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50 People Actually Read The Fine Print And Discovered They Were (Almost) Selling Their Souls
In the digital age, we’re asked to agree to the terms and conditions on a daily basis. Almost every website we click on nowadays asks us to confirm with their company’s privacy policy, but how many of us actually take the time to read the fine print? Research shows that only a minority does this.However, people in this thread took their sweet time and read the terms and conditions they were presented with, and they’re glad they did, as they found some unexpected things written there. Scroll down to find their stories below, and don’t forget to share your own experiences so it motivates others to pay closer attention to what they’re agreeing to.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Thank you customer for actually reading our terms and conditions. Send us an E-mail with the following content and we will send you a free box of chocolates.
They did indeed send chocolate.
RELATED:
#2
In the hiring contract for the last company I worked for, there was a line buried on page like 22 that said if you email a certain email address on your first day saying you saw the line, you'd get a bonus day of PTO for the year.
Jessica Langmeyer Specht 4 days ago
Just 1 day? If I am actually reading 22 plus pages of a hiring contract, I think I should get more like 4 bonus PTO days.
#3
Something that I wish I read was on Fabletics online store. Apparently if you make any purchase they automatically sign you up to their VIP program which is a $50 per month subscription for “VIP clothes”. I made one purchase on their site, checked out like any other online store, and got my clothes a week later. 8 months go by and I notice a -$50 taken out of my bank from Fabletics (I check my bank pretty often so idk how I missed this) and it turned out to be a recurring payment for 8 MONTHS. I called their support line and explained to the guy that I never signed up for their subscription and I never even received any sign up confirmation emails or payment statements to know what was happening. He said I most likely signed up when I purchased my clothes 8 months ago because it’s in their terms. It’s like once you “sign up” they ghost you and take your money every month. It took a lot of frustration and refusal to hang up the phone until they finally said I can get a refund of my $400+ that was just sitting in my VIP account. I was like “clearly I was unaware of this because from the past 8 months I haven’t made any more purchases on your stupid site, give me my money back.” They finally refunded it all back. F*****g scammers. Don’t buy s**t from Fabletics.
I still should leave an online review about it because after looking up “Fabletics scam” it seems to happen to a lot of people.
Likes cats a lot! 4 days ago
Shapermint did something similar to me. I noticed it the first month and had it stopped.
Few people read the fine print when it is physically in print, and probably fewer do it when it’s in the digital environment. The Pew Research Center has found that just 9% of adults read a company’s privacy policy before agreeing to the terms and conditions, while more than a third (36%) say they never do it.
With a simple click of a button, people give websites the right to keep, analyze, and sell their data to third parties without realizing it. Often, people also click away their right to go to court if anything goes wrong.
#4
Apps that demand access to your call history, keyboard, internet and photos, when they're literally just a flashlight.
#5
Gamestation once made an "Immortal Soul Clause" on April Fool's day, to prove that no-one actually reads the terms and conditions. It read " By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. ".
#6
I’m a lawyer. Whenever undergrads tell me they want to go to law school, I tell them to read the entire iTunes terms and conditions, without skipping a single sentence. If they can’t get through it, they don’t have the discipline and attention to detail for law school.
The data that internet users agree to give away is especially useful to advertisers, who can then tailor their content to consumers' preferences. A part of such data can also end up in the hands of health insurers, life insurance companies, and even employers, all of which can make important decisions according to it and have quite an effect on our lives.
#7
Amazon's AWS Service Terms contain a clause pertaining to a **zombie apocalypse**.
No, really:
>However, this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.
Rick Murray 4 days ago
Give it a year and whoever is left in charge of the CDC by then wouldn't be able to recognise a zombie if it bit them on the årse. 🙁
#8
Idk if this is super surprising, but I read the entire lease for my first apartment and apparently, I couldn’t get out of my lease even if I DIED.
#9
I don't know if they changed it but, when you chose the "fragile" obtion in a mail system like FedEx, that didn't ment they would take special care of it but that you admitted that it was fragile and therefore it could be broken without being their fault, leaving you unable to sue them for breaking your package or to ask any reimbursement.
A solution to this problem is obvious - to read the terms and conditions we’re presented with. But realistically, if we read each one, we’d spend around eight hours a week doing that. That’s almost a whole day we lose in a week. Who has time for that?
To help with this issue, ToS;DR ("Terms of Service; Didn't Read"), a free browser extension, was created. It labels and rates agreements you’re presented with from very good to very bad. It aids in unearthing the worrisome things and prevents you from signing your life away.
#10
On amazon: anytime they want they can take away from me the books thats I’ve bought on kindle store.
