TL; DR (too long, didn't read)

Never before have we agreed to so many terms and conditions. According to a Fairer Finance survey, small print for some companies now runs to more than 30,000 words. Is it surprising then that just 7% of us read the full terms and conditions when buying a product or service online?

The sad truth is that we should read T&Cs, but we lack the time to do so. 21% of Brits say they have had a bad experience as a result of ticking the T&Cs box without having done their homework. 10% found themselves bound to a longer term contract than expected and 5% lost money due to an undetected no amendments or cancelations policy.

Dmitry Agarkov didn't like his credit card contract, so he rewrote it, and his bank duly signed it. It would seem that even banks don't have the time to read their fine print as Dmitry authored the ideal credit card with no Fees, no interest, no limit, and a clause forcing the bank to pay up if it violated the contract. An out-of-court agreement was reached, and I'm sure Agarakov is now a very wealthy man with no need for a credit card. 

German- born company 'Terms of Service; Didn't Read' aim to reduce the number of Internet users being caught out by hastily ticking 'agree'. ToS; DR is a user initiative to rate and label website terms and privacy policies from safe (class A) to risky (class E) so that we as users can quickly identify anything we may wish to query/reject. 

Let's take Google and SoundCloud as examples. Google has been classed as 'C' due to the following factors that are listed on the ToS; DR website. 

Google (Class C)

Positives

* Limited copyright license to operate and improve all Google Services 
* Google allows you to retrieve your information when a service is discontinued
* Partial archives of Google's Terms are available to view 

Negatives

* Keeps your searches and other identifiable user information for an undefined period of time 
* Can use your content for all their existing and future services 
* Tracks you on other websites 
* Can share your personal information with other parties 
* May stop providing services to you at any time 
* Maintains the rights to your content even if you stop using the service 

SoundCloud (Class B)

Positives

* You only grant SoundCloud the rights necessary to operate the services, so you remain in control of your copyright 
* SoundCloud collects data about you but is only used for a list of purposes that are reasonable. Your data is not shared with any third-party, except for the features you use. 
* When SoundCloud decides to modify the terms of service, they will notify you by email and you will have six weeks to decide whether you agree or not.
* You do not have to provide your legal name (except for paid accounts for billing purposes) and you can use the service with a pseudonym. 
* You can terminate your account by sending written notice to SoundCloud, Berlin. All your content will be "irretrievably deleted" by SoundCloud.
* SoundCloud provides an index describing what each section within the Terms refers to.

Negatives

* You agree to indemnify SoundCloud from all claims resulting from any third party for an infringement of copyright or invasion of privacy related to your content or any activity related to your account.
*Sound Cloud state that they 'may disclose' our personal data to any person or company that acquires all or substantially all of the assets or business of SoundCloud. 
* SoundCloud uses persistent cookies. They also have a limited set of third-party cookies such as Google Analytics, Quantcast, and ATInternet. Detailed information about how to opt-out is provided. 

ToS; DR will be celebrating its third birthday this month and was created during the 2011 Chaos Communication Camp near Berlin, with people from Unhosted, a movement to create web apps that give users control over their valuable user data and privacy. 

Since June 2012, Hugo Roy has taken the lead for the project and kicked off the legal analysis, stating that "Ultimately, all the work is transparent and the discussions take place on a public platform. Our work is funded by not for profit organisations and individual donations and gets released as free software and open data." The initiative began with 20,000 euros and is growing rapidly. If you are interested in getting involved with ToS; DR you can do so by contributing energy, money, time or code. 

Why ToS; DR?

ToS; DR is inspired by the internet acronym TL; DR (too long, didn't read) and is often used on blogs and within emails when a block of text is so long that people are unlikely to read all of it.