Provisions Index

Adult and sexually explicit content is banned on Shopify by default and requires specific written approval from Shopify before it can be sold....

Why it matters: Adult content merchants who assume their legal business is permitted on Shopify without obtaining prior written approval are at immediate risk of account termination, with no grace period described in the AUP....

Shopify prohibits merchants from selling fake or counterfeit products, or anything that infringes on another company's trademarks, copyrights, or patents....

Why it matters: Brand owners and licensees operating on Shopify who list products without verifying IP clearance — particularly in fashion, electronics, and media — risk both account termination by Shopify and independent IP infringement liability from rights holders....

Shopify bans the sale of illegal drugs, drug paraphernalia, and any product that makes unapproved medical claims, including certain supplements marketed with disease cure claims....

Why it matters: This provision captures a wide range of products beyond obvious drug paraphernalia — including herbal supplements, CBD products, and wellness items that make health claims — putting merchants at risk if their marketing language implies treatment of a medical condition without FDA approval....

If Shopify determines you have violated the AUP, it can suspend or terminate your account at any time, with no cure period or appeals process defined in the AUP itself....

Why it matters: The absence of a defined notice period, cure opportunity, or formal appeal process means merchants can lose their entire business infrastructure — including access to their store, customer data, and Shopify Payments balance — without warning or recourse defined in the AUP....

If you have a dispute with Coinbase, you must resolve it through private arbitration rather than going to court. You can opt out within 30 days of first accepting the agreement by sending written notice to Coinbase....

Why it matters: Arbitration limits your ability to challenge Coinbase publicly, typically favors companies over individuals, and prevents you from joining a class action lawsuit with other affected users....

You agree to give up your right to participate in any class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration against Coinbase. All disputes must be handled on an individual basis only....

Why it matters: Class actions are often the only economically viable way for individual consumers to seek redress for small-dollar wrongs that affect many people. Waiving this right means Coinbase's accountability is significantly reduced....

Coinbase can freeze, suspend, or close your account at any time if it suspects a violation of its terms, legal requirements, or for risk management reasons, and may hold your funds during an investigation....

Why it matters: Your access to your cryptocurrency and any fiat funds on the platform can be cut off without advance notice, leaving you unable to trade or withdraw your assets potentially for an indefinite period....

Coinbase limits its total financial responsibility to you to a maximum of three months' worth of fees you have paid them, regardless of how much you actually lost due to their actions....

Why it matters: If Coinbase makes an error that costs you thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency losses, they are only legally obligated to pay you back a tiny fraction — whatever you paid in fees over three months....

Coinbase explicitly states that your cryptocurrency holdings and any fiat funds held in your account are not insured by the FDIC (federal bank insurance) or SIPC (brokerage account insurance)....

Why it matters: Unlike money in a bank account or a traditional brokerage, if Coinbase becomes insolvent or is hacked, there is no government-backed insurance to recover your funds....

Once you submit a cryptocurrency transaction on Coinbase, it generally cannot be reversed, cancelled, or refunded — even if you made an error....

Why it matters: If you send crypto to the wrong address or make a mistake in a transaction, Coinbase has no obligation to help you recover those funds, and the blockchain-based nature of the transaction makes recovery essentially impossible....

Every time you use your Visa card, Visa records details about that purchase — what you bought, where, when, and how much — and uses that information for its own analytics and products sold to banks....

Why it matters: This means your full spending history is collected and commercially analyzed by Visa at the network level, not just by your bank, and that data fuels revenue-generating products sold to third parties....

Visa shares your personal information — including your spending data — with banks, merchants, and other companies in the payment network, including to help those companies market products to you....

Why it matters: Your data flows to a wide ecosystem of financial and commercial entities beyond your own bank, and those entities may use it to target you with offers, which goes beyond what most consumers expect when swiping a card....

Visa turns your spending data into commercial analytics products and sells those products to banks and merchants to help them understand consumer trends and behavior....

Why it matters: Your personal financial behavior is the raw material for a revenue-generating analytics business that Visa operates — and this use of your data goes well beyond what is needed to process your payment....

Shopify can shut down your store at any time and for any reason, including immediately if it believes you violated the Acceptable Use Policy, with no requirement to warn you first....

Why it matters: If your store is suspended without warning, you could lose access to your product listings, customer data, and active orders — potentially halting your business and revenue overnight....

Shopify limits its financial liability to you — if Shopify's service fails and your business suffers lost sales, lost data, or reputational damage, Shopify is not responsible for those losses....

Why it matters: If a Shopify outage causes your store to go offline during a major sales event like Black Friday, or if a platform error corrupts your customer data, Shopify's terms disclaim liability for the resulting financial harm to your business....

Merchants must follow all applicable laws and Shopify's Acceptable Use Policy, and any violation — even inadvertent — can result in immediate termination of the merchant's account and store access....

Why it matters: Because 'breach or violation of any of the Terms' triggers immediate termination, even a minor technical violation could result in a merchant losing access to their entire store without warning....

