The most nauseating T&C clause ever?

If GDPR ever needed justification, here’s one

Here’s what must surely rank as a contender for the most nauseating, pre-checked consent clause ever for online Terms and Conditions. The company in question runs an online dating app:

By posting Content as part of the Service, you automatically grant to the Company, its affiliates, licensees and successors, an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, fully paid-up, worldwide right and license to (i) copy, store, perform, display, reproduce, record, play, adapt, modify and distribute the Content (ii) prepare derivative works of the Content or incorporate the Content into other works, and (iii) grant and authorize sublicences of the foregoing in any media now known or hereafter created.

Fortunately, the company was forced to change its global privacy policy after a legal complaint filed by Finn Lützow-Hom Myrstrad and his team at the Norwegian Consumer Council, a consumer rights group.

The bad news is that this is anything but a one-off; it unfortunately reflects the practices of many online companies. If there are still people out there who wonder what triggered GDPR and the current flood of data privacy legislation (see It’s raining data privacy laws), look no further than this example.

You can listen to the full Ted talk, called How tech companies deceive you into giving up your data and privacy.

Michael Gentle is the founder of The Balance of Privacy, based in Geneva. For similar articles by Michael, click here.