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Comment by sevenzero | Hacker News Reader

People are losing the ability to read. Lots of high schoolers are incapable of reading properly already. Attention spans shrink. We got some fun times ahead of us.

We need these legal texts as short form TikTok content I am afraid.

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I have plenty of ability to read, but I never read these T&Cs because they’re usually dozens of pages long and life’s too short (or, if you prefer, the cost/benefit doesn’t support it). For consumers in Europe, at least, it’s usually safe to assume that anything too shitty is unenforceable, which helps.

Being “unenforceable” doesn’t stop them making your life a misery in the process, ruining your credit rating etc.

As an EUian,I've never given one care about my credit rating. I don't even know if I have one.

They can cause a long drawn out court battle, and abuse your data. Noyb is the real-world example here. Most companies depend on not being sued, and will fold if a regulater sends them notice.

What life is too short for is being screwed over by and having to deal with the consequences of some agreement you were too lazy to read. These aren’t half as inscrutable as you think; after you read a couple you get a feel for them and can breeze through, honing on the parts that are important to you. I don’t need to spend more than a couple of minutes on a TOS before understanding if it’s awful or reasonable, and it has stopped me from opening accounts on services with truly awful provisions.

I mean, that's fair. To an extent it depends how high the stakes are and whether there are realistic alternatives to a service.

A good idea for a Firefox extension. Something that parses T&C's and pops up a DANGER warning on a page.

https://tosdr.org/en

We need the polar opposite of that: Laws that ensure companies can’t put unreasonable clauses in fine print or long EULAs. That’s the way it works in many EU countries, and it’s a blessing.

Nobody except lawyers should have to bother with legalese.

That would require you to consult a lawyer for everything you do... I personally couldn't afford that.

Here's Cloudflare's T&C in comic form, for those with short attention spans.

https://nedroidcomics.tumblr.com/post/41879001445/the-intern...

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