[Infowarrior] - Home Security Company Says No One Linking To Its Website Is Allowed To Disparage It

[Richard Forno]

Home Security Company Says No One Linking To Its Website Is Allowed To Disparage It

from the lol-no dept

With a federal law in place forbidding this sort of stuff, and an internet full of documentation detailing just how badly things go for companies that institute these policies, why on earth would ADT Security add this clause to its Terms of Use?

For those of you who can't see the tweet, soon-to-be-former ADT customer scriptjunkie has been informed via dialog box ADT's Terms of Use have changed. ADT's Terms of Use contain a Streisand Precursor: if you link to ADT's site, you promise not to do several things, including:

Will not disparage ADT, ADT's products or services, or any of ADT's affiliates or their products or services

This isn't even legal in this day and age, but hiding it in a bunch of words users will likely never read is a great way to fly under the federal law radar. This, of course, only lasts until someone points it out on the internet and, while linking to ADT's site, points out the clause is stupid, the company is stupid for deploying it, and the company's lawyers are just as stupid for suggesting it/signing off on it.

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https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20171204/07455638731/home-security-company-says-no-one-linking-to-website-is-allowed-to-disparage-it.shtml