AbsolutelyNothing

Outsmart the Terms and Conditions with One Simple Trick

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by

JI Cruz
in

👋🏽🤓 Howdy!

I’m J.I. and I’m building some neat tools for AbsolutelyNothing.io along with Kyle. I’ll take over the blog every once in a while to give you a sneak peak into our R&D.

A rendition of Sisyphus by thechewu on DeviantArt. Sisyphus was condemned to roll a large rock up a hill, only to be forced to watch it roll back down.

Today for you I got 1 simple trick and only two words for you: Opt Out.

Here’s the truth: Companies let you opt out of their terms all the time— they just know we won’t read the fine print.

Say you wanted to sue OpenAI for whatever reason (I mean, I don’t know why you would— it’s not as if OpenAI has been getting sued a lot recently 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). Maybe ChatGPT suggests a crazy dinner recipe that lands you in the hospital or OpenAI leaks your data (they would never do that, right?).

Lo and behold, you probably cannot sue OpenAI.

When you signed up to use ChatGPT, you also signed away your right to sue OpenAI.

OpenAI’s Terms & Conditions include— all the way near the end— this all-caps section labeled “MANDATORY ARBITRATION”.

You and OpenAI agree to resolve any claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or our Services, regardless of when the claim arose, even if it was before these Terms existed (a “Dispute”), through final and binding arbitration.

So what to do, then, in a world full of gotcha policies that sign away my rights?

Opt Out!

Did You Check For Opt-Out Forms?

Of course you didn’t. But you should!

Our OpenAI case is a perfect example of this. The very next sentence of their arbitration clause reads:

You may opt out of arbitration within 30 days of account creation or of any updates to these arbitration terms within 30 days after the update has taken effect by filling out this form. If you opt out of an update, the last set of agreed upon arbitration terms will apply. 

And the form? Just a measly Google Form* no longer than a sign-up sheet.

(*Pretty ironic for a company funded by Microsoft, but, oh well, that’s how much these companies pay attention to these things!)

In fact, our initial research has shown that the majority of privacy policies will contain some opt-out mechanism for some aspect of their service, whether it be them selling your data or taking away your arbitration rights, even if they didn’t mean for you to find it.

Whenever you sign up for a new service, you can quickly scan the Terms of Use document for any of the following keywords/phrases, along with any variations you can think of:

  • opt out , opt-out, or opt_out
  • Class Action Waiver or Waiver for Class Action
  • Arbitration Clause or Mandatory Arbitration
  • Coordinated Claims
  • Loss Damage Waiver

You’d be surprised how often you’ll run into these keywords. A few seconds could go a long way in preserving your digital rights.

Also, Did You Know About These Opt-Out Tools?

Many companies use opt-out standards promoted by self-regulating organizations such as the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) or advertising giants like Google. You can use these little-known pages and tools to opt out of ad-tracking from hundreds of potential advertisers and brokers:

There are also some very exciting developments going on in the “Automated Privacy Tools” space. As more nation states continue adopting and enforcing regulations, we see more companies and industry groups jumping on board with automated opt-out mechanisms such as the Global Privacy Control, a way for your web browser to just automatically tell sites not track you without you having to click on forms. Indeed, certain browsers, such as Brave Browser (not an ad), have begun implementing these mechanisms but many companies still fail to comply with them. Right now Chrome, Safari and Edge (the top 3 browsers which comprise of ~90% of all users) are not yet using these mechanisms.

Which leads me to my last piece of advice…

You’re Subscribed to AbsolutelyNothing.io, Right?

Ultimately, keeping up with your privacy policy opt-outs is a Sisyphean undertaking. We get bombarded with so many policy changes every day that keeping perfect track becomes unrealistic.

Wouldn’t it be great if this could all be handled for you? Wouldn’t it be awesome if all you had to was… Absolutely Nothing?

That’s exactly what we’re hoping to do for you in the long run. Not gonna break any news today but you’re definitely gonna want to stay tuned for what we have in the next few weeks. 😎

That’s all for now, though! Do expect a couple awesome blogs with insights on the Fortune 500’s terms of service policies over the next couple weeks, and perhaps some regulatory policy blogs too because we’re just that cool.

~J.I.