Believe it or not, those agreements you ignore every time you click on a new website or app (referred to as ‘terms of service’ or, more formally, ‘end user license agreements’) actually have legal significance and are binding on you even if you never read them. So, maybe you should try to absorb their meaning even if it’s through your subconscious.
The new podcast Ts&Zzz, from Scott Elchison, who also hosts the podcast Floor 9 about the future of consumer attention, aims to help “you fall asleep while potentially educating you on the details of the terms of service, terms and conditions, and the privacy policy agreements that we blindly accept.”
“I had been thinking about a new, interesting format [for a podcast], and I saw the Get Sleepy podcast pop up on Apple iTunes chart,” says Elchison, who’s on the partnerships team at IPG Media Lab.
Elchison’s original idea was to read textbooks, because they make him “fall asleep faster than anything in the world.” But copyright issues pointed him in the direction of terms of service agreements instead.
“I was thinking what other documents are out there that are publicly facing and super boring,” Elchison says.
For Ts&Zzz‘s first season, Elchison is covering the agreements of products and services from Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Google, and YouTube, enlisting his friends (i.e., the “cast of brave souls”) who fought through the legalese to bring you a restful slumber—and, hopefully, a bit more awareness.