Terms-of-service agreements bind users to contracts they never read

Evidence

Among the many violations of advocacy expectations, ubiquitous “terms-of-service agreements” were among the most pernicious. Legal experts call these “contracts of adhesion” because they impose take-it-or-leave-it conditions on users that stick to them whether they like it or not. Online “contracts” such as terms-of-service or terms-of-use agreements are also referred to as “click-wrap” because, as a great deal of research shows, most people get wrapped in these oppressive contract terms by simply clicking on the box that says “I agree” without ever reading the agreement. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 150

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘contracts of adhesion’ and ‘click-wrap’ — core vocabulary for the platform economy.
• XREF: connects to: Incomprehensible terms force users into uninformed agreement — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 310; Digital contract weightlessness lets firms extract rights that paper terms could not impose — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 152; Click-wrap contracts function as a unilateral private seizure of user rights — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 151

Broader Connections

• Digital contract weightlessness lets firms extract rights that paper terms could not impose #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 152
• Click-wrap contracts function as a unilateral private seizure of user rights #corroborates (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 151