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<li><aname="hyryc"></a><strong>HAVE YOU READ YOUR CONTRACT?</strong> is a <aclass="text"href="#textpublishingarchive">digital text archiving tool</a> that offers a comparative reading application in the modern-colonial contexts of <aclass="text"href="#tos">'Terms of Service (ToS)'</a>. It allows users making unreadable legal documents readable by offering two types of objective texts such as Terms of Services and historical colonial treaties to experience how regulatory terms in neutral documents play in colonialism. This project opens up a discussion to suggest making the resemblance of <aclass="text"href="#colonialtreaties">colonial treaties</a> in historical colonialism to the digital society by mapping out the whole architecture of language used in ToS compared with historical colonial treaties.</li>
<li><aname="digitalcolonialsociety"></a><strong>DIGITAL COLONIAL SOCIETY</strong>is a concept based on a <aclass="text"href="#digitalsociety">digital society <spanclass="text-hover">that every aspect of lives is profoundly being affected by the domination of digital technology</span></a> where colonial heritages are omnipresent. As the Internet has become more prevalent in our lives, tech companies easily make use of users' online activities as monetizable commodities. This can be sold by <aclass="text"href="#bigcorporations">big tech corporations <spanclass="text-hover">giving them direct power over political, economic and cultural domains of life</span></a>, users become digital workers of companies who use their <aclass="text"href="#digitallabour">digital labour</a> freely to extract data through their online activities. This relationship between companies and users are inequitable, feels exploitative, and unfair. Interestingly, all of this shows similarities to the appropriating of human life, dispossessing natural resources, and dominating economics by indoctrinating and monopolizing manipulation in colonial times.
<aclass="text">(+)<spanclass="text-hover-top">Although it is clear that the modes, intensities, scales, and contexts of today's digital colonialism are distinctive from the historical colonialism, the underlying power structures remain the same (Couldry, 2019)</span></a> Of course, this doesn't mean that the transformation of colonialism has done fully identical. Unlike a historical colony that was bounded mostly by geographical locations, a digital colony has no physical borders. There are no geographical locations, there are only IP addresses, domain names, and user's data. Therefore, digital colonialism expands by exploiting more layers of human life itself through the use of technology<aid="reference-number"href="#1"class="text">[1]<spanclass="text-hover">(Couldry, 2019)</span></a>.</li>
<li><aname="digitallabour"></a><strong>Digital labour</strong> is a concept that has become a crucial foundation of discussions within the realm of the political economy of the Internet (Burston, Dyer-Witheford and Hearn 2010; Fuchs and Dyer-Witheford 2013; Scholz 2012). During the development of Internet, people started making use of the Internet as a profitable space by strategically taking data from user’s <aclass="text">online activities<spanclass="text-hover-top">These online activities can be defined as digital labour, such as simply browsing the Internet, being active in social networking sites, microblogs or content sharing sites related to leisure activities</span></a>. In this way, users automatically contribute to the profitability of companies in the digital space through non-reciprocally made consent by users who unwittingly clicked <aclass="text"href="#tos">Terms of Services</a>. </li>
<li><aname="textpublishingarchive"></a><strong>DIGITAL TEXT PUBLISHING ARCHIVE</strong> means a digital (repository) infrastructure of text material that I desire to keep for a long-term preservation. It is evident that not much of digital material will survive<aid="reference-number"href="#3"class="text">[3]<spanclass="text-hover">(Zelkowitz, 2003): Advances in Computers: Information Repositories edited by Marvin Zelkowitz</span></a>. Archiving is important in digital age as a preservation tool because of perpetual changes in digital platform. This platform archives collections of related informations about my project including news articles, videos, books, tweets ... to proffer knowledges I gleaned from the web. The archive will contain different analyzations on the modern-colonial words and contexts. </li>
<li><aname="analysis"></a><strong>WORD ANALYSIS</strong> is very important because of the <aclass="text"href="#obfuscation">obfuscation of language</a> in ToS. Usually ToS are made with polite and generic language to deceive users. By using these general terms, those big tech companies try to wash their hands of responsibility and disclaim their liability to back up themselves. Similarly to the language of ToS, the terminology in treaties are phrased in an equivocally circuitous manner that it's indirect.</li>
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<li><strong>Resemblance of Terms of Service and colonial treaties</strong>: I insist that we are subject to be oblivious to these details in ToS agreements, although we all know of their existence. Everywhere on website you consistently have to click 'agree' or 'yes' to use the service provided from companies. Seeing ToS as modern working contract is urgent because it is apparent that companies are deliberately "hiring" users to let them join the forcefully produced labour farm.
