They store data on you even if you did not interact with the service
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
This service can edit any content on the service for whatever the reason and at their sole discretion.
Private messages can be read
The Service is able to access, scan, review or read all user communications, including private messages, which may contain personal or sensitive data.
Specific content can be deleted without reason and may be removed without prior notice
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.
Sensitive data is collected and shared to target advertising
Sensitive data refers to information requiring special protection, such as health data, political and religious beliefs, ethnic origins, sexual life and financial information. The service collects and shares this data with third parties for advertising or marketing.
Your personal data is used for automated decision-making, profiling or AI training
Personal data or content you share with the service may be processed to make decisions by automated means without human involvement. This includes profiling, which is any form of automated processing of your information to analyse or predict things like your economic situation, health, personal preferences or interests; as well as Artificial Intelligence training.
This service holds onto content that you've deleted
Content may remain in backup servers and be retained after deletion, and thus never be completely deleted. This case doesn't apply to contributions that can't be removed due to the nature of the service.
This service still tracks you even if you opted out from tracking
Users can’t fully opt out of tracking technologies used for non essential purposes such as advertising, marketing or analytics. The user may be asked for consent for installing some tracking technologies on the device, and even if all are rejected the service will still track its visitors and ignore the choice.This case doesn’t apply to functional cookies that are necessary to provide the services.
App required for this service requires broad device permissions
The app of the service requires more device permissions than necessary. As a consequence it can compromise your privacy by accessing many functions and information from your device, such as precise location, contacts, device identifiers etc.
This service may collect, use, and share location data
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
The service collects different kinds of personal data, such as name, demographic information, postal address, biometric data, device information, IDs, contacts, call logs...
Third-party cookies are used for advertising
The service's website sets third-party cookies (cookies that do not belong to their domain) for purposes not including statistics and analytics.
This service tracks you on other websites
The service may use tracking technologies in third-party websites to track your online activity while you aren't visiting their Site.
This service tracks you on other websites
The service may use tracking technologies in third-party websites to track your online activity while you aren't visiting their Site.
Your Personal data may be sold unless you opt out
There is a form to opt-out (typically California's CCPA) of the selling of your personal data. This is a bad a point because there are many services that don't have this form due to not selling your data in the first place.
Instead of asking directly, this Service will assume your consent to changes of terms merely from your usage
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 content can be licensed to third parties
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.
A license is kept on user-generated content even after you close your account
The service may still use your content and display it after you stopped using it by closing your account. The case applies to terms requiring users to grant them a perpetual license over that content.
Your personal data may be used for marketing purposes
The service may use your personal data for marketing, such as sending you personalised offerings.
Your profile is combined across various products
When using multiple services from one same company, they can combine these (unrelated) information sources about you to build up a single richer user profile about you.
Information is gathered about you through third parties
This Service may employ, either identifiable or non-identifiable, data collection from third party sources about you.
You are being tracked via social media cookies/pixels
These types of cookies/pixels send information to social media sites when you interact with the service.
You are tracked via web beacons, tracking pixels, browser fingerprinting, and/or device fingerprinting
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.
Your personal data may be disclosed to comply with government requests without notice to you
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 are forced into binding arbitration in case of disputes
This service forces users to use their own contracted arbitrator and forces users to waive their rights to jury trial.
This service receives your precise location through GPS coordinates
Unless the service relies on Geo Location, this case is to be assigned to points that don't need your GPS coordinates to function properly.
Your personal data is used to employ targeted third-party advertising
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.
Your personal information is used for many different purposes
Personal Data can be processed for many reasons, including non essential processing such as for advertising, marketing and analytics purposes.
Your provided identifiable information is actively checked by the service
The service checks if the required identifiable information you've provided is correct, and may do so on a regular basis. The check measures could be analyzing your browser information and/or providing the identifiable information to a third-party or the authority, thus compromising your anonymity.
Your biometric data is collected
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.
The service is only available in some countries approved by its government
Countries under embargo or banned by the government of the country in question cannot use the service.
Any liability on behalf of the service is only limited to the fees you paid as a user
Third-party cookies are used for statistics
For instance, Google Analytics, rather than self-hosted (first-party) statistics software.
Third party cookies are employed, but with opt out instructions
Tracking pixels are used in service-to-user communication
The service tracks the user count or some actions of the user; this is usually used for statistics. For example, emails sent by a service can contain a pixel tag, which is a small, clear image that can tell them whether or not you have opened an email and what your IP address is.
The service provides information about how they collect personal data
The service details situations in which they collect personal information or means by which they do.
User accounts can be terminated after having been in breach of the terms of service repeatedly
User accounts can be terminated for having been in breach of the terms of service repeatedly, meaning they cannot be terminated without a reason, but only for a limited number of reasons. Additionally, user accounts will not be deleted after a first infringement.
You can limit how your information is used by third-parties and the service
Usually it's related to the right to object to data processing or restrict it under the GDPR. Users may be able to refuse the use of their data for marketing purposes for instance.
