II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3501 

To require the Federal Trade Commission to issue a short-form terms of 

service summary statement, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 13 (legislative day, JANUARY 10), 2022 

Mr. CASSIDY (for himself and Mr. LUJA ́N) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 

Transportation 

A BILL 

To require the Federal Trade Commission to issue a shortform terms of service summary statement, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Terms-of-service La5 beling, Design, and Readability Act’’ or the ‘‘TLDR Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. STANDARD TERMS OF SERVICE SUMMARY STATE7 MENT. 

8 (a) DEADLINE FOR TERMS OF SERVICE SUMMARY

9 STATEMENT.—Not later than 360 days after the date of 


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1 the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall issue a 

2 rule under section 553 of title 5, United States Code— 

3 (1) that requires a covered entity to include a 

4 short-form terms of service summary statement on 

5 the website of the entity; 

6 (2) that requires a covered entity to include 

7 graphic data flow diagram on the website of the en8 tity and includes guidance for such diagram; and 

9 (3) that requires a covered entity to display the 

10 full terms of service of the entity in an interactive 

11 data format. 

12 (b) REQUIREMENTS FOR SHORT-FORM TERMS OF

13 SERVICE SUMMARY STATEMENT.— 

14 (1) IN GENERAL.—The short-form terms of 

15 service summary statement described in subsection 

16 (a)— 

17 (A) shall be easy to understand, machine 

18 readable, and may include tables, graphic icons, 

19 hyperlinks, or other means determined by the 

20 Commission; and 

21 (B) may be established separately depend22 ing on the interface or type of device on which 

23 the statement is being accessed by the user. 

24 (2) LOCATION OF SUMMARY STATEMENT AND

25 GRAPHIC DATA FLOW DIAGRAM.—The summary 


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1 statement shall be placed at the top of the perma2 nent terms of service page of the covered entity and 

3 any graphic data flow diagram shall be located im4 mediately below the statement. 

5 (3) CONTENTS OF SUMMARY STATEMENT.—The 

6 summary statement shall disclose the following: 

7 (A) The effort required by a user to read 

8 the entire terms of service text, such as through 

9 the total word count and approximate time to 

10 read the statement. 

11 (B) The categories of sensitive information 

12 that the covered entity processes. 

13 (C) The sensitive information that is re14 quired for the basic functioning of the service 

15 and what sensitive information is needed for ad16 ditional features and future feature develop17 ment. 

18 (D) A summary of the legal liabilities of a 

19 user and any rights transferred from the user 

20 to the covered entity, such as mandatory arbi21 tration, class action waiver, any licensing by the 

22 covered entity of the content of the user, and 

23 any waiver of moral rights. 

24 (E) Historical versions of the terms of 

25 service and change logs. 


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1 (F) If the covered entity provides user de2 letion services, directions for how the user can 

3 delete sensitive information or discontinue the 

4 use of sensitive information. 

5 (G) A list of data breaches from the pre6 vious 3 years reported to consumers under ex7 isting Federal and State laws. 

8 (H) Anything else determined to be nec9 essary by the Commission. 

10 (c) GUIDANCE ON GRAPHIC DATA FLOW DIA11 GRAMS.—Not later than 360 days after the date of the 

12 enactment of this Act, the Commission shall publish guide13 lines on how a covered entity can graphically display how 

14 sensitive information of a user is shared with a subsidiary 

15 or corporate affiliate of such the entity and how sensitive 

16 information is shared with third parties. 

17 (d) INTERACTIVE DATA FORMAT TERMS OF SERV18 ICE.—Not later than 360 days after the date of the enact19 ment of this Act, the Commission shall issue a rule under 

20 section 553 of title 5, United States Code, that requires 

21 a covered entity to tag portions of the terms of services 

22 of the entity according to an interactive data format. 

23 (e) ENFORCEMENT.— 

24 (1) UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC25 TICES.—A violation of this section or a regulation 


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1 promulgated under this section shall be treated as a 

2 violation of a regulation under section 18(a)(1)(B) 

3 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 

4 57a(a)(1)(B)) regarding unfair or deceptive acts or 

5 practices. 