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<ulclass="indent"style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>[Terms of Services]</strong>
<li>are written in a way that renders them functionally useless to most users with impenetrable legalese terms.</li>
<li>equivocate on the question of who you are selling the data or what they are sharing with.</li>
<li>obfuscate the meaning of the context.</li>
<li>are being as opaque as possible about their intentions.</li>
<li>are way too long that users don't read them and just click accept.</li>
<li>Mislead users on their true intentions.</li>
<li>' power is equvalent of the length of Terms of Service.</li>
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<strong>[Colonial Treaties]</strong>
<li>are sometimes written in a way that renders them functionally useless.
<li>to most indigenous people with superior languages.</li>
<li>equivocate on how they will colonize the colony.</li>
<li>obfuscate the meaning of the context.</li>
<li>are being as opaque as possible about their intentions.</li>
<li>have unequal access to language in the side of the colonized.</li>
<li><aname="tos"></a><strong>TERMS OF SERVICE (TOS)</strong> is also known as 'Terms of Use' or 'Terms and Conditions', commonly abbreviated as 'ToS' are the legal agreements between a service provider and a person who wants to use that service. This means that Terms of service forms the entire agreement between You and the Company regarding the use of the service. Terms of Services are way too long that users don't read them and just click accept. This Terms of service agreement has been created with the help of <aclass="text"href="https://app.termsfeed.com/download/free?agreement_type=TC&token=4687b8bf6d64d334e89197146ee96509">Terms of service Generator</a>.</li>
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<li><aname="colonialtreaties"></a><strong>COLONIAL TREATIES</strong> are known as agreements, pacts and major contracts made between countries during colonial times. It was a formally concluded agreement between a colonizer and a colony, these treaties are a binding formal agreement that establishes obligations between two or more subjects. Most of the time, colonial treaties were coercively made by a colonizer. It was very common that colonial treaties were slanted in favour of the colonizer, and pushed to sign it without knowing that sovreignty or jurisdiction will be infringed. One of the example would be, <aclass="text">a treaty of Ganghwa Island<spanclass="text-hover-img"><imgsrc="img/ganghwa.jpg"></span></a> made between Japanese and Korean. They used a term called 'Unequal treaty' to refer that the treaty had generally regarded as an unequal treaty coerced by Japan. This gave extraterritorial rights to Japanese citizens in Korea, and forced the Korean government to open 3 ports to Japan.<aid="reference-number"href="#2"class="text">[2]<spanclass="text-hover">(Duus, 1998):The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea. University of California Press</span></a>.</li>
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<li><aname="obfuscation"></a><strong>OBFUSCATION OF LANGUAGE</strong>: <aclass="text"href="#tos">Terms of Service</a> tends to obfuscate its meaning of contexts by having a way too long texts, so that users don't read them and just click accept. Usually, ToS are written in impenetrable legalise, intentionally vague and generic language that designed to make it impossible to deceive users. During colonial times, obfuscation of language was happening in colonial treaties as well<aid="reference-number"href="#4"class="text">[4]<spanclass="text-hover">Article: Terms And Conditions Are The Biggest Lie Of Our Industry</span></a>.</li>
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<li><strong>THE IDEA OF COLONIALISM</strong> seems to be an eternal loop that comes back throughout history. The colonial heritage is omnipresent in every part of our lives from education programs, languages, gender and sexuality, religion, fashion, food even in digital sphere too <aid="reference-number"href="#5"class="text">[5]<spanclass="text-hover"href="https://diversions.constantvzw.org/wiki/index.php?title=Words">DiVersions / DiVersions / DiVersies </span></a>. Therefore, it is essential not to ignore that digital colonialism is applicable to every countries regardless of the history.</li>
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<li><strong>Affiliate</strong> means an entity that controls, is controlled by or is under common control with a party, where "control" means ownership of 50% or more of the shares, equity interest or other securities entitled to vote for election of directors or other managing authority.</li>
<li><strong>Terms of Service</strong> (also referred as "Terms") mean these Terms of service that form the entire agreement between You and the Company regarding the use of the service. This Terms of service agreement as been created with the help of Terms of service Generator.</li>
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<li><strong>Third-party Social Media service </strong> means any services or content (including data, information, products or services) provided by a third-party that may be displayed, included or made available by the service.</li>
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<li><strong>Website</strong> refers to Have You Read Your Contract?, accessible from www.haveyoureadyourcontract.com </li>
<li><strong>You</strong> means the individual accessing or using the service, or the company, or other legal entity on behalf of which such individual is accessing or using the service, as applicable. </li>
