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...)
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...
Your account can be deleted or permanently suspended without prior notice and without a reason
Explanation: At any time, your account can be terminated without explanation and without warning by the service.
The court of law governing the terms is in a jurisdiction that is less friendly to user privacy protection (Delaware, U.S.A.)
Explanation: The Terms are governed by the applicable laws of a jurisdiction known for weak data regulations and poor user privacy protection. Usually contributors will need to explain in the Analysis view of each point linked to this Case the reason why it shall be applied.
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.
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 personal data may be disclosed to comply with government requests without notice to you
Explanation: If the Government governing the Terms requests personal data of a user of this service, they may not inform/notify the user while complying with the request.
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.
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.
Referring and/or exit pages are tracked
Explanation: The service logs the URL of the last web page you visited before and/or after visiting the Site and may use that information to gather more data about you.
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.
You are tracked via web beacons, tracking pixels, browser fingerprinting, and/or device fingerprinting
Explanation: Tracking technologies (such as web beacons, tracking pixels...) are employed on users and/or the service assigns a unique ID to a browser or device to track its behaviour.
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 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.
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.
Any liability on behalf of the service is only limited to the fees you paid as a user or $100 USD
Explanation: Even if the service, for some reason, were to be liable to you, then compensation is limited up to whatever you had paid beforehand (and even if you hadn’t paid any amount to the service, you’re agreeing to compensation by a maximum imposed by the service).
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.
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.
This service claims User-generated content is encrypted, and they can not decrypt it
Explanation: The service claims that user-generated content is end-to-end encrypted, meaning only intended recipients can access or decrypt it. As a result, no unauthorized parties, including the service itself, can view the content.
This does not necessarily cover meta data, such as the date of creation or sender and recipient information.
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.
Your account may be suspended and/or terminated for breaching the Terms of Service
Explanation: Your account can be terminated for having been in breach of the Terms of Service/Community Guidelines/any other relevant policy. Your account can not be terminated without a reason.
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.
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.
A complaint mechanism is provided for the handling of personal data
Explanation: The service provides users with contact information for an internal or external structure to lodge complaints. It also provides users with contact information for a higher data protection / privacy office in case the internal mechanism fails to satisfy the user.
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.
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.
This service claims that your personal data is not being 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”.
Information is provided about security practices
Explanation: It's important to know what security measures are taken to protect your data from unauthorized access. This case applies to the Agreements that precisely explain their security practices.
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.
You can opt out of receiving promotional communications
Explanation: You can update your account preferences and/or easily unsubscribe of email/sms lists to stop receiving promotional communications.
A free help desk is provided
Explanation: The service can be easily contacted for questions or provides a support center at no extra cost.
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold the service harmless in case of a claim related to your use of the service
You authorise the service to charge a credit card supplied on re-occurring basis
Explanation: You card will be billed on recurring basis unless cancelled. For instance, monthly or annual subscriptions.
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.
Blocking first-party cookies may limit your ability to use the service
Explanation: Most browsers allow users to set preferences related to cookies storage. You may choose to block all cookies (including first-party cookies), but it may impact your use of this service and you may not be able to access some or any of the features provided.
You should revisit the terms periodically, although in case of material changes, the service will notify
Explanation: The service may update the Terms without notice, but if they significantly change the agreements in a manner that importantly and/or negatively affects the way the service is used, users will be notified.
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.
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.
This service has a no refund policy with some exceptions
Explanation: Payments can be refunded if some requirements are fulfilled.
Defend, indemnify, hold harmless; survives termination
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.
No warranty is made regarding an uninterrupted, timely, secure and/or error-free experience
Explanation: The service provider expressly does not claim to provide uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free 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
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.
Prices and fees may be changed at any time, but you will be notified beforehand
Explanation: The service reserves the right to modify prices at any time, but you will recieve a notice of such changes.
Spidering, crawling, or accessing the site through any automated means is not allowed
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.
You are prohibited from attempting to gain unauthorized access to other computer systems
Explanation: The service does not allow any attempts at hacking or otherwise gaining unauthorized access to other users' computers.
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.
Failure to enforce any provision of the Terms of Service does not constitute a waiver of such provision
Explanation: Even if the service does not or not always enforce all of the rules or provisions contained in its terms, they still apply. Users can at a later time still be held accountable for violating provisions that have not been enforced consistently.
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.
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.
This service informs you that its Terms of Service does not apply to third-party services
Explanation: The service states that whenever it links to third party websites or applications, its Terms of Service does not apply. Those third party websites or applications hosted or operated by other organizations may have their Terms of Service.
First-party cookies are used
Explanation: First-party cookies only belong to the domain of the service and not a third party.
You must keep your information up to date and accurate
Explanation: The service expects you to provide true and accurate information upon registering an account with them, and that you will keep it up to date.
This service informs you that its Privacy Policy does not apply to third-party services
Explanation: The service states that whenever it links to third party websites or applications, its privacy policy does not apply. Those third party websites or applications hosted or operated by other organizations may have their own privacy policies.
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.
Your personal data is aggregated into statistics
Explanation: Your personal data may be used for statistics, usually in a de-identified/aggregated form (i.e. not directly linked to a unique identity) to analyse trends, for research and/or for analytics.
The court of law governing the terms is in the State of Delaware, 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").
Your IP address is collected, which can be used to view your approximate location
Third parties are involved in operating the service
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...)