Your data is collected even if you did not interact with the service directly
Explanation: Some services store data on you even if you did not provide that data yourself. For example, users might provide access to their address book, after which a service might also store the phone numbers of that person's contacts.
Content you post may be edited by the service for any reason
Explanation: This service can edit any content on the service for whatever the reason and at their sole discretion.
Specific content can be deleted without reason and may be removed without prior notice
Explanation: This service can delete specific content. Usually they will claim they reserve the right to do it at their sole discretion, which is legalese for saying they won't give a specific reason. If the terms say they will not notify you, it shall be included in the quote but if it does not explicitly say they will give you a notice, it can be reasonably inferred that they can do it without telling you.
Location data may be collected, used and/or shared
Explanation: Location-based information is collected and may be used and/or shared with third parties for purposes not directly related to the services provided (i.e. the Service doesn't rely on the use or share of location data to function properly).
Many different types of personal data are collected
Explanation: The service collects different kinds of personal data, such as name, demographic information, postal address, biometric data, device information, IDs, contacts, call logs...
Some personal data may be kept for business interests or legal obligations
Explanation: After the end of the data retention period and/or if you request the deletion of your data, they may still keep it for business interests (fraud detection, transactions...) or legal obligations (tax, legal reporting...)
Your content can be licensed to third parties
Explanation: By posting content through the Services, users grant them a transferable and/or sublicensable right, which allows user content to be licensed to third parties.
You waive your right to a class action
Explanation: The right to be represented in a class action (or representative action) exists in the US and some European countries. It allows people who have been similarly injured by the same accused to take legal action by a single lawsuit instead of individually. Some Terms of Service try to limit that right. By agreeing to them, you could waive (= renounce to) your right to a class action, which might reduce your chances to be successful in a case.
You are forced into binding arbitration in case of disputes
Explanation: This service forces users to use their own contracted arbitrator and forces users to waive their rights to jury trial.
Instead of asking directly, this Service will assume your consent to changes of terms merely from your usage
Explanation: The Service infers your acceptance from your continued usage, instead of prompting you to read the new Terms and asking for direct consent. This doesn’t apply to services that have no way to seek consent from users through their contact details or an account.
Your personal data may be used for marketing purposes
Explanation: The service may use your personal data for marketing, such as sending you personalised offerings.
Your personal data may be sold or otherwise transferred as part of a bankruptcy proceeding or other type of financial transaction
Explanation: If the service gets acquired or is involved in a merger, bankruptcy, reorganisation or sale, your personal data may be transferred or sold.
The service does not guarantee that software errors will be corrected
Explanation: Users agree to use the service and its software as provided and accept that any errors within that software may not be corrected.
Your data is processed and stored in a country that is less friendly to user privacy protection (U.S.A.)
Explanation: This case means that user data is not anywhere in the world, but somewhere where it is more likely to be obtained and used by government and/or possible data analysts.
Information is gathered about you through third parties
Explanation: This Service may employ, either identifiable or non-identifiable, data collection from third party sources about you.
If you offer suggestions to the service, they become the owner of the ideas that you give them
Explanation: The service can claim ownership on feedback, proposals, ideas and suggestions submitted by the users, who may waive their "moral rights" on that feedback.
You have a reduced time period to take legal action against the service
Explanation: If you wish to bring legal action against a service about a past incident, you may not be able to do so if the Terms you agreed to implied a limited amount of time. As a result it may be worthy to carefully read that section of the Terms to know exactly how much time you might have before your right to take legal action expires.
Your personal information is used for many different purposes
Explanation: Personal Data can be processed for many reasons, including non essential processing such as for advertising, marketing and analytics purposes.
Your personal data is used to employ targeted third-party advertising
Explanation: Your Personal Information is traded and shared with advertising companies to target ads on you, either on the website you were visiting or in third party websites. Your interaction with the service and data you have shared with them may be gathered to create an advertising ID or profile.
This service gives your personal data to third parties involved in its operation
Explanation: Your personal data is or may be given to third parties essential to the service’s operation. This could be an external spam detection service for an internet forum.
Your biometric data is collected
Explanation: This service can collect or use your biometric data. This includes but is not limited to facial recognition, fingerprints, and iris scans. Although this feature can sometimes be convenient to the user, providing this type of information to the service could open your personal data to being sold or stolen.
Your use is throttled
Explanation: The service may impose limits or restrictions to the use of the service, thus negatively impacting users experience. They may do so without reason or prior notice.
This service assumes no liability for unauthorized access to your personal information
Your data may be processed and stored anywhere in the world
Explanation: Your data is stored all over the world, including in countries where data protection rules may differ from the ones of the service's jurisdiction or those of your country jurisdiction.
You shall not interfere with another person's enjoyment of the service
Explanation: Users are asked not to interfere with another person't enjoyment in using the service.
However, this statement is very vague and open to interpretation by the service itself.