LinkedIn uses your personal data — including your profile, posts, and activity — to train its artificial intelligence and generative AI systems, such as writing suggestion tools....

Why it matters: This means your professional history, content, and behavior on LinkedIn may permanently contribute to AI systems, and the policy does not specify data minimization or anonymization standards applied before training....

LinkedIn shares your personal data with Microsoft Corporation and all of Microsoft's other subsidiaries and affiliates, meaning your professional data can flow across the broader Microsoft ecosystem....

Why it matters: Microsoft is one of the world's largest technology companies with hundreds of subsidiaries; sharing your LinkedIn data across this entire corporate family vastly expands who can access your professional identity, contacts, and activity....

LinkedIn creates inferences about your political views, beliefs, and other sensitive characteristics based on your profile and activity, even if you never directly provided this information....

Why it matters: Inferred sensitive attributes like political views are treated as special category data under GDPR and carry heightened legal protections, yet LinkedIn derives and stores these without requiring explicit consent for this specific purpose....

LinkedIn receives information about you from outside sources, including data brokers, advertisers, your employer, and people in your network — meaning LinkedIn may know things about you that you never directly told them....

Why it matters: Data collected about you from third parties can be combined with your LinkedIn profile to build a more detailed picture of you than you have directly shared, and you may have limited visibility into what data has been received or from whom....

LinkedIn uses your profile data, browsing behavior, and inferences about your career seniority, industry, and interests to show you targeted ads, both on LinkedIn and on third-party websites....

Why it matters: LinkedIn's advertising targeting uses a combination of your stated profile data and inferred characteristics to create an advertising profile, which is shared with advertising partners both on and off the LinkedIn platform....

Stripe creates fraud risk scores based on your device information and payment behavior, and these scores may be used to approve or decline your payments across multiple merchants....

Why it matters: A fraud risk score assigned by Stripe could result in your payment being declined at any merchant using Stripe, without your knowledge of how the score was generated or the ability to contest it....

Pinterest states that it may use your personal data, including your activity and content on the platform, to train and improve its artificial intelligence and machine learning models....

Why it matters: Your personal browsing habits, pins, and interactions could be used to train AI systems, which raises concerns about consent and the long-term use of your data beyond the original purpose....

Pinterest shares your personal data with advertisers and advertising partners to deliver targeted ads based on your behavior both on and off the Pinterest platform....

Why it matters: Your browsing history and activity — including on other websites — can be used to target you with ads, which many consumers find intrusive and are unaware is happening....

Pinterest collects data about people who have never signed up for Pinterest, through cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies embedded on third-party websites....

Why it matters: Even if you have never created a Pinterest account, the company may be building a profile about your online behavior using tracking tools placed on other websites....

Pinterest shares your personal data with a range of third parties including advertisers, analytics companies, business partners, and service providers who may use it for their own purposes....

Why it matters: Once your data is shared with third parties, Pinterest's privacy policy no longer governs how those parties use your information, meaning you have less control over your personal data....

Pinterest infers information about your interests, preferences, and characteristics from your activity, which may include sensitive categories such as health interests, political views, or religious beliefs....

Why it matters: Pinterest can build detailed profiles about sensitive aspects of your life based on what you search, save, and click — even if you never explicitly share this information....

Microsoft may use content you generate and interactions you have with Copilot and other AI-powered services to improve and train its AI models....

Why it matters: Your conversations, prompts, and outputs in AI tools like Copilot may contribute to training future AI systems, raising questions about the privacy of sensitive information shared in those sessions....

Microsoft combines data collected across different products and services — such as Bing searches, Windows activity, and Xbox usage — to build a profile of your interests and serve you targeted advertisements....

Why it matters: Data from completely different parts of your digital life is merged to target you with ads, which means your activity in one Microsoft product can influence what you see in others, with limited transparency into how this profile is built....

Microsoft requires parental or guardian consent before collecting personal data from children under the applicable age of digital consent (13 in the US, higher in some countries), and offers family safety tools to manage children's accounts....

Why it matters: Children using Microsoft products like Xbox or Microsoft 365 Education may have their data collected and processed, and parents need to actively manage family accounts to ensure appropriate privacy protections are in place....

Microsoft collects certain sensitive categories of personal data, including health-related information and in some products biometric data, subject to additional protections described in the Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy....

Why it matters: Health and biometric data are among the most sensitive categories of personal information, and their collection by a technology company with broad data-sharing practices warrants careful scrutiny, particularly for users of health-adjacent features....

Snapchat collects your precise GPS location when you use certain features, and may also infer your location from other signals like your IP address even when you haven't granted location permission....

Why it matters: Precise location tracking can reveal sensitive information about your daily routine, home address, workplace, religious attendance, and medical visits....

Snapchat shares your personal data — including identifiers, interests, and behavioural data — with advertisers and advertising partners to enable targeted advertising on and off the platform....

Why it matters: Your personal information is shared broadly with third-party advertising networks, meaning your data profile extends well beyond Snapchat's own platforms....

Snapchat collects the names and phone numbers from your device's contact list if you grant permission, even for people who are not Snapchat users....

