Byte-Sized Terms

Inspiration

A recent case with Disney highlighted the complexities of Terms of Service (ToS) agreements. A man sought to sue Disney for his wife's wrongful death, but Disney claimed he couldn't due to an arbitration clause in their ToS, which he accepted during a free trial of Disney+. This underscores the need for tools that simplify legal agreements for users.

What it does

Byte-Sized Terms is a Chrome extension that automatically detects ToS pages and summarizes their key points into three sections: Good, