<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" ><channel><title>gHacks technology news &#187; tosback</title> <atom:link href="http://www.ghacks.net/tag/tosback/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /><link>http://www.ghacks.net</link> <description>A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas.</description> <lastBuildDate>Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:21:45 +0000</lastBuildDate> <generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2</generator> <language>en</language> <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> <item><title>Track Changes to Website Policies with TOSBack</title><link>http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/19/track-changes-to-website-policies-with-tosback/</link> <comments>http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/19/track-changes-to-website-policies-with-tosback/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:40:25 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Cheryl</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Knowledge]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Online Services]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Security]]></category> <category><![CDATA[privacy policy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[tosback]]></category><guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.ghacks.net/?p=13703</guid> <description><![CDATA[When you sign-up at a website or install a piece of software, you are often asked if you &#8216;accept the terms-of-service.&#8217; This is a really long document full of legalese. Most people don&#8217;t even bother to read it and just click the accept button. Even yours truly pretty much just skims through these parts. However, [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-13704" src="http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/sq-eff-logo.png" alt="sq-eff-logo" width="120" height="120" />When you sign-up at a website or install a piece of software, you are often asked if you &#8216;accept the terms-of-service.&#8217; This is a really long document full of legalese. Most people don&#8217;t even bother to read it and just click the accept button. Even yours truly pretty much just skims through these parts. However, when you agree to use a site&#8217;s service, you are entering into an agreement with them. So, the least you should do is find up exactly what you&#8217;re signing up for and how your personal information will be used.</p><p>Even those who read the terms and conditions during sign-up should be aware that website terms-of-service can change at any time. Even website policies often change. The problem is, most people don&#8217;t have time to visit 10 or 15 sites regularly and read through terms-of service agreements and website policies.</p><p>Thankfully, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital civil liberties group is keeping track of some of these changes. You can see these changes by visiting <a href="http://www.tosback.org/timeline.php" target="_blank">TOSBack</a>, a site dedicated to terms-of-service tracking. The aim of the site is to show how these agreements change over time.</p><p>TOSBack is currently monitoring agreements for 58 popular websites. These include social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, user-content run sites like Flickr and YouTube, as well as online shopping giants Amazon and Ebay among other sites.<br /> <span id="more-13703"></span></p><p>Updates are posted on the home page, as and when a policy changes. Clicking on a specific link opens up a page with the agreement text. Changes to the agreement are highlighted so that you don&#8217;t have to spend time searching for additions and deletions.</p><p>A site like TOSBack provides an important service. User agreements are the basis of a trustworthy relationship with a service provider. However, they are often forgotten until a problem with the site arises and then people scramble to read website policies. With TOSBack, a user can stay in touch with policy changes and quickly recognize anything he is not comfortable with.</p><p>Do you read user agreements and other policies when you sign-up with a service? Have you heard of TOSBack before? What do you think of this tracking mechanism? Let me know in the comments.</p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/19/track-changes-to-website-policies-with-tosback/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>2</slash:comments> </item> </channel> </rss>
<!-- Performance optimized by W3 Total Cache. Learn more: http://www.w3-edge.com/wordpress-plugins/

Minified using disk
Page Caching using disk (user agent is rejected)
Database Caching 6/13 queries in 0.004 seconds using disk

Served from: www.ghacks.net @ 2010-03-18 12:57:56 -->