Terms of Service; Didn't Read: a browser add-on that warns you about the terrible fine-print you're about to "agree" to

[doctorow]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/04/18/ul-for-eula.html

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[Papasan]

Terms of Service

[wryfi80]

I’m not convinced that this is very useful, given that website ToS generally do not constitute a binding contract, and are enforceable against exactly nobody. A website operator can close your account or block your IP if you do something they don’t like, but you may notice that there haven’t been significant court proceedings over enforcing website ToS (against either users or site operators), and this is because they are legally dubious and marginally meaningful. Combined with the high maintenance cost of this endeavor, I’ll be surprised if this is still around in a year.

[sockdoll]

Thanks for posting your take on this, and welcome to the Boing Boing BBS.

[fnordius]

Cool. This sort of thing has been missing, the internet version version of “hey, let me just quick ask my friend about this.”

[Spiderkitten]

I think this might be Firefox only at this point. For Chrome, Safari and Opera the addon hasn’t been updated since 2014 and a comment in the support section of the Chrome addon suggests it doesn’t work anymore.

[smartr]

I thought the idea was to give less validity to whatever it is, and just click whatever button it is you need so you can use the stuff as opposed to highlighting the legal fuckery you don’t agree with.

[Slant]

Nice, but you know what would be much better? Imagine if enterprise level software licenses that had been signed and made effectual, despite the confidentiality clauses that most of them no doubt contain, were to somehow find their way onto the internet in a central repo. Everyone could see what their employers, local and wider governments, etc., are up to. There would be some eye openers in them there contractual documents, I bet.

[Alfred_Packer1]

The worst ToS (aka “privacy” policy) that I’ve seen so far comes from Oath, the parent company of Yahoo and Verizon. It basically has you agree to let them take any of your data and use it any way the want; your only recourse is to go to arbitration (they pick the arbitrator). And you also surrender your right to join in a class action.