Towards a Risk-Based Analysis of Terms of Service for Consumer Decision Support

Elena Molino-Peña, Beatriz Esteves, José María García, Antonio Ruiz-Cortés

Keywords: Verifiable Contractual Clauses, ODRL, Terms of Service, Contractual Risk Detection

Abstract: The definition and monitoring of the parties' responsibilities established in the Terms of Service (ToS) of Software as a Service (SaaS) distribution models are usually under the control of the provider, which introduces risks of power asymmetry and lack of transparency. Many of these clauses are not operationalizable or verifiable in an unequivocal manner, making it difficult for customers to determine whether an obligation has been fulfilled, a right can be effectively exercised, or a prohibition has been violated. This complexity increases in multi-service and decentralised architectures, such as Solid pods, where responsibilities and verifiable evidence are distributed across multiple actors and systems. In this paper, we explore the risks to which customers are exposed when subscribing to cloud services and propose an initial approach to automatically infer these contractual risks through the analysis of potentially unfair terms contained in the ToS.

Submission Number: 10