NBC 6 Responds conducted an experiment offering a chance to appear on TV, all viewers had to do was agree to our Terms and Conditions.
It's just like the agreements you see when you get an app, sign up for a new service, or log on to a website. But many people don't take the time to read them.
We set up our cameras in Wynwood and offered people a chance to appear on NBC 6. As people approached, we asked them to read what appear to be our standard NBC 6 Terms and Service Agreement. But we added a few requirements.
After they hit agree, they found out what they really agreed to do.
"You agree to do 5 jumping jacks," read Lola Chel.
As they continued to read things got a little strange.
"You agree to give us cash in your pocket. No, that I won't do," said David Stork.
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"I want you to know one of my deepest secrets is that I am a little kinky, just playing," Louie Navarrete told us. We asked Navarrete if he ever takes the time to read Terms of Service Agreements.
"I do when I have the time for it," he told us.
"I am fast. I am about instant gratification I want to just get to the meat of whatever I am looking for," Debra Kirsch told us.
Florida International University Professor of Law Jose Gabilondo doesn't have much patience for those pesky agreements either.
"I think I began to read one at one point but I gave up," Gabilondo said.
He admits he has never read a terms of service agreement in its entirety.
"The downside of having these terms of service is that it creates the illusion of consent," Gabilondo told us.
He says consumers can read what's in those lengthy contracts but if they disagree with something there is little recourse.
"As individual consumers, we have virtually no recourse and no leverage and no influence against these terms of service," Gabilondo told us.
The downside of refusing to sign is not being able to use whatever app, website, or service you want.
"If you have been using a product for a while and don't want to have to learn a new technique or go through learning a new application you are really sort of stuck," Gabilondo told us.
Feel free to sign, but reading it first could keep you from agreeing to do jumping jacks or even the chicken dance on camera.
We didn't hold anyone to the terms in our terms of service agreement. If they wanted to, they could go back and click disagree, but usually, you won't have that chance.
