CC-inspired projects for Terms of Service and Privacy policies

From Creative Commons
Revision as of 08:40, 21 September 2011 by Common terms (talk | contribs) (CommonTerms)
Jump to: navigation, search

Over the years, several projects have started with the intention of doing for Terms of Services and/or Privacy policies what Creative Commons has done for Copyright notices. Most of these projects have been abandoned after a while, but some are still alive.

Please add to the list if you have relevant information!


Privacy Icons

http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/privacy-icons/

Started by Aza Raskin while he was working for Mozilla, this project has done a great job drafting icons to describe a select set of privacy parameters. Being a Mozilla project, there's a chance that the icons may be presented in a dedicated browser panel rather than on a webpage somewhere on a website. Last known activity: December 2010.


CommonTerms

http://www.commonterms.net

Initially focusing on Terms of Service rather than Privacy Policies. Currently (September 2011) analyzing ToS documents to find common terms, and planning to create icons and associated legal definitions for those. Financially supported by the Swedish Internet fund and run by Pär Lannerö, who also created this CC-wiki page.

CommonTerms is seeking cooperation with all others who are trying to fight the "Biggest lie on the internet" (which is of course "Yes I have read and agree to the terms and conditions").

Privacy commons

http://www.privacycommons.org

Draft icons by Aaron Helton described for example who owns User Generated Content: User, provider company or shared ownership. Last known activity: February 2009


Know privacy

http://www.knowprivacy.org

Report from a project by students at the UC Berkely School of Information in 2009. Drafted icons describing how user's data is being collected and shared.


Netzpolitik

Matthias Mehldau created a large set of icons answering the questions "What data is collected", "How is my data handled", "For what purpose" and "For how long". Last known activity: 2007


European privacy open space

http://www.privacyos.eu

EU project proposed the idea of cc-like icons but no icons as far as I know. Last known activity: 2009

Clearware

http://www.clearware.org

Proposed a rather extensive set of icons to summarize common terms found in End User License Agreements (EULAs). Last known activity: 2006

Privacy labels

http://cups.cs.cmu.edu/privacyLabel/

Research by the CUPS group at Carnegie Mellon University. Did not produce icons, but proposed and evaluated a standardized table format for the presentation of privacy information. Produced research papers provide many valuable insights. Last known activity: 2010


Internet Governance Forum

In 2006, Mary Rundle from Harvard University gave a presentation at the IGF meeting, proposing a small set of draft icons to symbolize how user data might be treated by online service providers.


Other related projects and initiatives

Trust-e http://www.truste.com

Commercially provides a certification for websites whose Privacy policies adhere to some basic quality requirements defined by Truste

TOSback http://www.tosback.org

EFF project tracking changes to TOS documents for popular online services.

I agree to http://www.iagreeto.org

Re-design of Apple iTunes Terms of Service by Gregg Bernstein, providing great inspiration for anybody trying to simplify and make online contracts more accessible. Last known activity: September 2011.

OwnTerms http://ownterms.pbworks.com/w/page/6985495/FrontPage

Proposal by Tom Scott to provide CC-licensed boilerplate Terms of Service documents (and other contracts). Last known activity: 2009

Lex publica http://lexpubli.ca/

Company intending to adopt the OSS model to legal documents: provide the legal code (CC licensed contract document templates) for free but selling consulting. Last known activity: January 2010.

Iubenda http://www.iubenda.com

Italian company offering a simple tool to create easy-to-understand Terms of Service documents. Last known activity: September 2011