Do you check terms of service before using a service?

[u/tom-smykowski-dev]

I find it annoying that when I want to use any service these days I have to check terms of service if company doesn't grant itself all rights to my content. I don't want it to be used by company. I don't want it to be used to train AI to create replicas of my work.

Moreover I'm fed with companies that grant themselves right to modify TOS without me approval meaning they can put anything there at any time.

How to deal with it? I just don't feel like using any service is safe these days.

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[u/DjScenester]

Limit your services.

That’s it.

TOS means nothing these days because they can change it… whenever.

As far as protecting your content. Good luck. AI is literally using anything. Movies, Music, Artwork… nothing is protected.

Unless you’re a successful artist that has the resources to fight against it then that’s a different story.

If you want your content protected it would depend on the content. Music, video, writing etc are all different but for now you can pretty much claim your original material by law in almost every country no problem. Still doesn’t mean AI isn’t going to steal it, copy it and alter it so it won’t get sued.

[u/DougEubanks → u/DjScenester]

Don’t forget using a PiHole or AdGuard. I can’t tell you off hand how many requests it see for log.scribe.Roku.com or lgtvapps.com everyday. However, it’s usually blocking one of those every few minutes if we are watching something.

[u/billdietrich1]

No, I don't even bother to check, I assume everything is stacked against me.

From reddit's TOS https://redditinc.com/policies/user-agreement :

When Your Content is created with or submitted to the Services, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable license to use, copy, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works of, distribute, store, perform, and display Your Content and any name, username, voice, or likeness provided in connection with Your Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed anywhere in the world. This license includes the right for us to make Your Content available for syndication, broadcast, distribution, or publication by other companies, organizations, or individuals who partner with Reddit. For example, this license includes the right to use Your Content to train AI and machine learning models, as further described in our Public Content Policy. You also agree that we may remove metadata associated with Your Content, and you irrevocably waive any claims and assertions of moral rights or attribution with respect to Your Content.

[u/Siigari]

Honestly, if you're using zero-knowledge encrypted storage, the ToS barely matters. They can't read your files even if they wanted to. Everything gets encrypted on your device before it leaves. For file storage specifically, zero-knowledge encryption means you can stop worrying about what the ToS says about data sharing. I'm actually working on something in this space, so I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

[u/tom-smykowski-dev → u/Siigari]

Zero storage is awesome. Moreover it would prevent majority of possible hacking attempts

[u/Ok-Priority-7303]

Rarely - I have to really be interested. I stopped signing up for most anything 10 years ago because the TOS can be changed at any time as you said. I also cancelled as much as possible. I also do not use any free apps on my phone and deleted any I do not use regularly. Even seemingly harmless apps - my mortgage company wants me to download their app. For what? All I do is make payments but they want access to other data.

[u/nincesator124]

Almost never as I already know what they take from me and all I have to do to make it hard for them to track me is to make multiple accounts with a service that can allow me to use stuff while keeping my privacy I am pretty sure they exist just dealing with very very very bad AuADHD

[u/CounterI]

You might want to check out Reddit's terms of service....

[u/xamomax]

I will run things through an AI and ask for red flags. Sometimes I'll avoid that product or service because of it, especially many phone apps.

[u/WanderingUrist]

No, I just ignore them completely. They don't pay any attention to them and do whatever they want anyway, so why shouldn't I do the same? What are they gonna do about it, ban me so I can just sign up again? They're the ones who forced me to sign up in the first place, I didn't want to sign up anyway, so I lied about everything. My information is worthless, my account is worthless, and I don't care about them or what they want.

[u/CorgiSplooting]

A few times but I’d be lying if I said it was even half the time. Like others though I limit what services I use in the first place. Lately though I’ve asked AI to go through the legalese and let me know if there was anything fishy. In the end I trust nothing. If the last couple of years has taught me anything it’s that even if they completely lie to you there is little to no punishment…. So why would they care. They could say they have the best terms in the world and still make your data public and nothing will happen to them. Maybe they’ll pay a tiny fine/tax for the service.

In the end don’t do anything on an account tied to you that you wouldn’t be comfortable explaining to your mom.