunch of people to agree to a TOS that has one of those “we may change this at any time and it is your responsibility to check our web site to find changes” clauses, and then add a first born child surrender clause and try to enforce it, so that we can get a court to declare the “we may change this at any time and it is your responsibility to check our web site to find changes” clause illegal.