Today, I sat down with our own Josh Constine to discuss all of the ruckus having to do with the recent privacy policy and terms of service changes for Instagram and Facebook, which caused a bit of an uproar. There was so much confusion that Instagram’s co-founder, Kevin Systrom, had to write a blog post to dispel some of the rumors and assure us that Facebook has its users’ best… → Read More
In a very carefully worded blog post penned by Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom, he laid out what Facebook and Instagram will do to answer any and all questions that users might have over the recent privacy and terms of service changes. This was the “Beacon-Like” response we were anticipating: I’m writing this today to let you know we’re listening and to commit to you that we… → Read More
When Google started raising money in 1998, Sergey Brin and Larry Page didn’t have a revenue model — or at least that’s how the story goes. The company’s highly successful text ad program didn’t start until 2000, but Brin and Page may have had at least some idea of how to monetize the service by the time Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim gave them their check. → Read More
It’s long been said that “I agree to the terms of service” is the biggest lie on the internet. And even if you do read them, many TOS are so ridden with legalese that you practically need to be a lawyer to understand them. Also, as I wrote in a gloomy post last weekend, users have no choice but either agree to the terms offered by a web app or simply not use the service at all.
But a new… → Read More
You might not think that something like a website’s Terms of Service would be all that interesting, but you’d be wrong. After that post about how awesome 500px’s Terms of Service are (tl;dr: they translate them into human speak), the inbox kind of blew up with questions. Is anyone else doing this?, emailers wanted to know, can I talk to them? (Also: hey, stupid, Aviary has done this forever.… → Read More
Your access to and use of the Site may be interrupted from time to time as a result of equipment malfunction, updating, maintenance or repair of the Site or any other reason within or outside the control of the company. The company reserves the right to suspend or discontinue the availability of the Site and/or any Service and/or remove any Content at any time at its sole discretion and without… → Read More
Over the past few weeks, you may have noticed that Netflix wants you to “Agree” to something. The company has updated its terms of service, and within the new version, there lies an interesting little tidbit that you may want to review.
From the “Arbitration Agreement”:
These Terms of Use provide that all disputes between you and Netflix will be resolved by BINDING ARBITRATION. YOU AGREE TO… → Read More
[photopress:comcasttos.jpg,full,center] Comcast, America’s most beloved ISP, has reacted to an FCC investigation into its alleged traffic shaping by updating its terms of service for the first time in two years. The new TOS says it “uses reasonable network management practices that are consistent with industry standards” to prevent “spam, viruses, security attacks, network… → Read More
Perhaps you remember how recently, AT&T updated its Terms and Conditions to basically state that if you talked shit on AT&T, your service would be cancelled. Facing harsh criticism and backlash from the media and customers, the company has released the following statement. Hit the jump for the full e-mail and read over it a few times. What do you think? Lesson learned or PR switch? → Read More
So apparently there is a new clause in the AT&T terms of service which says that they have the right to shut down your interwebz if you complain about the service or billing publicly. Now, we would usually discourage anyone from trying to anger a conglomerate with lots of money and legal resources. But this is just ridiculous, folks. Go out and vBlog about them sucking to your hearts content. → Read More
Sprint Nextel just raised their messaging rates to 20 cents per casual SMS and, in a particularly sneaky move, modified their terms of service to ensure that customers couldn’t slip out of their contracts after the change. → Read More
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