Why it matters: This means third parties who have not agreed to Snapchat's terms and have no relationship with Snap have their contact information collected and stored by the company....

Snapchat's services are not directed at children under 13, and users must be at least 13 years old to use the platform, with some features requiring users to be older....

Why it matters: Despite age restrictions, minors may access the platform, and the policy's data collection and advertising practices raise concerns under laws specifically designed to protect children's data....

Snapchat infers information about your interests, demographics, and characteristics based on your activity and uses this inferred data to build an advertising profile and serve targeted ads....

Why it matters: Inferred data can include sensitive inferences about your health, political views, or lifestyle that you never directly shared with Snapchat, which are then used for commercial purposes....

Stripe can hold back a portion of the money you earn through their platform for up to 180 days if they decide your business poses a financial risk — and they don't have to tell you in advance....

Why it matters: This clause gives Stripe near-unlimited discretion to freeze portions of your business revenue, potentially causing serious cash flow disruption, with limited ability to challenge their decision....

If you have a dispute with Stripe, you must resolve it through private arbitration — you cannot sue Stripe in court or join a class action lawsuit with other affected businesses....

Why it matters: This clause eliminates your ability to pursue collective legal action against Stripe, which is often the only practical remedy when individual damages are too small to litigate alone but widespread across many users....

Stripe can shut down your account or cut off your access to their payment services at any time, for any reason, simply by notifying you — leaving your business without payment processing....

Why it matters: For businesses that rely on Stripe as their primary payment processor, sudden termination without cause can immediately halt revenue collection and may coincide with funds being held in reserve, creating acute financial crisis....

If Stripe faces any legal claims, lawsuits, or costs because of your business or how you use their services, you are required to pay for Stripe's defense and any resulting damages — including their lawyers' fees....

Why it matters: The scope of this indemnification is extremely broad, extending to Stripe's affiliates, processors, and agents, and covers claims arising from your general business operations — not just your use of Stripe — which could expose you to significant and unpredictable liability....

No matter how much damage Stripe's actions cause your business, Stripe's maximum legal liability to you is capped at either three months of fees you paid them or $500 — whichever is higher....

Why it matters: For high-volume merchants paying substantial fees, three months of fees may still represent a tiny fraction of damages caused by service failures or wrongful fund withholding, making legal recovery largely impractical....

Businesses are fully responsible for all customer disputes, chargebacks, and refunds — Stripe can automatically deduct these amounts from your account balance at any time....

Why it matters: This clause means that unexpected spikes in customer disputes or chargebacks can result in immediate automatic debits from your Stripe balance, potentially driving your account negative and requiring you to pay Stripe out of pocket....

Microsoft may collect biometric data (such as facial recognition or voice prints) and health-related information in certain products and services. This sensitive data is subject to additional protections but is still collected and processed....

Why it matters: Biometric and health data are among the most sensitive categories of personal information, and their collection by a major technology company carries significant privacy risks if misused or breached....

Microsoft uses data it collects about you — including your browsing habits, search history, and inferred interests — to show you personalised advertisements across its products and partner services....

Why it matters: Your personal data is being used to influence what advertisements you see, which may affect your purchasing decisions and means your data has commercial value to Microsoft and its advertising partners....

Microsoft combines data about you from across its many products and services — such as Windows, Office, Bing, and Xbox — to build a more complete profile that can be used for product features, personalisation, and advertising....

Why it matters: When data from multiple services is combined, the resulting profile is far more detailed and revealing than any single data point, increasing the risk of privacy harm and the commercial exploitation of your personal information....

Microsoft collects data from child accounts and requires parental consent for children under 13 in the US (and applicable ages in other countries) to use certain services, in compliance with children's privacy laws....

Why it matters: Children's personal data receives special legal protections, and parents should understand what data Microsoft collects from their children and how it is used....

Microsoft collects your voice commands (through Cortana and other voice-enabled features) and your search queries through Bing, and uses this data to improve services and personalise your experience....

Why it matters: Voice data is particularly sensitive because it can reveal not just your words but your identity, emotional state, and personal circumstances, and once collected may be stored and reviewed by Microsoft employees....

Microsoft shares your personal data with third-party vendors, service providers, advertising partners, and other companies that help deliver its services or use it to show you ads....

Why it matters: Once your data is shared with third parties, you lose direct control over how it is handled, and those third parties may have their own privacy policies and data uses that differ from Microsoft's....

When you use Microsoft's AI services such as Copilot, your prompts, queries, and interactions may be collected and used to improve AI models and personalise your experience....

Why it matters: AI interactions can contain highly sensitive personal, professional, or confidential information, and users should be aware that these inputs may be stored and used to train or improve Microsoft's AI systems....

If you have a legal dispute with Cash App, you must resolve it through private arbitration rather than a court trial. This applies to almost all disputes and prevents you from filing a lawsuit....

Why it matters: Arbitration removes your ability to have a judge or jury hear your case, and the process is typically less transparent and favorable to consumers than court proceedings....