It occurs to me that the “Terms of Service” (or “Terms and Conditions”) prompts and agreements used by softwaree and services are utterly misused in almost every situation. And the issue is not their existence, per se. It’s the timing of presentation. When an end user is presented with the prompt, they are not prepared, mentally or temporally, to fully understand what they’re agreeing to, much less what the repercussions are of that agreement. They are excited to try the service or use the software (they probably paid for) and are in no mental state to contemplate what it really means longer term.
I don’t necessarily have a solution to this problem, but I know it is a problem. And anyone who watches their parents or kids or whomever install software or sign up for a service knows it’s a problem. And one that (mostly) larger companies too often hide behind.