Hippopotamuses 4 days ago
Not at all surprising. This is the mantra of the subscription model.
#11
At a gun range one time I saw that if I yelled out “I love dogs!” my time and anything I buy is half price. I immediately did so, startling my best friend. That was awesome.
The contract to a job I had working in the desert warned about the frequency of alien attacks. I was disappointed to go a year and a half without any, though.
#12
Gym membership contract: one of the reasons that will **not** allow waving your resignation fee is "in case of a nuclear reactor core melting".
Hippopotamuses 4 days ago
Oh shīt, I was hoping to use that as a reason to cancel my membership!
#13
Back in the day when people [legally] acquired new music by buying CDs, one of the bands I listened to would hide nice little messages to fans in the copyright/legal fine print in the booklet that came with the CD. Sometimes there would be a small link to a hidden part of their website that had extra content.
Hippopotamuses 4 days ago (edited)
A friend of mine raised a really interesting question a few years ago. If you have purchased a record, cassette, CD, DVD. etc., haven't you already paid the copyright fee? So, if you buy an updated medium, shouldn't you be able to only pay for the new media i.e.. take your old disc back to the retailer; disc, cassette, CD, digital file etc,. and simply pay for the new media. Rather than paying for the right to play the tracks again?
#14
A while ago (~2011) there was a scam "Work from Home" service widely advertised all over Facebook and other places, promising enormous paycheques and a free trial. (It was an opt-out subscription service as you might expect).
Curious as to how the scam worked, I looked at their T&Cs.
There was a clause in there requiring you to pay $10000 in compensation to the company if you filed a chargeback against their fees.
Whilst that would never stand up in court, dealing with debt collectors who might conveniently offer to settle for 'a mere three thousand' would be all sorts of hell.
#15
A job schedule app my company uses requires you to login using the company email. To set this up on your phone, you have to give your company the rights to erase the contents of your phone remotely, probably in case you become a threat to the company. No thanks.
StrangeOne 4 days ago
That's when you buy a cheap burner work phone. But a company like that I wouldn't trust enough to work for.
#16
I had a Victoria's Secret coupon that said Canadians are required to pass a math question or test in order to be eligible for the discount.
I think I still have it at my desk - my job in part is writing terms and conditions, agreements, and disclosures for the bank I work at so I actually do read a lot of T&Cs in homage to the amount of time my colleagues in the field put into writing 18 pages of s**t no one but examiners read. The Canadian math requirement is the strangest I've ever seen.
Hippopotamuses 4 days ago (edited)
Probably a technicality. To prevent this from being a game of chance.
#17
I showed up for a medical procedure once and the front desk nurse handed me a 3-page form to sign. I started reading it, and she got visibly annoyed, so I kept reading. Found on 2nd page a sentence like this: patient agrees to pay all billing amounts resulting from this procedure. I asked, what does this include? Can you provide me with an estimate of the charges. She said no. I said I am not signing it, because the doctor could throw in a 3-week vacation to Florida or whatever else he/she wants as a "result" of the procedure. That led to a standoff, me not signing, her not taking me back to the procedure room.
Rafael 4 days ago
From the OP: "After a while another nurse came to the front wondering why I was still not in prep. I explained the situation, she just stood there staring at me, like no one had ever brought this up before. Finally after about 15 minutes I figured I could insert the word "reasonable" after the word all, because I see that on contracts at work all the time. I told them I what I was doing, made the change, initialed the change, then signed the document at the bottom. They probably still talk about that crazy dude living with conspiracy theories everywhere. Don't care. "
#18
WhatsApp, when it went full-Facebook 4 years after purchase, sent out an Android update.
The update said it was just adding the ability to give group chats a sub-heading.
What it was *actually* doing was giving Facebook permission to take information. This option was enabled by default (of course it was) and you had only 3 months to notice this had happened before the option to opt out was disabled.
I was late noticing this, but when I read the terms and conditions, the last line said something along the lines of, "Even if you opt out, Facebook and the Facebook family of companies will *still* take the data for.....training purposes."
Aaaaand deleted my account. They probably had my info by that point but f**k that s**t. Installed Signal.
#19
Wanted to sign my kid up for cheerleading. Sat there and read the terms and agreement. Said something along the lines of "We are not responsible for any accidents that occur in the transportation of your child." My husband lost his brother in a school transportation accident and they initially tried to avoid the blame. So naturally that line gave us the heebie jeebies and we just left. Turns out they were just a shady company all around. She now does cheer through her school.
#20
If you make money on TikTok, the owners can rightfully take the money.
loopsydoopsy:
They can also use your videos in their advertisements without your permission, even if the videos are private. Cody Ko had to deal with this.
