Virtually no one reads website terms of service, but we often have to click “I agree” in order to use a website. And courts generally enforce online terms even when website users don’t read them. I think this is a problem, and I’ve written about it in the past.
In my last two Resource of the Week posts, I highlight projects that are trying to help consumers with this issue by providing an easily accessible cheat sheet of what’s in a website’s terms of service, so we don’t have to spend our nights and weekends slogging through the legalese just to download an app from the app store.
Commonterms.net is another such resource. Borrowing an idea from the food industry, the project distills website terms of service into a visual representation that looks similar to a nutrition label. If something of concern jumps out at you, you can then read the fine print carefully to decide whether you really want to agree to the terms.
What do you think? Have you used Common Terms? Does the project have legs?