You can request access, correction and/or deletion of your data
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 maintain ownership of your content
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.
If you offer suggestions to the service, they may use that without your approval or compensation, but they do not become the owner
The service may employ a broad copyright license over feedback, proposals, ideas and suggestions submitted, including the right to use them without restriction, compensation or obligation to the user, but they do not claim ownership on them.
The court of law governing the terms is in a jurisdiction that is friendlier to user privacy protection
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.
Information is provided about how they collect personal data
The service details situations in which they collect personal information or means by which they do.
You can retrieve an archive of your data
Users can request a copy of the data collected through the services and infer from it the amount of personal information that is processed and stored by the Service. This usually applies to Services GDPR compliants.
A list of all cookies set by the website is provided
The service provides users with a complete list of all first and third party cookies its website sets and an explanation of their uses. This information can be valuable for users to make an informed choice whether to allow those cookies.
Information is provided about how your personal data is used
The Privacy Policy explains the purposes for which data is collected and the way it is processed, used and shared.
Your browser's Do Not Track (DNT) headers are respected
This service does respect the browser's Do Not Track header and disables all user tracking if it is enabled.
Information is provided about what kind of information they collect
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
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.
You can opt out of targeted advertising
The service employs your data to target ads to you, but you can opt-out of this interest-based advertising.
The service claims to be GDPR compliant for European users
The service has a different behavior towards users protected by the GDPR.
The service claims to be CCPA compliant for California users
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
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.
The service has non-exclusive use of your content
The service can pay for your content and you are allowed to make it commercially available to other services/parties.
The publishing of personally identifiable information without the owner’s consent is not allowed
Users agree not to publicly post personally identifiable information (name, postal address, contact information…) without the owner’s knowledge or consent
There is a date of the last update of the agreements
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
Content infringing the Terms of Service (or the Acceptable Use Policy or equivalent) may be removed, with or without notice.
You should revisit the terms periodically, although in case of material changes, the service will notify
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 can use your content for all their existing and future services
This service assumes no responsibility and liability for the contents of links to other websites
The service rejects any responsibility for the contents of other websites to which it links.
The service assumes no liability for any damages the user incurs
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.
There is a date of the last update of the agreements
The given text has a date that allows to know when it was last updated.
Harming minors in any ways is prohibited
This service prohibits harming minor in any ways. Since both “minor” and “in any ways” are vague and can be cited to restrict possibly any actions, the case is not classified as “good”.
The service is not responsible for linked or (clearly) quoted content from third-party content providers
You agree to indemnify and hold the service harmless in case of a claim related to your use of the service
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.
This service does not condone any ideas contained in its user-generated contents
Defend, indemnify, hold harmless; survives termination
The service provider makes no warranty regarding uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free service
The service provider expressly does not claim to provide uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free service.
You must create an account to use this service
You must provide the service with your information in order to use it
You are prohibited from sending chain letters, junk mail, spam or any unsolicited messages
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 are prohibited from posting content which promotes violence or politically or religiously extremist values
Users are not allowed to post extremist political or religious content. They are also not allowed to post content that glorifies violence.
Spidering, crawling, or accessing the site through any automated means is not allowed
You agree not to submit libelous, harassing or threatening content
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.
Banned users are prohibited from creating a new account
Once users have been permanently banned from this service, they are not allowed to create a new account to keep using the service.
You are prohibited from attempting to gain unauthorized access to other computer systems
The service does not allow any attempts at hacking or otherwise gaining unauthorized access to other users' computers.
The service is provided 'as is' and to be used at your sole risk
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
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.
Your account can be suspended for several reasons
This service is only available to users over a certain age
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
Users are not allowed to post any content of pornographic nature. This includes adult content, things that are sexually explicit, or obscene.
You cannot distribute or disclose your account to third parties
In this context third-parties refers to anyone including friends, family, or company
Your personal data is aggregated into statistics
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.
Failure to enforce any provision of the Terms of Service does not constitute a waiver of such provision
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
The service asks the user to notify them immediately of any unauthorized use or security breaches.
You agree not to use the service for illegal purposes
The user agrees not to commit any unlawful acts through the use of the website, including the posting of illegal content or messaging.
The service does not guarantee accuracy or reliability of the information provided
This service makes no warranty regarding the accuracy or reliability of any information that is given on its website or the results that may be obtained from the use of the service.
Invalidity of any portion of the Terms of Service does not entail invalidity of its remainder
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.
First-party cookies are used
First-party cookies only belong to the domain of the service and not a third party.
This service does not guarantee that it or the products obtained through it meet your expectations or requirements
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.
Minors must have the authorization of their legal guardians to use the service
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.
Your IP address is collected, which can be used to view your approximate location
The court of law governing the terms is in location X
The Terms are governed by the applicable laws of a jurisdiction (specified in the title of each point by replacing the "X").
Separate policies are employed for different parts of the service
The user may need to read additional product-specific agreements depending on the way the service is used.