Terms of Service? Never Heard of ‘em!
“I agree to the terms of service” – that is the most common lie on the Internet. How many times a day you check this field without reading the rules? Internet made us too lazy, that we can’t even spend couple minutes running through the text. I can’t say that not even a single person does it, lots of us read these rules, but as for me, I’m a compulsive terms skipper.
From time to time blogosphere gets filled in with fresh scandal caused by some inattentive user who simply passed to the next step without reading the terms. Couple years ago computer game retailer GameStation revealed that it legally owns the souls of thousands of online shoppers, thanks to a clause in the terms and conditions agreed to by online shoppers:
“we reserve the right to serve such notice in 6 (six) foot high letters of fire, however we can accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by such an act. If you a) do not believe you have an immortal soul, b) have already given it to another party, or c) do not wish to grant Us such a license, please click the link below to nullify this sub-clause and proceed with your transaction.”
Luckily this was an April Fool’s Day joke, still these guys made a point that almost any of their clients read the policy rules.
Recently there appeared a resource that is a real savior for lazy web surfers. The guys form ToS;DR (Terms of Service; Didn’t Read) gathered most popular resources and presented their service rules in a clear and easily edible form.
Additionally they’ve categorized Terms of Service Rules according to the clearness or presentation:
ToS;DR team is willing to cover as much websites as it’s possible, that’s why they highly encourage user’s interaction. Feel free to help them if you’re willing to read terms but “don’t have much time” for that.
