Outhouse › Dark Patterns › Disclosure

Terms by browsing

Notices that treat reading the page as agreement to arbitration, a waiver of class actions and tracking.

Why it matters

A contract used to need a signature. It now needs a visitor. A notice with a single Continue button, worded By continuing, you agree, turns an article into an agreement and a reader into a party to it.

The terms can then waive the right to sue over anything, including matters unrelated to the website. An opt-out is provided by email, within 30 days, with a subject line in a set format.

How Outhouse measures it

Outhouse looks for by continuing, you agree, binding arbitration, class action waiver and waive your right to sue in the page text and in open shadow roots, where these notices are often built. One scores in full.

This audit counts towards Dark Patterns, with a weight of 3. A category is 75% its two highest-scoring audits and 25% all of its audits, weighted, so a site is judged mostly on what it does most and partly on how many things it does.

How to improve your score

Install Clickwrap. Available on selected plans. See all products.

Related audits

• Hidden ad labels: Ad labels in small or faint type, or readable only by screen readers.
• Fine print: Sentences in type too small or too faint to read.
• Text written for AI agents: Text written for the AI assistants and agents that read the page, usually hidden from the people who visit it.