Quick Guide To Understanding Terms of Service Agreements

How often do you read the service agreements that pop up? You know, those long and jargon-filled pages that have the “I agree” box you click on in order to proceed forward with a software update or website.

User or service agreements are virtually everywhere, yet hardly anyone knows what they say. In fact 90 percent of consumers accept legal terms and conditions without reading them, according to Business Insider.

The main reason is because the language is too long and convoluted. It becomes overwhelming to attempt to read and dissect what those agreements want you to agree to. Instead, we just click what we have to in order to move forward.

How little do we know what we are clicking ‘yes’ to? One study conducted at the University of Connecticut wrote up a service agreement that included users agree to give up their first born child as payment, along with giving permission to have their personal information given to the NSA.

All of these crazy and fake terms were written in a bogus service agreement that 98 percent of consumers agreed to. Although most agreements are written to protect the company, this experiment showed just how little consumers know about the terms they agree to.

Luckily, there’s a site that breaks down the most common terms and service agreements so users can better understand what they are accepting.

Terms of Service; Didn’t Read breaks down the service agreements on the most common or popular sites. They list in bullet point format the gist of the service agreements and what to be aware of.

Instead of just clicking yes to something you have not read, check out the overview on the Terms of Service; Didn’t Read site to get a quick understanding of what you are agreeing to.

Although for most they will never come into an issue where the service agreements is posing a problem, having a better understanding of what the site is doing with you information will help you monitor how and what kind of activity you engage in online.