_NITRISS_:
Hippity hoppity your Tik-Tok is my property
#21
Found this quite a few years ago on chive:
"Anyone submitting photos to Us also agrees to name their first born son, or daughter, Leo and second born child, John. If you stop reproducing after the first child, you must agree to acquire a Panda Bear from China and name it John.
Resignation Media not only owns the rights to any photos you upload, but also owns the rights to your mom. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your mom, and any claims you or your family may have on her, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from Resignation Media. In the event your dad or your mom's parent(s) intervene and claim joint-ownership of your mom, Resignation Media reserves the right to b***h slap them and give all parties Justin Bieber haircuts. If, upon receiving your mom, she attempts to leave theCHIVE's kitchen, where she belongs, she too will be given a Justin Bieber haircut."
EDIT: this was about 6y ago & they have since changed it
#22
While buying a train ticket in Russia : "if the train breaks down, don't think of this as a way to get compensation. Consider it a part of the Russian experience.".
#23
DeviantArt's ToS is basically a contract allowing them to print, reproduce, and profit from your art (if they so choose) without needing your permission or consent.
Usually this takes the form of ads or contests, where they'll be used in public displays. If you post works that show a high level of technical skill, then you need to either sign it or use a big ol' watermark.
Fabulous chocolate cookie 4 days ago
Adobe and Instagram tried the same stunt. They both tried to change their T&S to add a clause saying you automatically surrender all your rights when uploading content to ther platforms. Google has the same with all your data in Google Drive and Gmail. There are even stories about peoples files getting deleted by Google for no reason.
#24
Buying my first car at a dealership too close to a Naval base. Never bought a car before. Had no idea what to do. Monthly payment is $250? That sounds sensible...
Sat down and read the contract much to the chagrin of the sales guy. Interest rate was 18%. I knew enough to walk away.
superfluous 4 days ago
Never look at just the monthly payment - insist on knowing the total cost of (anything you finance) the car.
#25
It was for a lottery arranged by my city. You would pay money to get in and win various prizes. On the terms and conditions it said they don't really have to give you any prizes.
#26
If you want to take Huawei to court you have to take them to court in China.
What they don't tell you is that it's near impossible for a foreigner to win a court case in China.
#27
Every picture you take on Snapchat is public domain.So, Snapchat can use your picture for whatever they want. You could be driving on the Highway and see your face on a billboard and have no rights to the picture.
Kinda funny people don't know this with all the nudes sent on there.
That tired person 4 days ago
OH S**T as a hijabi that is f*****g terrifying because I take alot of private pics without my hijab
#28
I don't have a story myself, but I found [this article] about a man who won a $1000 giveaway that was hidden in the EULA of an app. The 3000 people who installed the program before him didn't bother to read it.
Hippopotamuses 4 days ago
This reminds me of the Microsoft eula. How this is even legal is beyond me?
#29
The dev team of the videogame Factorio is explicit not responsible if you stay awake all night long playing Factorio and can't go to school / work in the morning.
Brian Droste 3 days ago
I agree with this one. If you stay up all night that is the persons fault, not the video programmers. I am retired now and sometimes I stay up much later than I should. I can't blame whatever I am doing for staying up.late. That is my fault for not going to bed at my usual time.
#30
Sony can sue you for literaly not updating your console software if you're connected to internet.
#31
When we registered our Samsung front-loading washing machine online, the terms and conditions stipulated something along these lines:
"Use of detergents not recommended by the manufacturer may cause malfunctions not covered under warranty."
But there was no specific list of *recommended* detergents given, other than stating they had to be "High-efficiency (HE) laundry detergent.".
StrangeOne 4 days ago
Basically any detergent that states on the package can be used in HE machines, and not specific brands.
#32
I remember a story years ago about this guy applying for a loan or credit card from his bank but asked to take the documents home and read over them and send them back a signed copy. He added clauses in the T&C’s that the bank had to pay him and if they wanted out of the contract they had to pay him some huge exit fee, signed the amended one and sent it back to them and they agreed to it without reading it. Not sure how true it is though.
#33
I was s****d and downloaded a mobile game some years ago and decided to read the terms and conditions. It was like 20 pages and mostly had to do with privacy and micro transaction stuff. In the back half a paragraph was the lyrics to ToTos Africa.
Hippopotamuses 4 days ago (edited)
's****d' completely negates the point of this post. BP, why the fūck do you bother to post things that can't be read!
#34
After reading through all the comments here, I see no one has mentioned how useful this tip can be-
If you're downloading some shady software, scroll through the entire ToS and find any check boxes, then uncheck them.
