Discussion

• @willoremus Will Oremus on x

  This seems like the kind of bare-minimum, common-sense measure that probably could have been passed 10 years ago if Silicon Valley hadn't convinced everyone that all regulation of tech was bad. https://twitter.com/...

• @reploritrahan Congresswoman Lori Trahan on x

  It would take *76* work days for the average American to read the terms of service contracts for the websites & apps they use. Companies designed them that way so users “agree” without reading a word. I introduced the TLDR Act with @SenBillCassidy & @SenatorLujan to change that. …

• @nsqe H. Poteat on x

  Do lawmakers think that we write terms of service to be extra-long on purpose? Like...we're bored, and we want to confuse people, so we're just gonna throw some bits from Anna Karenina to see if anyone notices? Where's our TLDR Act for real estate contracts? New cars? https://twi…

• @mmasnick Mike Masnick on x

  How about we pass a law requiring lawmakers to post a nutrition label-style summary of what their bills would actually do, and which parts are vaguely unconstitutional? https://twitter.com/...

• @bergmayer John Bergmayer on x

  you don't need a EULA to read a book. you don't need one to use software or drive a car, either. social media does have different considerations. anyway, “private ordering” is overrated

• @senatorlujan Senator Ben Ray Luján on x

  .@SenBillCassidy, @RepLoriTrahan and I want to make complicated terms of service contracts that nobody reads a thing of the past. Companies should be required to make their terms of service contracts more accessible & transparent, giving control back to the consumer. https://twit…

• @danielahorwitz Daniel A. Horwitz on x

  Nobody will read summaries, either. Just like you never read the lengthy contract of 3-point-font when you signed up for a cell phone plan. The right thing to do is for courts to regulate form commercial contracts for substantive reasonableness. https://twitter.com/...

• @nsqe H. Poteat on x

  The fact that no one reads terms of service is a problem, sure. But just like Ed Chau's god-awful “Limit terms to 100 words, that'll fix it all!” law, this fixes nothing and helps no one. It's a misguided mess that keeps putting the burden in the wrong place: users.

• @libshipwreck @libshipwreck on x

  This is a good step. But the problem remains that many people feel like they can't really opt out of using certain platforms (even if they have problematic terms) because those platforms have become key infrastructure for their communities. https://twitter.com/...

• @nsqe H. Poteat on x

  You know who they could have asked on this? ASIDE FROM literally anyone who's written a Terms of Service or literally any privacy expert, they could have asked anyone who's worked on or contributed to @ToSDR, which has tried to do basically this for a decade. It's /fucking hard/.

• @vmcntosh Victoria McIntosh on x

  Potentially a pain in the butt, and won't change ‘beware that fine print’. But I do find Apple's “privacy dashboard” useful when deciding if an app's worth considering, so there *is* that. https://twitter.com/...

• @stevesi Steven Sinofsky on x

  No one reads the terms of service. Lawmakers want to fix that with a new ‘TLDR’ bill. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... // As exciting as this is, super tough to see this working in practice. Many times I tried to get lawyers to draft a tl;dr version of the terms of use. Lots o…

• @gabrielazanfir Dr. Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna on x

  Keir is onto something here. The TLDR Act may be my favorite ever name of an US Bill in our data world🤠 https://twitter.com/...

• @m_karanicolas Michael Karanicolas on x

  Because, as we know, nutrition-labels have been a marvelously effective solution to America's obesity epidemic. https://twitter.com/...

• @reploritrahan Congresswoman Lori Trahan on x

  Our bipartisan & bicameral legislation gives power back to consumers by requiring that online companies make their terms of service contracts more accessible, transparent & understandable (like this! ⬇️). https://twitter.com/...

• @m_karanicolas Michael Karanicolas on x

  That's not to say more transparency is bad, but it's one thing for consumers to look at a label for how much sugar, salt, etc. is in a product. Privacy questions are far more complex, and are legitimately difficult to explain to lay-audiences, especially in a condensed format.

• @bergmayer John Bergmayer on x

  most terms of service / EULAs should not be enforceable in court and apart from that are mostly unnecessary. (but the point of terms isn't always to be legally enforceable but just to tell people how they might get kicked off the service) https://twitter.com/...

• @digiphile Alex Howard on x

  TL/DR: Bills that mandate tech companies inform us of how they're going to use our data, abuse our trust, & violate our privacy don't fix the root problem: the USA needs a data protection act & stronger @FTC to enforce it, not a clear TOS. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... cc @…