Every website you sign up for or program you download has a Terms of Service (T.O.S.) and a Privacy Policy. We’re all guilty of just blindly clicking “I Accept” and moving on but have you ever taken the time to read what you’re agreeing to?
I read here on ActiveRain about a cool service that lets you handle all of your social media from one site. As I started signing up, I read the Privacy Policy and learned that if I use their service, I am giving them the right to sell my information. Since I was about to give them access to my Facebook, Twitter and Linked In accounts, that’s a whole heck of a lot of information that they have access to and can sell. Then I read the T.O.S. and saw that while I retain ownership of my content, they have a “worldwide, royalty-free, sub-licensable, transferable, irrevocable, perpetual license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform” my content. What!!! Since I’m not about to give a company those rights, I’ll continue to log in separately for my social media.
The next time you sign up for a new service, take the time to read what they will do with your information and don’t blindly click “I Accept”.
Comments(15)