How many of you read the TOS of websites and software?

Page 1 of 1 [ 7 posts ] 


Do you read the TOS before clicking I agree?
Always 25%  25%  [ 1 ]
Sometimes 25%  25%  [ 1 ]
Never 50%  50%  [ 2 ]
Other (please elaborate below) 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Total votes : 4

jamie0.0
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Yesterday, 7:41 pm

I think it's very important to do so. But I'm not perfect at it. Sometimes when I'm in a rush I blindly click I agree and hope that there's nothing bad in it.



ToughDiamond
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Today, 12:34 am

To be honest I rarely read them. They're usually too long. Maybe they're deliberately made like that so people won't bother and they won't know what they're letting themselves in for. But even if I did read them, it would take me a very long time and in the end I might well not be much wiser because I tend to get stuck on ambiguities, and if there's an ambiguity there, I'll probably find it.

If it's tracking and marketing they're warning about, I have fairly good ad blocking so I'm unlikely to actually see any ads even if they do track me, and on the Web I don't often allow scripts that aren't essential for the website to work, so that probably messes up their game. As for my responsibility to stick to my end of the agreement, AFAIK it's not a criminal offense to transgress that, though obviously I run some risk of getting locked out if I do. So it's rather subjective how much attention I pay to these things, and depends on what it is, who provides the service, and what I know about how good, evil, or fastidious they might be.

As for software, if I particularly distrust the maker and I think they might be phoning home with info about me, I might take steps to make that more difficult. I rarely read the terms because I hardly ever use software that has to work in conjunction with the maker. So it's mostly local, offline programs and as far as I'm concerned I own my copy of it and am morally allowed to do what I like with it. Most of what I use is freeware, and most of it is rather old and was made before the developers learned how to play dirty tricks on the users. If I smell a big rat I'm likely to stop using it and look for something a bit more free of binding agreements and cunning traps.



belijojo
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Today, 1:33 am

I have no choice.
Whether it is shopping software or game software, as long as I want to use it, I can only click "I Agree".


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Hetzer
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Today, 3:20 am

Websites / services: I read ToS of services I'm going to use with an account (and if it's too long / questionable I don't use such service), otherwise I don't care as I block JS and similar bloat anyway. If site doesn't work without loading crapton of JS from 19 shonky sites I just leave it

Software: I use libre software, licenses are pretty standardized here so it's not a big deal to read some license once, especially permissive licenses (BSD, ISC, X11/MIT etc.) which are very short


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Participant626
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Today, 5:06 am

Most of the time, it's too much to read and I have no option otherwise. Sometimes, I check out the terms of service.


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nick007
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Today, 7:40 am

I only read the TOS for web forums & other sites where I might post something. I'm sure I violate various TOS by using file-sharing programs to download music, videos, & software I'm suppused to buy :pirat:


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ToughDiamond
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Today, 8:15 am

belijojo wrote:
I have no choice.
Whether it is shopping software or game software, as long as I want to use it, I can only click "I Agree".

Good point. Don't know about the rest of the world, but the UK has an "unfair contracts" law that can exempt people from being nailed for disobeying some of those.