The service will resist legal requests for your information where reasonably possible
Explanation: The service will attempt to protect user information to a great extent, even so far as stating that they will only follow legal requirements to disclose user information in circumstances where this cannot be reasonably resisted.
The data retention period is kept to the minimum necessary for fulfilling its purposes
Explanation: The service will remove personal data from its systems once it is no longer required. Depending on the type of information and the reason it was collected, data retention periods will vary.
The court of law governing the terms is in a jurisdiction that is friendlier to user privacy protection (California, U.S.A.)
Explanation: The Terms are governed by the applicable laws of a jurisdiction known for protecting citizens privacy with strong data regulations. Usually contributors will need to explain in the Analysis view of each point linked to this Case why the jurisdiction is friendly to user privacy protection.
The service will try to inform and/or notify you regarding government inquiries that may involve your personal information
Explanation: In case the Government governing the Terms requests personal data of a user of this service, they will make reasonable efforts to inform/notify the user (e.g. warrant canary).
You maintain ownership of your content
Explanation: This service does not claim ownership over user-generated content or materials, and the user doesn't need to waive any moral rights by posting owned content.
Information is provided about how your personal data is collected
Explanation: The service details situations in which they collect personal information or means by which they do.
You can request access, correction and/or deletion of your data
Explanation: Users have the right to access personal data hold by the Service, correct it and/or permanently delete it. This usually applies to Services GDPR compliants.
You can delete your content from this service
Explanation: You can ask the service to remove your content at any time, and it's deleted within a reasonable time.
You are informed about the risk of publishing personal info online
Your personal data will not be used for an automated decision-making without your consent
Explanation: The service promises not to use your personal data for automated decision-making, including profiling.
The service reviews its Privacy Policy on a regular basis
Explanation: Users know the date the privacy policy was last updated and can thus infer the next time it will be reviewed. This gives users more certainty about how long they can trust the current policy to apply.
You are entitled to a refund if certain thresholds or standards are not met by the service
Information is provided about what kind of personal information is collected
Explanation: The Privacy Policy describes in detail the data collected through the website and through the services provided.
Information is provided about how your personal data is used
Explanation: The Privacy Policy explains the purposes for which data is collected and the way it is processed, used and shared.
You will be notified if personal data has been affected by data breaches
Explanation: Should the personal information of a service be compromised, the service will inform users if any personal data has been affected by data breaches. This case is also related to privacy.
You are warned of the potential consequences related to third-party access
Explanation: This is different from disclaiming liability for external links, which is handled by the "This service assumes no responsibility and liability for the contents of links to other websites" case.
The service will only respond to government requests that are reasonable
Explanation: The Agreement explains they will disclose personal data about you if it is reasonably necessary to comply with applicable law and government requests.
Two factor authentication is provided for your account
Explanation: The service provides means of further securing your account with two factor authentification, thus greatly improving account security.
Your personal data is not sold
Explanation: This service makes the claim that your personal data is not being sold, rented or traded with third parties. This, however, may not always be an accurate statement as it may be, more often than not, based entirely on a very loose legal definition on “selling”, whereas other jurisdictions may actually constitute their sharing of your personal data as “selling”.
The service claims to be GDPR compliant for European users
Explanation: The service has a different behavior towards users protected by the GDPR.
Third parties used by the service are bound by confidentiality obligations
Explanation: The Third Parties accessing your personal information must keep it confidential and only use it for limited purposes.
The service claims to be CCPA compliant for California users
Explanation: The service has a different behavior towards users protected by the California Consumer Privacy Act.
You have the right to leave this service at any time
Explanation: You can stop using the service and/or cancel or delete your account at any time for any reason. Moreover, the termination is reasonably fast and simple.
Copyright license limited for the purposes of that same service but transferable and sublicenseable
You can opt out of promotional communications
Explanation: You can update your account preferences and/or easily unsubscribe of email/sms lists to stop receiving promotional communications.
The publishing of personally identifiable information without the owner’s consent is not allowed
Explanation: Users agree not to publicly post personally identifiable information (name, postal address, contact information…) without the owner’s knowledge or consent
You can choose with whom you share content
Explanation: Users can decide whether or not they want their content to be shared and they can control how and with whom it is shared.
There is a date of the last update of the agreements
Explanation: The given text has a date that allows to know when it was last updated.
Your content can be deleted if you violate the terms
Explanation: Content infringing the Terms of Service (or the Acceptable Use Policy or equivalent) may be removed, with or without notice.
The service assumes no liability for any damages the user incurs
Explanation: The service assumes no liability for any damages the user incurs, including tangible (e.g. profits) and intangible losses (e.g. data), resulting from the use or inability to use the service or any other matter relating to the service.
You are responsible for any risks, damages, or losses that may incur by downloading materials
Explanation: Users are responsible for any harm to their computer system or loss of data they may incur through the download of materials from the service.
