1. Free: The company’s terms of service (ToS) are freely available and easy to find without needing to sign up or subscribe.
2. Language: The ToS is available in the language(s) most commonly spoken by the company’s users.
3. Easy to understand: The ToS are presented in an understandable manner.
Guidance: The terms of service outline the relationship between the user and the company, and companies can take action against users based on the conditions described in the terms. Given this, we expect companies to provide these terms freely and to make an effort to help users understand what they mean.
Evaluation: This indicator is scored using a checklist, meaning companies can only receive full credit if their disclosure meets all elements in the checklist. This indicator includes a review of other documents such as “community guidelines” or service-specific rules that further explain to users what the terms mean. Privacy policies are NOT included in this indicator since they are covered in separate indicators in the “Privacy” section.
Potential sources:
For more information, click here for a glossary of terms.
