Terms of Service; Didn't Read

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Terms of Service; Didn't Read
A screenshot showing example ratings from ToS;DR
URLtosdr.org
LaunchedJune 2012 (2012-06)[1]
Current statusActive
Content license
CC BY-SA 3.0[2]

Terms of Service; Didn't Read (ToS;DR) is a community project that aims to analyze and grade the Terms of Service (ToS) and privacy policies of major Internet sites and services. Each aspect of a ToS or privacy policy is assessed as positive, negative, blocker, or neutral. Services are graded from A (best) to E (worst) once a comprehensive list of cases has been reviewed by volunteer curators.[3][4][5] The project's name is a play on the phrase too long; didn't read.[1]

The project was founded in June 2012 by Hugo Roy, programmer Michiel de Jong, and designer Jan-Christoph Borchardt.[6] It was led by Hugo Roy, when he was a law student,[7] from 2012 to 2015. In 2020, the project was revived with a larger team.

The project offers a browser extension for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Opera, which shows the grade and a short description of the privacy policy if a website is compatible.[8][9]

History

Several sources of inspiration have been noted for ToS;DR, including Creative Commons' plain English summaries of licenses, EU energy efficiency ratings,[10] and Aza Raskin's Privacy Icons.

As of 2024, ToS;DR's grading system had been integrated into Yorba, a privacy-oriented personal information management platform, to provide users with summarized evaluations of companies' privacy policies.[11]

References

  1. "About - Terms of Service; Didn't Read". Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  2. "Terms of Contribution - Terms of Service; Didn't Read". Archived from the original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  3. Brown, Mark (15 August 2012). "ToS;DR website translates terms of service agreements into English". Wired. Archived from the original on 18 August 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  4. Blagdon, Jeff (14 August 2012). "ToS;DR reads the terms of service so you don't have to". The Verge. Archived from the original on 20 July 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  5. Klosowski, Thorin (8 August 2012). "ToS;DR Is a One-Stop Shop for Webapp Terms of Service Ratings". Lifehacker. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  6. "About Us -- Terms of Service; Didn't Read". Archived from the original on 2020-12-12. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
  7. Luckerson, Victor (10 August 2012). "Facebook, Google, Others Have Privacy Policies Explained on New Website". Time. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  8. "Downloads -- Terms of Service; Didn't Read". tosdr.org. Archived from the original on 9 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  9. Brinkmann, Martin (2017-08-20). "Terms of Service; Didn't Read: TOS Summaries - gHacks". gHacks. Archived from the original on 2023-03-23. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  10. Finley, Klint (13 August 2012). "Putting An End To The Biggest Lie On The Internet". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 22 July 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  11. Perez, Sarah (2024-02-22). "Yorba's service is like Mint for uncluttering your entire digital life". TechCrunch. Yahoo Inc. Retrieved 2025-11-03.