Usually for things like this, that's how various programs and malware will end up being downloaded without you understanding how, which is what will usually happen with people who are especially young or especially old. There will be something written in there like "You agree that you would like to install MegaSuperSaverSearchPlus to your PC and set it as your default search engine" with a pre-checked box next to it, leading to a lot of easily avoided problems.
So yeah, scroll through and uncheck boxes when you're downloading something weird. You dont even need to read the terms, just be aware what could be tucked away inside them.
Carl Roberts 4 days ago
Even major companies pull this garbage. Years ago, I was installing McAfee virus protection, and I had to uncheck 3 or 4 boxes for completely unrelated programs that it wanted to install from "affiliate" brands.
#35
There was a story contest from a theme park where your story could be published...
...but any story submitted would automatically be owned by the company and could not be used by you or others.
So they could:
1. Throw your story in the trash and you still wouldn't legally own it anymore and can't publish it somewhere else
2. They own your story so they can make money out of it without paying you a dime
3. They were not obligated to credit you as the writer other than mentioning it somewhere in the first publishing - after that it was fair game
4. They were allowed to alter your story as they saw fit without consulting you
I wasn't the only one who noticed, it was soon pointed out on social media. There wasn't really a backlash, but I didn't submit a story.
ॐBoyGanesh 4 days ago (edited)
Ugh! If only people understood their intellectual property rights and how often & easily they waive them for something free!!!!
#36
I remember reading the Samsung terms and the conditions, they basically have full control over your phone, they can limit anything on your phone, you do not own it when you have a Samsung account on your Samsung phone.
It was one of the ways they pushed out the note 7, by disabling the battery from charging up to 100% they kinda forced you to get a new one.
I'm going to make a rant about this f****d up company.
#37
I read the detailed rules of a poker room once. When they described the bad beat jackpot (a promotion where if you have a once in a lifetime hand and still lose, you win a jackpot for being so unlucky), the example they gave had 5 kings in it, 3 kings in the board and 2 in the hand. (For those unfamiliar, there are 4 kings in a deck). I pointed it out and the manager laughed and said I was the first person to ever catch that.
#38
I know at some point Comcast was not responsible if it k*lled you.
Haven't looked at it in years though (used to work for them so you get to learn the terms pretty quickly).
#39
Id sell my soul for a donut...
"Your soul is the legal property of Marge Simpson & not the devil's".
#40
It wasn't actually me, it was the manager I was interning with.
He told me about how it was important to read *everything*, even the terms and conditions.
When you go to an iPhone's license page (or something else, I don't remember), it says that they won't take any responsibility to any shock you received from the phone if it were 5 mm away from you, unless you had something blocking it from your skin, like clothes, or a pocket protector.
#41
LinkedIn is granted access to all your contacts found in email or address books and explicitly given permission to use them as they please, including using your identity in automatically generated emails.
This was a change made a few years ago. I cancelled immediately.
Hippopotamuses 4 days ago
I had add Linked In to my Gmail spam, because everytime I tried to unsubscribe, nothing changed. I suspect, I'm not alone here!
#42
I can't remember the app, it was many moons ago I saw this. But it was supposed to be geared toward aspiring photographers and giving them exposure, and you could rate other photos and do challenges. Essentially the ToS said that anything you post is now their property that they can use for whatever they want, including making money off of it.
#43
I didn't read this on the ToS but learned about it. Amazon apparently asked it's users: Do you want your voice data to be used for improving our future services?
You'd think replying No would stop the transfer of voice data? No. It would only not be used for improving future services. They'd still be able to do with it whatever they were doing till date.
Rick Murray 3 days ago
I don't understand why people would think it's a good idea to pay to install a corporate spy into their homes. Alexa, order me twenty tonnes of Barilla linguine. Alexa confirm order. 😂
#44
**TL;DR**
1) Don't make nuclear or biological weapons with Windows
2) Don't use Java to make biological or nuclear weapons because it can fail and k**l people
----------------------------
I was a kid, re-installing Windows on the down-low because I killed the computer with p**n yet again. Bored, was scrolling through the EULA. Couple fun things I found:
>6. EXPORT RESTRICTIONS. You agree that you will not export or re-export the SOFTWARE PRODUCT, any part thereof, or any process or service that is the direct product of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT (the foregoing collectively referred to as the "Restricted Components"), to any country, person or entity subject to U.S. export restrictions. You specifically agree not to export or re-export any of the Restricted Components (i) to any country to which the U.S. has embargoed or restricted the export of goods or services, which currently include, but are not necessarily limited to Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria, or to any national of any such country, wherever located, who intends to transmit or transport the products back to such country; **(ii) to any entity who you know or have reason to know will utilize the Restricted Components in the design, development or production of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons;** or (iii) to any entity who you know or have reason to know has been prohibited from participating in U.S. export transactions by any federal agency of the U.S. government. You warrant and represent that neither the BXA nor any other U.S. federal agency has suspended, revoked or denied your export privileges.
