Скачать или смотреть Terms of Service agreements: Are you unknowingly signing away your rights?

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — We are all guilty of clicking ‘I agree’ and not reading the Terms of Service just so we can get to watching our favorite show on a streaming service, using an app, or just reading an article online. But what are we risking by just simply clicking ‘I agree?’
In the case of a New York doctor who suffered from a deadly allergic reaction after eating at a restaurant in Disney Springs, the Disney corporation tried to get the wrongful death lawsuit thrown out. Lawyers for the media and entertainment company tried to argue the victim’s husband signed up for a Disney+ account. In the fine print of the streaming platform, Disney lawyers claimed the family agreed to waive all rights to sue Disney.
Disney has since withdrawn the motion to get the wrongful death lawsuit thrown out.
The Terms of Service for some of the most popular platforms can be summed up in 2 words — lengthy and detailed.
It could take you quite a while to read, time you probably don’t have, and even if you find the time, tech expert Craig Agranoff says the fine print is complicated to understand.
The average person would not understand. Bet you most lawyers would not even understand those contracts.
“The average person would not understand," he told CBS12 News. "Bet you most lawyers would not even understand those contracts.”
"So what are we risking when we just click agree?" Asked CBS12 News, Reporter Stefany Valderrama.
"Most of us sign up for these services without even realizing we may be signing our lives away,” Agranoff said.
Most of us sign up for these services without even realizing we may be signing our lives away.
There’s not much, if any, negotiating power forcing you to agree to the terms of service in order to watch your favorite show, use an app or visit a website.
"They have the power. They are the company, and we have no power," said Gary Lesser, the former President of the Florida Bar. "We just click agree... we didn’t get to negotiate. So, if there’s an ambiguity, or there’s an argument to be made, the law generally favors, that in favor of the person that is contesting the agreement. But those are challenging cases."
Lesser explains you could be signing away your legal rights by blindly signing these agreements. You could also be giving up the ability to sue that company till the end of time, or even giving up your right to a jury trial.
In the case of META,the company behind Facebook and Instagram, at the end of a lengthy clause, it says there are some exceptions and ways to opt out of arbitration. Experts say if that’s an option, you should always choose it to keep your right to go to court.
"How legally binding is it?"Asked CBS12 News, Reporter Stefany Valderrama.
"There are some ways to contest these agreements. Ironically, that’s only in a court of law, where the arbitration agreements want to keep you and me out of," Lesser told CBS12 News. "Courts have held that some of these arbitration agreements are too broad... but you have to fight."
Fighting is costly and unfortunately there’s no turning back once you agree to a platform’s Terms of Service.
"Once you had agreed to the terms and services, you agree to them," Agranoff told CBS12 News. "You have checked off that you agree and read them."
So what can we do? One of the biggest pieces of advice from Lesser is to limit your digital footprint.
Agranoff’s advice is to have Artificial Intelligence do the work for you. By that he means that the next time you are met with a new Terms of Services agreement, you should consider copy and pasting it into A.I. and prompt it to explain it to you, like you’re 5 years old.
We did prompt Microsoft Copilot A.I. to summarize the terms of service for some of the platforms CBS12 News uses daily.
Find out more on cbs12.com
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