<pclass="reference-text"><aname="2"></a>[2] (Duus, 1998): The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea. University of California Press.</p>
<pclass="reference-text"><aname="3"></a>[3] (Zelkowitz, 2003): <aclass="reference-link"href="https://books.google.nl/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xqvv7yqtr2kC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=importance+of+knowledge+archiving&ots=9NU6J-zv88&sig=2pkfx30iXkDgFS4-wLsqT9iVs8Y#v=onepage&q=importance%20of%20knowledge%20archiving&f=false">Advances in Computers: Information Repositories edited by Marvin Zelkowitz</a></p>
<pclass="reference-text"><aname="4"></a>[4] <aclass="reference-link"href="https://techcrunch.com/2015/08/21/agree-to-disagree/">Article: Terms And Conditions Are The Biggest Lie Of Our Industry</a></p>
<li>Lots of treaties were sneakily made contract in colonial era to be lucrative, to get profit out of their colony. Same for ToS or privacy policies in digital corporate society where the big companies are dominating the power structures via making a contract to deceive users.</li>
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<strong>As a linguistic aspect</strong>
<li><strong>Language as a colonial tool</strong>: Treaties in colonial times and Terms of Service in modern time both are to show a way to indoctrinate/manipulate the colonize subject by language.</li>
<li><strong>Polarity of calming language</strong>: Using their comfort language become a colonial language. Comforting language for the company that are using highly polarized terms sometimes obfuscates or conceal users' labour to deceive them.</li>
<li><strong>Language as a colonial waterway</strong>: Shiproute in colonial times are used to sail to exchange goods, extract sources, and import labours. Through Language as a colonial waterway, it became a medium by which to interface with the colonizer.</li>
<li><strong>Language as a colonial language</strong>:Using a language that you're porting into the colony in order to be able to extract the resources. (ex, Japanese forced Korean to speak Japanese) </li><br>
This archive presents the following Terms of Services such as <divid="button"class="button-tos"target="tosview">FaceApp</div><divid="myModal"class="modal">
<li>is to provide a suggestive way of comparing reading application from neutral documents.</li><br>
<li>is to contribute a platform of reading ToS. In doing so, it questions what it means to provide ToS in the digital corporate society.</li><br>
<li>is to question the concept of digital colonialism by providing a tool to read languages of Terms of Service as a modern-colonial means to deceive users.</li><br>
<li>is to analyze ToS from major tech companies to investigate how particular terms are being used in the specific context of ToS. How does these platforms have modern-colonial aspects in ToS?</li><br>
<li>is to examine what is modern-colonial languages by taking a closer look on words within the realm of ToS. </li><br>
<p>These are the Terms and Service governing the use of this Service and the agreement that operates between You and this website. These Terms of Service set out the rights and obligations of all users regarding the use of the Service. Your access to and use of the Service is conditioned on Your acceptance of and compliance with these Terms and Service. These Terms and Service apply to all visitors, users and others who access or use the Service. By accessing or using the Service You agree to be bound by these Terms and Service. If You disagree with any part of these Terms and Service then You may not access the Service. Your access to and use of the Service is also conditioned on Your acceptance of and compliance with the Privacy Policy of the Website. Our Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of Your personal information when You use the Application or the Website and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You. Please read Our Important Aspects of the Website carefully before using Our Service.</p>
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<h1>Links to Other Websites</h1><br>
<p>Our service may contain links to reference websites or services that are not owned or controlled by the Website. The website has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party web sites or services. You further acknowledge and agree that the website shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such web sites or services. We strongly advise You to read the terms of service and privacy policies of any third-party web sites or services that You visit.</p>
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<h2>Website References</h2><br>
<listyle="list-style-type: upper-roman;">
<astyle="border-style: none;"href="https://www.cnet.com/how-to/amazon-and-google-are-listening-to-your-voice-recordings-heres-what-we-know/">Amazon and Google are listening to your voice recordings. Here's what we know about that.</a>
<p>We may terminate or suspend Your access immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation if You breach these Terms of service.</p>
<p>Upon termination, Your right to use the service will cease immediately.</p>
<h1>Limitation of Liability</h1>
<p>Notwithstanding any damages that You might incur, the entire liability of the Company and any of its suppliers under any provision of this Terms and Your exclusive remedy for all of the foregoing shall be limited to the amount actually paid by You through the service or 100 USD if You haven't purchased anything through the service.</p>