Not super surprising, and I'm pretty sure it's been commented on many times before, but still interesting. If you're making a nuke and use Windows to aid that process, Microsoft can take away your Windows. Nerr.
>7. NOTE ON JAVA SUPPORT. **The SOFTWARE PRODUCT may contain support for programs written in Java.** Java technology is not fault tolerant and is not designed, manufactured, or intended for use or resale as online control equipment in hazardous environments requiring fail-safe performance, such as in the operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation or communication systems, air traffic control, direct life support machines, or weapons systems, **in which the failure of Java technology could lead directly to death, personal injury, or severe physical or environmental damage. Sun Microsystems, Inc. has contractually obligated Microsoft to make this disclaimer.**
This one I didn't see before. I gotta wonder why they had to put that in there. Was there already an incident? Is Sun saying that they're not taking responsibility for their software if you **are** making anthrax dirty-bombs with Windows (assuming you used Java)? Man, that's... uh... not a great look for Java. I mean, I get discouraging terrorists, but I wouldn't do so through insinuation that your software is *too unstable and buggy for them*. Though I can understand why they'd put that in there.
#45
AncestryDNA owns your DNA forever and can do what it likes with it. I forsee Jurassic park coming, but with people.
Edit: No duh there are already people walking around. I'm imagining a scenario more like we clone famous/infamous people for kicks and giggles. Kind of the like the hall of heads in Futurama.
#46
Pretty sure anyone who ever played the original Diablo also agreed sold their soul to the devil in the Terms and Conditions.
#47
Google can use anything you create on their platform without telling you or giving you a royalty.
Hippopotamuses 4 days ago
Wow. This is a surprise. What happened to "Don't be evil" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil
#48
A friend of mine claims he actually read the whole Steam’s Terms and Conditions, apparently they can take away games from your library whenever they want regardless of how much you payed.
Correct me if I’m wrong but the games are essentially rented digital copies without a defined return date.
Rick Murray 3 days ago
Yes, you pay purchase prices to rent things. That's why I play games (infrequently) on an old PS2. I own the disc, I can play whatever as much as I want until physical hardware failure.
#49
Faceapp, the app that makes you look older that a lot of people have been using lately, basically says they can access everything on your phone and share it with whoever they want.
I also used to use this popular tuning app that had similar T&C when I was learning how to play an instrument. I never actually got a tuner after that so I haven't played since :(.
#50
Rakuten TOS gives them free access to all your emails.
What do you think ?
martin734 4 days ago (edited)
Reading this list, at least half of these insane terms and conditions violate consumer protection and data protection laws here in the UK. I don't know what it is like in the USA but here a contract cannot require you to waive any rights granted by law, especially regarding data privacy and consumer rights. Also, despite what the terms and conditions state, if you a providing a service or product to UK customers then it is UK law that is applied to any dispute, regardless of what country the provider of the service or product is from. This is something that the likes of Google, Amazon and Meta have found to their cost.
IORN 4 days ago
Ditto for the EU. And I'm sure some of those comments are outdated everywhere.
Load More Replies... Rick Murray 4 days ago
I used to include something in my software licences to the effect of "Your agreement to the terms of this licence additionally requires that you are nice to kittens and accept cats of any age as your rightful overlords and masters". Never heard a peep out of anybody. It's just the c**p that nobody reads prior to clicking the "Yeah whatever" button.
martin734 4 days ago (edited)
Reading this list, at least half of these insane terms and conditions violate consumer protection and data protection laws here in the UK. I don't know what it is like in the USA but here a contract cannot require you to waive any rights granted by law, especially regarding data privacy and consumer rights. Also, despite what the terms and conditions state, if you a providing a service or product to UK customers then it is UK law that is applied to any dispute, regardless of what country the provider of the service or product is from. This is something that the likes of Google, Amazon and Meta have found to their cost.
IORN 4 days ago
Ditto for the EU. And I'm sure some of those comments are outdated everywhere.
Load More Replies... Rick Murray 4 days ago
I used to include something in my software licences to the effect of "Your agreement to the terms of this licence additionally requires that you are nice to kittens and accept cats of any age as your rightful overlords and masters". Never heard a peep out of anybody. It's just the c**p that nobody reads prior to clicking the "Yeah whatever" button.
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