
Ask HN: Is 'By using this this site you agree to' legal/contractually binding? - effingwewt
Sorry if I did this wrong, this is my first actual post.<p>I see these pop-ups or modals on so many sites constantly annoying me. I read almost none of them and block most of them so they can&#x27;t say &#x27;well they clicked X so they agreed!&#x27;<p>It feels like walking into a store and being told after you are inside that by entering you have agreed to, I dont know, buy 10 things for $100 each.<p>How is it not complete bullshit to be told that by landing on some random page, or viewing some random article they can say you have agreed to what may be 10 pages of TOS, and they only show you what you&#x27;ve actually &#x27;agreed to&#x27; if you click a couple more links and do some heavy reading.<p>This popup on the NYT article on HN today about the heroin epidemic sent me over the edge, and finally prompted me to ask this here.
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mgamache
IANAL -- But I think that no one knows. Some maybe, most probably not (see the
Linked In lawsuit -- [https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/15/16148250/microsoft-
linked...](https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/15/16148250/microsoft-linkedin-
third-party-data-access-judge-ruling)). This all has to be tested in court,
but it has not yet. Just like EULAs -- more bark then bite, but fear will keep
the local systems in line.

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Digory
The phrase you can Google is "clickwrap." It's a variation on the old practice
of telling buyers they were bound by the terms on the box when they opened the
shrinkwrap.

At the level you're asking, yes, it can be binding in most US places. But lots
of legal rules apply to unreasonable or surprise contract terms. So "it
depends" is about as straight an answer you can get here.

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ziddoap
I am not a lawyer, but it might be helpful to include the country and
state/province you are hoping to get the laws for as it may be binding in some
jurisdictions and non-binding in others.

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effingwewt
Oh man, I'm that typical American thinking everywhere else is the same, I'm so
sorry. I'm US based, from California.

Since you mentioned locale though, would the location of the site hosting be
the applicable laws, or would it be my location?

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ziddoap
That's a great question that I wish I had a clear answer to. I would
(hesitantly) assume that it would be the location which you are accessing the
website from. I base this on the assumption that it would be similar to GDPR
laws, where US companies serving EU customers must comply with EU laws (or
non-California companies serving Californians having to comply with CCPA).
Sorry I can't be of more help - it might be worth asking r/legaladvice or
somewhere similar with a higher concentration of lawyers.

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thedevindevops
From the GDPR guidelines:

Consent requires a positive opt-in. Don’t use pre-ticked boxes or any other
method of default consent.

