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
22
Tracking since
Last updated

ToS Word Count

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

22 observations across 6 series · measured in count

2,246 count
WIRED
▬ 0.0% vs previous
28 Jul 2026 11:30
1,950 count
strategy+business
▬ 0.0% vs previous
28 Jul 2026 11:30
1,463 count
The Verge
▬ 0.0% vs previous
28 Jul 2026 11:30
886 count
Zeit Online
▬ 0.0% vs previous
28 Jul 2026 11:30
717 count
Waka
▬ 0.0% vs previous
28 Jul 2026 11:30
48 count
Le Monde
▬ 0.0% vs previous
28 Jul 2026 11:30
ToS Word Count (count) — summary, all time.
  • WIRED
  • strategy+business
  • The Verge
  • Zeit Online
  • Waka
  • Le Monde
05001,0001,5002,00011:2411:2711:30WIRED: 2,246 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:24WIRED: 2,246 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:24WIRED: 2,246 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:30WIRED: 2,246 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:30strategy+business: 1,950 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:24strategy+business: 1,950 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:24strategy+business: 1,950 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:30strategy+business: 1,950 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:30The Verge: 1,463 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:24The Verge: 1,463 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:24The Verge: 1,463 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:30The Verge: 1,463 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:30Zeit Online: 886 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:24Zeit Online: 886 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:24Zeit Online: 886 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:30Zeit Online: 886 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:30Waka: 717 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:24Waka: 717 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:30Le Monde: 48 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:24Le Monde: 48 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:24Le Monde: 48 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:30Le Monde: 48 count — 28 Jul 2026 11:30
ToS Word Count (count) — line, all time.
  • WIRED2,246 count
  • strategy+business1,950 count
  • The Verge1,463 count
  • Zeit Online886 count
  • Waka717 count
  • Le Monde48 count
ToS Word Count (count) — bar, all time.
  • WIRED2,246 count
  • strategy+business1,950 count
  • The Verge1,463 count
  • Zeit Online886 count
  • Waka717 count
  • Le Monde48 count
ToS Word Count (count) — dot plot, all time.
ToS Word Count (count) — share, all time.
48 count–231.2 count: 4 observations231.2 count–414.3 count: 0 observations414.3 count–597.5 count: 0 observations597.5 count–780.7 count: 2 observations780.7 count–963.8 count: 4 observations963.8 count–1,147 count: 0 observations1,147 count–1,330.2 count: 0 observations1,330.2 count–1,513.3 count: 4 observations1,513.3 count–1,696.5 count: 0 observations1,696.5 count–1,879.7 count: 0 observations1,879.7 count–2,062.8 count: 4 observations2,062.8 count–2,246 count: 4 observations48 count2,246 count4
ToS Word Count (count) — distribution, all time.
061218
28 Jul

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

ToS Word Count (count) — heatmap, all time.
WhenSeriesToS Word Count
strategy+business1,950 count
WIRED2,246 count
The Verge1,463 count
Zeit Online886 count
Le Monde48 count
strategy+business1,950 count
Waka717 count
WIRED2,246 count
The Verge1,463 count
Zeit Online886 count
Le Monde48 count
WIRED2,246 count
strategy+business1,950 count
The Verge1,463 count
Zeit Online886 count
Waka717 count
Le Monde48 count
strategy+business1,950 count
WIRED2,246 count
Zeit Online886 count
The Verge1,463 count
Le Monde48 count
ToS Word Count (count) — table, all time.

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.