The service suspends your account after inactivity for a certain or uncertain time
This service assumes no responsibility and liability for the contents of links to other websites
Explanation: The service rejects any responsibility for the contents of other websites to which it links.
You agree to indemnify and hold the service harmless in case of a claim related to your use of the service
Explanation: You are responsible for your use of the service. If a claim arises related to that use, you agree to indemnify and hold the service harmless.
If users are also required to defend the service, see Case 146 instead.
They may stop providing the service at any time
Explanation: They may discontinue the services without prior notice, at any time, for any or no reason. They usually assume no liability for losses and damages resulting from this suspension.
The service provider makes no warranty regarding uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free service
Explanation: The service provider expressly does not claim to provide uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free service.
Your private content may be accessed by people working for the service
You are prohibited from sending chain letters, junk mail, spam or any unsolicited messages
Explanation: Users are not allowed to use the service for chain letters, junk mail, spamming or any other distribution of content to people who have not agreed to receiving it.
You must create an account to use this service
Explanation: You must provide the service with your information in order to use it
You agree not to submit libelous, harassing or threatening content
Explanation: This service prohibits users from submitting content of a variety of types. This can include content that is unlawful, harassing, abusive, threatening, libelous, sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, or discriminatory in any other way.
Spidering, crawling, or accessing the site through any automated means is not allowed
The service is provided 'as is' and to be used at your sole risk
Explanation: This service does not provide any guarantees as to its usability or fitness for the users' purposes. Users agree to use it at their own risk, accepting any possible bugs, malfunctions or harm to their devices.
This service is only available to users over a certain age
Explanation: The Services are intended for users who are at least a certain age. If you are younger than the age required then you are prohibited from using the Service.
The posting of pornographic content is prohibited
Explanation: Users are not allowed to post any content of pornographic nature. This includes adult content, things that are sexually explicit, or obscene.
Your account can be suspended for several reasons
If you are the target of a copyright claim, your content may be removed
Explanation: The content you have published on the service may be removed if it infringes copyright.
This service is a subsidiary of Bending Spoons Inc.
Explanation: The service is a subsidiary of a certain company (called X in the title, to be replaced by the parent Company in each point's title). Company X’s Terms of Service may apply to the service.
Your personal data is aggregated into statistics
Explanation: Your personal data is used for statistics in a de-identified/aggregated form (i.e. not directly linked to a unique identity) to analyse trends, for research and for analytics.
Invalidity of any portion of the Terms of Service does not entail invalidity of its remainder
Explanation: Should any portion of the Terms of Service be unenforceable or invalid, that portion will be enforced to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law and the remainder of the TOS will remain valid and enforceable.
Instructions are provided on how to submit a copyright claim
Explanation: If content that you own is copied or made accessible through the service in a way that constitutes an intellectual property right infringement, you can report it following the instructions given in the agreements.
You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and for the activities on your account
Explanation: You are responsible for protecting the confidentiality of your password and for maintaining the security of your account. Any activity occurring under your account is your responsibility, whether authorized by you or not.
You cannot distribute or disclose your account to third parties
Explanation: In this context third-parties refers to anyone including friends, family, or company
You must report to the service any unauthorized use of your account or any breach of security
Explanation: The service asks the user to notify them immediately of any unauthorized use or security breaches.
First-party cookies are used
Explanation: First-party cookies only belong to the domain of the service and not a third party.
You agree not to use the service for illegal purposes
Explanation: The user agrees not to commit any unlawful acts through the use of the website, including the posting of illegal content or messaging.
Third parties are involved in operating the service
Separate policies are employed for different parts of the service
Explanation: The user may need to read additional product-specific agreements depending on the way the service is used.
Minors must have the authorization of their legal guardians to use the service
Explanation: Minors must have the authorization of their legal guardians to use the services. The legal guardians are responsible for the use of the service by the minor.
Do Not Track (DNT) headers are ignored and you are tracked anyway even if you set this header
Explanation: Even though the Do Not Track (DNT) header was not implemented perfectly, services should not track users whose browsers send a DNT header.
This service does not guarantee that it or the products obtained through it meet your expectations or requirements
Explanation: This service provider informs its users that the services, information, products, or other materials provided on its website may not meet the users' expectations or requirements.
Your IP address is collected, which can be used to view your approximate location
The service is not responsible for linked or (clearly) quoted content from third-party content providers
Explanation: Weight used to be 50.
The terms may be changed at any time, but you will receive notification of the changes
Explanation: The Terms may be updated without prior notice, but users will be notified of the changes at the moment they will start applying.
The court of law governing the terms is in the State of California, U.S.A.
Explanation: The Terms are governed by the applicable laws of a jurisdiction (specified in the title of each point by replacing the "X").
Explanation: Some services store data on you even if you did not provide that data yourself. For example, users might provide access to their address book, after which a service might also store the phone numbers of that person's contacts.