Statizoid The Global 'Terms of Service' Bloat Index

🖧 Technology & Internet

The Global 'Terms of Service' Bloat Index

Tracking the word count growth of the world's 100 most-used digital services' Terms of Service.

Observations
97
Tracking since
Last updated

ToS Word Count

The total number of words in the digital service's Terms of Service page.

53 observations across 6 series · measured in count

2,203 count
WIRED
▬ 0.0% vs previous
15 Sep 2026 13:15
1,952 count
strategy+business
▬ 0.0% vs previous
15 Sep 2026 13:15
1,546 count
The Verge
▬ 0.0% vs previous
15 Sep 2026 13:15
870 count
Zeit Online
▬ 0.0% vs previous
08 Sep 2026 13:00
712 count
Waka
▲ 1.1% vs previous
15 Sep 2026 13:15
48 count
Le Monde
▬ 0.0% vs previous
15 Sep 2026 13:15
ToS Word Count (count) — summary, last 30 days.
  • WIRED
  • strategy+business
  • The Verge
  • Zeit Online
  • Waka
  • Le Monde
05001,0001,5002,0002,50018 Aug01 Sep15 SepWIRED: 2,264 count — 18 Aug 2026 12:15WIRED: 2,264 count — 18 Aug 2026 12:15WIRED: 2,225 count — 25 Aug 2026 12:30WIRED: 2,225 count — 25 Aug 2026 12:30WIRED: 2,193 count — 01 Sep 2026 12:45WIRED: 2,193 count — 01 Sep 2026 12:45WIRED: 2,204 count — 08 Sep 2026 13:00WIRED: 2,204 count — 08 Sep 2026 13:00WIRED: 2,203 count — 15 Sep 2026 13:15WIRED: 2,203 count — 15 Sep 2026 13:15strategy+business: 1,945 count — 18 Aug 2026 12:15strategy+business: 1,945 count — 18 Aug 2026 12:15strategy+business: 1,960 count — 25 Aug 2026 12:30strategy+business: 1,960 count — 25 Aug 2026 12:30strategy+business: 1,961 count — 01 Sep 2026 12:45strategy+business: 1,961 count — 01 Sep 2026 12:45strategy+business: 1,960 count — 08 Sep 2026 13:00strategy+business: 1,960 count — 08 Sep 2026 13:00strategy+business: 1,952 count — 15 Sep 2026 13:15strategy+business: 1,952 count — 15 Sep 2026 13:15The Verge: 1,462 count — 18 Aug 2026 12:15The Verge: 1,462 count — 18 Aug 2026 12:15The Verge: 1,535 count — 25 Aug 2026 12:30The Verge: 1,535 count — 25 Aug 2026 12:30The Verge: 1,543 count — 01 Sep 2026 12:45The Verge: 1,543 count — 01 Sep 2026 12:45The Verge: 1,527 count — 08 Sep 2026 13:00The Verge: 1,527 count — 08 Sep 2026 13:00The Verge: 1,546 count — 15 Sep 2026 13:15The Verge: 1,546 count — 15 Sep 2026 13:15Zeit Online: 888 count — 18 Aug 2026 12:15Zeit Online: 888 count — 18 Aug 2026 12:15Zeit Online: 891 count — 25 Aug 2026 12:30Zeit Online: 891 count — 25 Aug 2026 12:30Zeit Online: 891 count — 01 Sep 2026 12:45Zeit Online: 891 count — 01 Sep 2026 12:45Zeit Online: 870 count — 08 Sep 2026 13:00Zeit Online: 870 count — 08 Sep 2026 13:00Waka: 725 count — 18 Aug 2026 12:15Waka: 710 count — 25 Aug 2026 12:30Waka: 717 count — 01 Sep 2026 12:45Waka: 704 count — 08 Sep 2026 13:00Waka: 712 count — 15 Sep 2026 13:15Le Monde: 48 count — 18 Aug 2026 12:15Le Monde: 48 count — 18 Aug 2026 12:15Le Monde: 48 count — 25 Aug 2026 12:30Le Monde: 48 count — 25 Aug 2026 12:30Le Monde: 48 count — 01 Sep 2026 12:45Le Monde: 48 count — 01 Sep 2026 12:45Le Monde: 48 count — 08 Sep 2026 13:00Le Monde: 48 count — 08 Sep 2026 13:00Le Monde: 48 count — 15 Sep 2026 13:15Le Monde: 48 count — 15 Sep 2026 13:15
ToS Word Count (count) — line, last 30 days.
  • WIRED2,203 count
  • strategy+business1,952 count
  • The Verge1,546 count
  • Zeit Online870 count
  • Waka712 count
  • Le Monde48 count
ToS Word Count (count) — bar, last 30 days.
  • WIRED2,203 count
  • strategy+business1,952 count
  • The Verge1,546 count
  • Zeit Online870 count
  • Waka712 count
  • Le Monde48 count
ToS Word Count (count) — dot plot, last 30 days.
ToS Word Count (count) — share, last 30 days.
48 count–232.7 count: 10 observations232.7 count–417.3 count: 0 observations417.3 count–602 count: 0 observations602 count–786.7 count: 5 observations786.7 count–971.3 count: 8 observations971.3 count–1,156 count: 0 observations1,156 count–1,340.7 count: 0 observations1,340.7 count–1,525.3 count: 2 observations1,525.3 count–1,710 count: 8 observations1,710 count–1,894.7 count: 0 observations1,894.7 count–2,079.3 count: 10 observations2,079.3 count–2,264 count: 10 observations48 count2,264 count10
ToS Word Count (count) — distribution, last 30 days.
061218
18 Aug
25 Aug
01 Sep
08 Sep
15 Sep

