Legal Risk Categories & Heuristic Rules.
ClauseLens audits agreements using strict, deterministic heuristic rules. Browse all 16 predatory clause categories, their legal severity rankings, plain-English impact explanations, and verbatim contract examples.
Forced Arbitration & Class Action Waivers
Strips your constitutional right to take disputes to public court or join collective class action lawsuits, forcing private binding arbitration.
"...disputes shall be resolved solely by individual binding arbitration. You waive any right to bring claims as a class member in any class action..."AI & Machine Learning Model Training
Claims rights to ingest your private documents, files, prompts, video, audio, or uploads to train generative artificial intelligence models.
"...you grant us a worldwide right to process, analyze, and tokenize all customer files to train machine learning and foundation models..."Silent Automatic Subscription Renewals
Flags recurring credit card billing traps, narrow cancellation notice windows, and automatic renewal rate increases before they charge your card.
"...subscriptions automatically renew for successive terms unless cancelled at least 48 hours prior to the conclusion of the billing cycle..."Personal Data Sale & Third-Party Sharing
Exposes permissions allowing services to share, syndicate, or sell your device telemetry, browsing behavior, and personal records to advertising brokers.
"...we may share pseudonymous advertising identifiers, location telemetry, and usage patterns with our certified marketing partners..."Sensitive Biometric & Real-Time Geolocation
Tracks real-time physical GPS coordinates, facial geometry scans, voice recordings, or government identification documents.
"...we collect precise physical geolocation data, facial geometric records, and device sensor telemetry continuously..."Unilateral Terms Modification
Detects rights claimed by companies to alter contracts without prior individual notice, holding you bound to silent changes.
"...we reserve the right to amend these terms at any time without advance notice. Your continued use constitutes acceptance..."Perpetual User Content & IP Surrender
Highlights broad licenses demanding irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free rights over any files, images, or content you upload.
"...you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable license to use, reproduce, modify, and distribute any submitted content..."Indefinite Data Retention After Cancellation
Permits the platform to retain your personal records, uploaded media, and logs indefinitely after you cancel or delete your account.
"...we may retain your account information, transaction history, and communication logs indefinitely for legal compliance and operational audits..."Cross-Service & Off-Platform Activity Tracking
Monitors your browsing behavior on external websites using third-party tracking pixels, device fingerprinting, and analytics cookies.
"...we collect information about your activity across third-party websites and apps via tracking pixels, SDKs, and device fingerprints..."Arbitrary Account Termination & Asset Forfeiture
Grants the service authority to suspend, revoke, or terminate your access immediately without cause, notice, or refund.
"...we may terminate or suspend your account immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever in our sole discretion..."Obfuscated Cancellation & Retention Hurdles
Requires phone calls, certified mail, complex multi-step questionnaires, or strict working-hour windows to cancel subscriptions.
"...cancellation requests must be submitted by phone to our retention department between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM EST Monday through Friday..."Retroactive Price Increases & Non-Refundable Fees
Allows the vendor to adjust subscription fees with minimal notice and disclaims all refunds for partial billing cycles.
"...we reserve the right to change fees upon 30 days notice. All fees are strictly non-refundable and non-creditable..."Draconian Liability Caps & Disclaimers
Pinpoints clauses capping company financial responsibility to minimal amounts (often $50 or one month's fee) even in cases of data loss or service downtime.
"...in no event shall our total liability exceed the greater of fifty dollars ($50.00) or the amount paid by you in the preceding month..."Cross-Border Data Transfer to Weaker Jurisdictions
Permits transferring personal files and telemetry to foreign nations with fewer privacy and civil rights protections.
"...your information may be transferred to and maintained on computers located outside of your state, province, or country..."Extensive Device Fingerprinting & Usage Logging
Records hardware identifiers, operating system build, browser plugins, battery levels, screen resolution, and IP history.
"...we automatically collect device hardware models, operating system versions, battery levels, unique identifiers, and connection telemetry..."Delayed Account Deletion & Processing Obstacles
Imposes 30–90 day waiting periods, ID verification demands, or mandatory surveys before processing erasure requests.
"...account deletion requests may take up to 90 days to process. We require government-issued photo ID verification prior to processing..."Missing a predatory clause or dark pattern?
If you have encountered a sneaky legal clause, ambiguous arbitration waiver, hidden cancellation fee, or new dark pattern that our detection engine does not flag yet, submit a suggestion on our issue tracker. Our team reviews contract submissions and expands detection coverage regularly.
- Verbatim Quote: Copy the exact sentence or paragraph from the agreement.
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- Harm Explanation: Why is this provision hostile or risky for consumers?
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