Technology August 12, 2012
Don't Read Those "Terms Of Service" Agreements? This Site Does It For You

If you've ever used software or signed up for a social media account, you've probably encountered one of those "Terms of Service" agreements. You know the ones: "click yes to confirm that you've read this long document full of confusing legal language and agree to whatever we say in there". For most of us, it's a lot easier to click yes and get on with our day. But what are we agreeing to?

That's where the site ToS;DR comes in (the acronym stands for "Terms of Service; Didn't Read"). Since June 2012, a group of legal minds, led by self-proclaimed "hacktivist" and law student Hugo Roy, have been looking over the agreements on various sites and apps to give people recommendations about whether they should say yes to them.

terms-of-service-feature.jpg

At the moment, the site lists 32 services, including Google and Twitter, but doesn't have full recommendations on most of them. One service that did not do very well on their ranking is Twitpic - it scored a Class E rating, which means "the terms of service raise very serious concerns". SeenThis and DuckDuckGo, meanwhile, both got Class A, the highest possible rating.

If you don't have the time (or the legal knowledge) to sift through mountains of legalese before signing up for a software update, this site might prove useful. And if you do happen to be a legal expert, or a talented coder, you might want to sign up with ToS;DR. They're looking for "more legal expertise", as well as help with source code.

One company that doesn't have a rating yet is Apple. But if you've used iTunes, then you've probably signed off on their end user agreement, possibly without reading it over. Luckily, actor Richard Dreyfuss has already given a pretty hilarious dramatic reading of it for CNET. Check out that reading below:

Related stories on Strombo.com:

Who's Watching You Online? Canada's Privacy Commissioner is Concerned

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