Don’t deny it. We’ve all instantly clicked the “I agree” button when the terms and conditions for a certain online service or software pops up without actually reading any of it. Who can blame us? They’re long and riddled with technical and legal terms that are neither interesting nor understandable for most of us.
Then comes the growing number of ads on our social media platforms. Have you ever noticed those times when you just made a single Google search on something as random as silverware, and suddenly all the ads on the websites you visit are related to utensils, kitchenware and any of the like? This is because some online platforms are tracking our digital footprint—then uses it to their advantage.
Stealing data
Over the past years, Facebook has been charged with various cases of selling their users’ personal data to big companies. Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics company, used the information gathered from Facebook to influence the 2016 US elections—which contributed to Donald Trump’s win. More recently, Tiktok has been banned from a few countries due to security and privacy issues which does not protect user data. FaceApp, a face-identification filter app, also raised some alarms when people speculated that it could be taking offline data from your camera roll.
[READ: This is the “hidden” danger of TikTok’s “Invisible Challenge”]
The catch though is that… we all agreed to this. That little box we ticked without reading actually had these conditions written down. Cue in that feeling of regret. Don’t worry, though, the damages aren’t as drastic (yet). However, it’s probably time for us to actually read the Terms of Service. Luckily, there’s a browser extension that makes that easier.
Summarized terms
“Terms of Service; Didn’t Read” is a browser add-on that summarizes the terms of service of websites before you sign up or purchase anything from it. The add-on indicates the rate of the website’s terms and privacy policies from highly safe and secure (Class A) to non-protected (Class E). Within just a few short sentences, you’ll be able to understand just exactly what that website may take from you.
Additionally, the add-on already has ratings for most-used websites such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Spoiler alert: Facebook has a rating of Class E, while Google and Twitter’s rating is at Class C. The three may actually take your data and give it to third parties without your permission. What’s even worse is that Google can read your private messages and that Facebook can track your movement on other websites. “Terms of Service; Didn’t Read” summarizes this information from the websites’ data use policies, terms of service, cookie policies and full data use policy. They also track updates in the conditions and display the previous versions to promote transparency.
If you’re afraid of being tracked by these websites you signed up for, we also recommend using the browser DuckDuckGo which has a Class A rating for its privacy policy. DuckDuckGo uses a tracker blocker and encryption enforcer that keeps your information completely confidential.
In the digital age, where not only our personal information but also each of our digital actions can be recorded and used against us, it’s best to always stay on the safe side.
Header photo courtesy of Morning Brew on Unsplash
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