条款和条件

服务条款（也称为使用条款和条款与条件，通常缩写为TOS或TOS、ToU或T&C）是服务提供商与希望使用该服务的人之间的法律协议。此人必须同意遵守服务条款，才能使用所提供的服务。.^[1] 服务条款也可能只是一种免责声明，尤其是关于网站的使用。在使用条款中使用模糊的语言和冗长的句子在许多方面引起了对客户隐私的关注，并提高了公众的意识。

服务条款协议通常包含与以下一个或多个主题相关的部分

• 关键词和短语的消歧/定义
• 用户权利和责任
  
  • 正确或预期的用法；滥用的定义
  • 对在线行为、行为和行为负责
  • 概述个人数据使用的隐私政策
  • 支付细节，如会员费或订阅费等
  • 说明账户终止程序的退出政策（如有）
  • 有时包含一项仲裁条款，详细说明争议解决过程，以及向法院提出索赔的有限权利
• 免责声明/责任限制，阐明网站对用户造成损害的法律责任
• 修改条款时的用户通知（如果提供）

2014年，102家为健康目的向消费者销售基因检测的公司中，有71家有公开的条款和条件：^[4]

• 57 of the 71 had disclaimer clauses (including 10 disclaiming liability for injury caused by their own negligence),
• 51 let the company change terms (including 17 without notice),
• 34 allow data disclosure in certain circumstances,
• 31 require consumers to indemnify the company,
• 20 promise not to sell data.

Among 260 mass market consumer software license agreements in 2010,^[5]

• 91% disclaimed warranties of merchantability or fitness for purpose or said it was "As is"
• 92% disclaimed consequential, incidental, special or foreseeable damages
• 69% did not warrant the software was free of defects or would work as described in the manual
• 55% capped damages at the purchase price or less
• 36% said they were not warranting whether it infringed others' intellectual property rights
• 32% required arbitration or a specific court
• 17% required the customer to pay legal bills of the maker (indemnify), but not vice versa

Among the terms and conditions of 31 cloud-computing services in January-July 2010, operating in England,^[6]

• 27 specified the law to be used (a US state or other country),
• most specify that consumers can claim against the company only in a particular city in that jurisdiction, though often the company can claim against the consumer anywhere,
• some require claims to be brought within half a year to 2 years,
• 7 impose arbitration, all forbid illegal and objectionable conduct by the consumer,
• 13 can amend terms just by posting changes on their own website,
• a majority disclaim responsibility for confidentiality or backups,
• most promise to preserve data only briefly after terminating service,
• few promise to delete data thoroughly when the customer leaves,
• some monitor the customers' data to enforce their policies on use,
• all disclaim warranties and almost all disclaim liability,
• 24 require the customer to indemnify them, a few indemnify the customer,
• a few give credits for poor service, 15 promise "best efforts" and can suspend or stop any time.

研究人员指出，在许多有消费者保护的司法管辖区，关于地点和时间限制的规则可能无法执行，可接受的使用政策很少得到执行，如果法院后来裁定终止是错误的，则快速删除是危险的，当地法律通常要求保证 （英国强迫苹果这么说）。