Given that there's often a lot of boilerplate for TOS, would it be fairly easy to come up with a few heuristics for a tool that when fed the text of a TOS, could deemphasize the boilerplate and perhaps flag known problematic (or, at least, esoteric) language? Not a sophisticated AI thing, mind you, just something that cuts a little more to the chase.<p>edit: I mean that the tool should be a dumb high-pass filter that would work in addition to what tosdr provides through user reviews and manual classification via its plugin: <a href="https://tosdr.org/classification.html" rel="nofollow">https://tosdr.org/classification.html</a>
Anytime I install software or sign up for a service on my work laptop, I am entering my company into a (perhaps) binding legal agreement that I haven't done more than skim at best, and has not been reviewed by our corporate legal team.<p>It's fairly common to see clauses that state the terms may change at any time without notice, and continued use of the service means you agree to any changes made. That seems completely unenforceable to me, but I am not a lawyer.<p>I've often fantasized about a legal framework similar to Creative Commons, but for TOS, that would protect the interests of both users and service providers.
This seems like a nice resource for swashing through the terms and conditions jungle: <a href="https://tosdr.org/" rel="nofollow">https://tosdr.org/</a>
>1. Cut back on the obvious<p>Would this work when there are different laws for different jurisdictions and there is no way to tell for sure where the user acutally is located? I thought the reason behind the obviousness was to cover everything.<p>>2. Write so that people understand<p>>3. Keep it short and concise<p>That probably wouldn't be beneficial for all the companies using the user-as-the-product model.
"Terms of Service: We retain the right to track your location, read your text messages, listen to the microphone and read your thoughts"
I'd really love to see an app which monitors changes in terms and conditions for different apps and services so that I am notified whenever something changes.
Speaking as someone who used to read newspapers and books on air for people with reading difficulties: if you think it's boring to listen to this, you should try being on the other end!
My Norwegian isn't great, does the scrolling text at the bottom of the video say that iTunes asks you to read the TOS together with your children? That seems crazy.