Internet Contracts Lead to 'Unconscionable' Breach of Privacy Issues.

AScribe Law News Service, February, 2008

Byline: Vanderbilt University

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- Virtual worlds and social networking sites are becoming increasingly more enticing to people who are all too willing to abandon their privacy for escape into alternate worlds on the Internet. The increasing allure of those sites makes it even more imperative that serious policy discussion center on the inherent loss of privacy, says Steven A. Hetcher, professor of law at Vanderbilt University.

In order to enter those sites, people must sign "terms of service" contracts which are not only difficult to understand, they are "unconscionable," Hetcher says.

Those service contracts often allow companies to gather a considerable amount of personal information from the...