Why Terms of Service Change More Often Than You Think
If you've used the same software for a few years, you've probably received a handful of emails saying "We've updated our Terms of Service." Most people delete these without reading them. That's understandable. But it raises a question: how often do these documents actually change, and does it matter?
The short answer is that they change more frequently than most people assume, and occasionally it does matter. Here's what's actually going on.
Why Terms Change So Often
A Terms of Service agreement isn't a static document. For most companies, especially software companies, it evolves alongside the business.
Some common triggers:
- New features. If a product adds AI capabilities, integrations with third parties, or new data processing, the terms often need to reflect that.
- Regulatory changes. Privacy laws like GDPR or CCPA force updates. So do changes in data residency requirements or consumer protection rules.
- Corporate events. Mergers, acquisitions, and new investors often prompt legal reviews and rewrites.
- Pricing and billing. Changes to how subscriptions work, refund policies, or auto-renewal terms.
- Past disputes. If a company got burned by ambiguous language in a contract dispute, they'll often tighten that language afterward.
Most SaaS companies reserve the right to update terms unilaterally, meaning they can change the agreement and your continued use counts as acceptance. This is standard practice, not some unusual gotcha.
How Often Are We Talking?
There's no universal schedule, but larger platforms might update their terms several times a year. Privacy policies tend to change more frequently than core terms. Smaller companies might go years without changes, then revise everything at once during a funding round or product pivot.
The Wayback Machine (web.archive.org) is actually useful for getting a rough sense of this. Pick a service you use, find their terms page, and look at how many snapshots exist over the past few years. You might be surprised.
What Typically Changes
Most updates fall into a few categories:
Cosmetic or clarifying. Fixing typos, rewording for clarity, reorganizing sections. These don't change your rights or obligations.
Expanding data rights. New language about what data is collected, how it's used, or who it's shared with. This has become more common as companies build AI features or monetize data in new ways.
Liability and indemnification. Companies adjusting what they're responsible for if something goes wrong, or what you're responsible for.
Termination and suspension. Changes to how much notice you get, what triggers suspension, or what happens to your data afterward.
Dispute resolution. Adding arbitration clauses, changing venue, waiving class action rights.
Not every change matters. But the ones that do tend to cluster in these areas.
How to Keep Track (If You Want To)
Most people don't monitor their vendor agreements, and honestly, for low-stakes services that's probably fine. But if you rely heavily on a particular platform, or you have compliance obligations of your own, there are some practical options.
Save copies when you sign up. The simplest approach. When you start using a service, save the terms as a PDF or text file. If they change later, you'll have something to compare against.
Use the Wayback Machine. The Internet Archive captures many terms pages over time. It's inconsistent, but it's free and sometimes it's exactly what you need.
Set up page monitoring. Tools like Visualping or ChangeTower will alert you when a webpage changes. They're blunt instruments (they catch cosmetic changes too) but they at least tell you when something has been touched.
Diff tools. If you have two versions of a document, any text diff tool will show you what's different. Command line diff, Diffchecker, or even pasting both into a Google Doc and using version comparison. This won't tell you whether a change matters, but it'll show you what changed.
Read the email. This sounds obvious, but some companies do actually explain what changed in their update emails. It's worth skimming before you delete.
Okay, obligatory self-promotion. We built Policy Change Radar specifically for this. It monitors terms and policies, compares versions, and tries to surface the changes that actually matter rather than flagging every typo fix. Obviously we think it's great, but we're biased, so take that as you will.
When It Actually Matters
For most people, most of the time, terms changes don't affect daily life. The service works the same way it did before.
But occasionally the changes are significant. A company might claim broader rights to your data than before. They might shorten the notice period for termination from 30 days to 7. They might add an arbitration clause that limits your legal options if something goes wrong.
These changes are more likely to matter if:
- You're using the service for business purposes
- You have contractual obligations to your own customers about data or compliance
- You rely heavily on a single platform
- You're in a regulated industry
If none of those apply, you're probably fine skimming the update email and moving on with your day.
The Honest Reality
Keeping track of every terms change across every service you use isn't realistic. There are too many documents, they're too long, and most changes don't matter.
The practical approach is to pick your battles. Identify the services that would actually hurt if the terms changed unfavorably, keep copies of those agreements, and pay a bit more attention when those companies send update emails. For everything else, accept that you're operating on trust and move on.
It's not a perfect system, but it's a realistic one.