Who are Terms of Service type pages really for? They are written as if for lawyers to read, but with the expectation that non-lawyers are going to be the primary readers. It's like writing out instructions for how to use your wind-up toy using complex mathematical equations involving torque...
Bret Taylor,
Joe Neves,
Amit Patel,
Joel Webber,
Paul Haahr,
Alex Scrivener,
Shakeel Mahate,
Tim Ostler,
Private Sanjeev,
Nick Humphries,
Shannon Jiménez,
and
Roberto Bonini
liked this
...sure it may be more accurate, but totally useless for the target audience.
- Shannon Bauman
It's frustrating, because it seems like almost everyone would agree that this is a broken process, yet there has not yet been a good solution for it.
- Shannon Bauman
It is unclear that they are really enforceable in a lot of cases due to their inaccessibility to non-lawyers.
- Bret Taylor
Some websites like pbwiki now display a "non-binding summary" in everyday language for people who don't want to read the legal terms. There's a group of people who advocate for "plain language" in business: http://www.centerforplainlanguage.org/
- Amanda Nance
Yup, sucks. Only (legally) binding in some countries. Not in Sweden, for example. I think.
- Jonas S Karlsson
They are also questionable from a legal standpoint given many are subject to change without notice at any time. No one reads them much less checks them for updates!
- Ryan Miller