And ladies and gents, this is why I love HN. Great project.
If all TOS would be a simple bullet point list of things the provider is actually going to do with people's data and intellectual property, not buried under tons of legalese, maybe some people would think twice before accepting these TOS...
Which is why TOS are usually written as an incomprehensible wall of text. They fulfill the letter of the law while fighting its spirit to the utmost extent possible.
Odd that Amazon is all "yellow", Facebook is all "red", yet they're both grade E. Not what I expected!
I was also randomly enrolled on tosdr.org's re-design experiment, and when I tried to click "opt-out" (I prefer the old design), it says "page not found"!
It appears that the individual items are color-coded. If you click through to https://tosdr.org/en/service/182, then you can see that Facebook has plenty of yellow items too.
When I read the items that are listed for Facebook, they do seem to comfortably warrant that red.
This may be a dumb question, but what _precisely_ does it mean to track someone? If I give you a session cookie when you log in, am I tracking you? If I give you a cookie when you visit without logging in, am I tracking you? What about if I log your IP address when you click on something? Or does it only refer to tracking people across different sites?
> This may be a dumb question, but what _precisely_ does it mean to track someone?
I doubt there is one precise definition that everyone would agree on, as there are grey areas, but there are many things that are definitely tracking and some that are definitely not.
> If I give you a cookie when you visit without logging in, am I tracking you?
Without a login, without any PPI or fingerprinting, then that is not tracking in this sense. It is tracking the session but not the person (at least not yet, the information may be merged with other data later).
If you do not have an account but the somehow have your information from a source other than you (advertisers tracking people via fingerprinting or information provided by other parties without your consent) then that is tracking of the disreputable variety (anywhere between “erm, why are you looking through my window?” and “erm, why are you reading my diary?” or “why are you riffling through my drawers?”).
> If I give you a session cookie when you log in, am I tracking you?
If you have an account where you have given over some identifying information then it is tracking you as well as the session but that is fine, you've consented.
> What about if I log your IP address when you click on something?
On its own this is not tracking. Well, it isn't tracking a person. And there are valid reasons to log that information for later diagnostics that are nothing to do with tracking individuals.
> Or does it only refer to tracking people across different sites?
It does count tracking you on an individual site, though in those cases you have usually consented by signing up. But it is tracking between sites, usually without your knowledge at all never mind consent, by advertisers and even less trustworthy types, that concerns people.
I believe it relates to any personal rights you may have as an artistic creator. Things like altering any works you produce, removing your name, and so on.
I would hope that this waiving extends only to works created on a specific platform!
This looks like a great project ! Please donate in case it helped you or you like the idea. Every little helps. It's the only way such projects can stay open-source.