Darker = higher tos word count. Empty cells are hours with no collection.

ToS Word Count (count) — heatmap, last 30 days.
WhenSeriesToS Word Count
strategy+business1,952 count
WIRED2,203 count
The Verge1,546 count
Le Monde48 count
strategy+business1,952 count
Waka712 count
WIRED2,203 count
The Verge1,546 count
Le Monde48 count
strategy+business1,960 count
WIRED2,204 count
The Verge1,527 count
Zeit Online870 count
Waka704 count
Le Monde48 count
strategy+business1,960 count
WIRED2,204 count
Zeit Online870 count
The Verge1,527 count
Le Monde48 count
strategy+business1,961 count
WIRED2,193 count
The Verge1,543 count
Zeit Online891 count
Le Monde48 count
strategy+business1,961 count
Waka717 count
WIRED2,193 count
Zeit Online891 count
The Verge1,543 count
Le Monde48 count
strategy+business1,960 count
WIRED2,225 count
Zeit Online891 count
strategy+business1,960 count
The Verge1,535 count
Waka710 count
Le Monde48 count
WIRED2,225 count
Zeit Online891 count
The Verge1,535 count
Le Monde48 count
WIRED2,264 count
strategy+business1,945 count
Zeit Online888 count
strategy+business1,945 count
The Verge1,462 count
Waka725 count
Le Monde48 count
WIRED2,264 count
Zeit Online888 count
The Verge1,462 count
Le Monde48 count
ToS Word Count (count) — table, last 30 days.

About this data

The Global Terms of Service Bloat Index monitors the median word count growth across the top 100 global digital platforms. By tracking the length of these legal agreements over time, the index quantifies how company policies are expanding.

Data is compiled by scraping the public-facing Terms of Service documents of the sampled services and calculating the percentage increase in total word counts between updates.

This dataset provides a time-series view of 'legal bloat'. As companies add clauses to mitigate liability and navigate new regulations, the documents often become too long for the average user to read, shifting the balance of transparency.

Sources

Every figure on this page was read from these pages.

Why this isn't published anywhere else

The search results mentions 'bloat' in the context of government, software, and administration, and mentions Terms of Service generally, but there is no evidence of a time-series dataset or index tracking TOS length.

Uniqueness score 1.00 — assessed against live web search results when this subject was created.