“Terms and Conditions” pages need web feeds

I was just looking over a pretty typical [Terms of Service page](http://www.meetupalliance.com/site/terms), when I came across this more-or-less standard clause:

>13\. Modifications
>
>We reserve the right at any time or times to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently,
>all or any portion of our Platform with or without notice. You agree that we shall not be liable to
>you or to any third party for any modification, suspension or termination of our Platform.

I thought to myself, “This is a perfect candidate for a [web feed](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_feed)!” I don’t know how many of these I have agreed to, and I almost *never* revisit the T&C pages once I’ve subscribed to a service. But it would be incredibly simple to set up a “T&C’s” folder in a [feedreader](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregator) and subscribe to a service’s T&C feed (assuming that one was available). Even if you were subscribed to a hundred (or 1,000!) services, presumably the terms and conditions don’t change very frequently, so it would be pretty easy to stay up-to-date with these feeds. As an added benefit, you would have a record of all the services (and their T&C’s) to which you have agreed, collected in one place.

If you think this is a good idea, drop a comment here. Even better, tell your service providers about this. If this picks up any traction in the blogosphere, I think it’ll become second nature to service providers–it’s an almost trivial solution to a problem that perhaps hasn’t been brought to their attention, yet. 😉

About Jim Vanderveen

I'm a bit of a Renaissance man, with far too many hobbies for my free time! But more important than any hobby is my family. My proudest accomplishment has been raising some great kids! And somehow convincing my wife to put up with me since 1988. ;)
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2 Responses to “Terms and Conditions” pages need web feeds

  1. Nicholas says:

    That is a good idea. I do find that the biggest and most stable online companies, like eBay, PayPal, Amazon, and Google, tend to send an email whenever their Terms of Service change (though I’m sure they, too, reserve the right to change them without notice), but for smaller stuff, I’d absolutely be willing to subscribe to an RSS feed to keep abreast of any updates.

  2. Pingback: “Terms and conditions”, another observation | SonicChicken blog

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