EFF Creates Website Terms of Service-Tracking Tool

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 5, 2009 - 9:35am.

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital civil liberties advocacy group, has launched a news Web tool that tracks changes to the "Terms of Service" policies of major companies, which govern how they use personal information.

The TOSBack service tracks changes in real-time to the Terms of Service on the websites of companies including Google (NASD: GOOG), eBay (NASD: EBAY) and Facebook.

The sweeping changes that can be made by altering a company's Terms of Service were made evident earlier this year when Facebook modified its terms in a manner that had users worried the company would be able to use their personal content indefinitely.

"Some changes to terms of service are good for consumers, and some are bad," said EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann.

"But Internet users are increasingly trusting websites with everything from their photos to their 'friends lists' to their calendar -- and sometimes even their medical information. TOSBack will help consumers flag changes in the websites they use every day and trust with their personal information."

http://www.tosback.org