<p>To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall the Company or its suppliers be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, or consequential damages whatsoever (including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, loss of data or other information, for business interruption, for personal injury, loss of privacy arising out of or in any way related to the use of or inability to use the service, third-party software and/or third-party hardware used with the service, or otherwise in connection with any provision of this Terms), even if the Company or any supplier has been advised of the possibility of such damages and even if the remedy fails of its essential purpose.</p>
<p>Some states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties or limitation of liability for incidental or consequential damages, which means that some of the above limitations may not apply. In these states, each party's liability will be limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.</p>
<h1>"AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" Disclaimer</h1>
<p>The service is provided to You "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" and with all faults and defects without warranty of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted under applicable law, the Company, on its own behalf and on behalf of its Affiliates and its and their respective licensors and service providers, expressly disclaims all warranties, whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, with respect to the service, including all implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement, and warranties that may arise out of course of dealing, course of performance, usage or trade practice. Without limitation to the foregoing, the Company provides no warranty or undertaking, and makes no representation of any kind that the service will meet Your requirements, achieve any intended results, be compatible or work with any other software, applications, systems or services, operate without interruption, meet any performance or reliability standards or be error free or that any errors or defects can or will be corrected.</p>
<p>Without limiting the foregoing, neither the Company nor any of the company's provider makes any representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied: (i) as to the operation or availability of the service, or the information, content, and materials or products included thereon; (ii) that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free; (iii) as to the accuracy, reliability, or currency of any information or content provided through the service; or (iv) that the service, its servers, the content, or e-mails sent from or on behalf of the Company are free of viruses, scripts, trojan horses, worms, malware, timebombs or other harmful components.</p>
<p>Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain types of warranties or limitations on applicable statutory rights of a consumer, so some or all of the above exclusions and limitations may not apply to You. But in such a case the exclusions and limitations set forth in this section shall be applied to the greatest extent enforceable under applicable law.</p>
<h1>Governing Law</h1>
<p>The laws of the Country, excluding its conflicts of law rules, shall govern this Terms and Your use of the service. Your use of the Application may also be subject to other local, state, national, or international laws.</p>
<h1>Disputes Resolution</h1>
<p>If You have any concern or dispute about the service, You agree to first try to resolve the dispute informally by contacting the Company.</p>
<h1>For European Union (EU) Users</h1>
<p>If You are a European Union consumer, you will benefit from any mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which you are resident in.</p>
<h1>United States Legal Compliance</h1>
<p>You represent and warrant that (i) You are not located in a country that is subject to the United States government embargo, or that has been designated by the United States government as a "terrorist supporting" country, and (ii) You are not listed on any United States government list of prohibited or restricted parties.</p>
<h1>Severability and Waiver</h1>
<h2>Severability</h2>
<p>If any provision of these Terms is held to be unenforceable or invalid, such provision will be changed and interpreted to accomplish the objectives of such provision to the greatest extent possible under applicable law and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.</p>
<h2>Waiver</h2>
<p>Except as provided herein, the failure to exercise a right or to require performance of an obligation under this Terms shall not effect a party's ability to exercise such right or require such performance at any time thereafter nor shall be the waiver of a breach constitute a waiver of any subsequent breach.</p>
<h1>Translation Interpretation</h1>
<p>These Terms of service may have been translated if We have made them available to You on our service.</p>
<p>You agree that the original English text shall prevail in the case of a dispute.</p>
<h1>Changes to These Terms of service</h1>
<p>We reserve the right, at Our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time. If a revision is material We will make reasonable efforts to provide at least 30 days' notice prior to any new terms taking effect. What constitutes a material change will be determined at Our sole discretion.</p>
<p>By continuing to access or use Our service after those revisions become effective, You agree to be bound by the revised terms. If You do not agree to the new terms, in whole or in part, please stop using the website and the service.</p>
<h1>Contact Us</h1>
<p>If you have any questions about these Terms of service, You can contact us:</p>