6 (2) POWERS OF THE COMMISSION.—The Com7 mission shall enforce this section and the regulations 

8 promulgated under this section in the same manner, 

9 by the same means, and with the same jurisdiction, 

10 powers, and duties as though all applicable terms 

11 and provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act 

12 (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incorporated into and 

13 made a part of this section, and any person who vio14 lates this section or a regulation promulgated under 

15 this section shall be subject to the penalties and en16 titled to the privileges and immunities provided in 

17 the Federal Trade Commission Act. 

18 (3) ENFORCEMENT BY STATE ATTORNEYS GEN19 ERAL.—In any case in which the attorney general of 

20 a State has reason to believe that an interest of at 

21 least 1,000 residents of that State has been or is 

22 threatened or adversely affected by the engagement 

23 of any person in a practice that violates this section 

24 or a regulation promulgated under this section, the 

25 State, as parens patriae, may bring a civil action on 


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1 behalf of the residents of the State in a district 

2 court of the United States of appropriate jurisdic3 tion to— 

4 (A) enjoin that practice; 

5 (B) enforce compliance with the regulation; 

6 (C) obtain damage, restitution, or other 

7 compensation on behalf of residents of the 

8 State; or 

9 (D) obtain such other relief as the court 

10 may consider to be appropriate. 

11 (4) NOTICE.— 

12 (A) IN GENERAL.—Before filing an action 

13 under paragraph (3), the attorney general of 

14 the State involved shall provide to the Commis15 sion— 

16 (i) written notice of that action; and 

17 (ii) a copy of the complaint for that 

18 action. 

19 (B) EXEMPTION.— 

20 (i) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (A) 

21 shall not apply with respect to the filing of 

22 an action by an attorney general of a State 

23 under this subsection, if the attorney gen24 eral determines that it is not feasible to 


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1 provide the notice described in that sub2 paragraph before the filing of the action. 

3 (ii) NOTIFICATION.—In an action de4 scribed in clause (i), the attorney general 

5 of a State shall provide notice and a copy 

6 of the complaint to the Commission at the 

7 same time as the attorney general files the 

8 action. 

9 (5) REMOVAL TO FEDERAL COURT.—The Com10 mission may intervene in any action brought under 

11 paragraph (3) and remove the action to the appro12 priate United States district court. 

13 (f) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec14 tion shall be construed to limit the authority of the Com15 mission under any other provision of law. 

16 (g) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

17 (1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

18 means the Federal Trade Commission. 

19 (2) COVERED ENTITY.—The term ‘‘covered en20 tity’’— 

21 (A) means any person that operates a 

22 website located on the internet or an online 

23 service, that is operated for commercial pur24 poses; and 


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1 (B) does not include a small business con2 cern (as defined in section 3 of the Small Busi3 ness Act (15 U.S.C. 632)). 

4 (3) INTERACTIVE DATA FORMAT.—The term 

5 ‘‘interactive data format’’ means an electronic data 

6 format in which pieces of information are identified 

7 using an interactive data standard, such as eXten8 sible Markup Language (XML), that is a standard9 ized list of electronic tags that mark the information 

10 described in section 2(b)(3) within the terms of serv11 ice of a covered entity. 

12 (4) SENSITIVE INFORMATION.—The term ‘‘sen13 sitive information’’ means any of the following: 

14 (A) Health information. 

15 (B) Biometric information. 

16 (C) Precise geolocation information. 

17 (D) Social security number. 

18 (E) Information concerning the race, color, 

19 religion, national origin, sex, age, or disability 

20 of an individual. 

21 (F) The content and parties to a commu22 nication. 

23 (G) Audio and video recordings captured 

24 through a consumer device. 


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1 (H) Financial information, including a 

2 bank account number, credit card number, 

3 debit card number, or insurance policy number. 

4 (I) Online browsing history related to the 

5 information described in subparagraphs (A) 

6 through (H). 

7 (5) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 

8 the several States, the District of Columbia, each 

9 commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United 

10 States, and each federally recognized Indian Tribe. 

11 (6) THIRD PARTY.—The term ‘‘third party’’ 

12 means, with respect to a covered entity, a person— 

13 (A) to whom the covered entity disclosed 

14 sensitive information; and 

15 (B) is not— 

16 (i) the covered entity; 

17 (ii) a subsidiary or corporate affiliate 

18 of the covered entity; or 

19 (iii) a service provider of the covered 

20 entity. 

Æ 


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