What is still outstanding

Our policies describe what OnBetterTerms actually does, and that part is finished. What is not finished is the law around them.

We could have filled the remaining clauses with text from a template. Plenty of products do, and it produces a document that looks like a contract, has never been read by a lawyer, and names a jurisdiction nobody checked. On a product whose entire argument is that we tell you the truth about what happens to your words, that seemed like the wrong place to start.

So the gaps are visible. Here is every one of them.

Open questions that need a lawyer

• Who, legally, provides this service — The Terms name the party you would be contracting with. Until the operating entity is registered and confirmed, naming one would be a false statement about a real business, so the Terms say so instead of guessing. Terms of Service
• Which country’s law applies, and where a dispute is heard — Governing law and venue follow from where the entity is established and where users are. Both are legal determinations, not drafting choices. Terms of Service
• Warranty disclaimer, limitation of liability, indemnity and dispute resolution — These clauses are jurisdiction-specific and are the ones most often unenforceable when copied from a template. They are deliberately not templated here; they need drafting for the operating jurisdiction. Terms of Service
• The processor list, international transfers and the retention schedule — The vendors and what each receives are published on the subprocessors page as a matter of fact. What still needs counsel is the legal framing: lawful basis, the transfer mechanism for data leaving its region, and a retention schedule stated in periods rather than in intentions. Privacy Policy
• Mandatory reporting and lawful-disclosure procedure — What a reviewer is obliged to report, to whom, and in which jurisdictions — and the procedure for responding to a legal order. Getting this wrong harms the person the safety system exists to protect, which is why it is not being drafted from a template. Safety Policy
• Reviewer training and access standards — The software restricts safety records to a specific role and audits every access. The standard the human holding that role is held to is an operational and legal commitment, and it is not written yet. Safety Policy

Worth confirming, not blocking

• Whether a cookie consent banner is required — Only strictly necessary and first-party attribution cookies are set, and there is no advertising or cross-site tracking. Whether that still requires a consent interface depends on the jurisdictions users are in. Cookie Policy
• Minimum age — Currently 18. It needs confirming against each target market and against the child-safety obligations that follow from it. Terms of Service

What is settled

Everything that is a statement of fact about the product rather than a legal determination is written and current:

• What we collect, how it is encrypted, and who can reach it — the privacy policy and the plain-language privacy model.
• Which companies process data on our behalf and what each one receives — the subprocessors page.
• What the safety system does, what it does not do, and what we cannot promise — the safety page.
• That guidance is generated by a language model, can be wrong, and is never trained on your content — the AI disclosure.
• How to report a security problem — responsible disclosure.

The two facts everything else waits on

Operating entity

Not yet published. The entity is not registered and confirmed, and we will not name one before it is.

Governing law

Not yet published. It follows from where the entity is established.

If you are a lawyer, a prospective user, or somebody who thinks we have got this balance wrong, we would like to hear it: legal@onbetterterms.com.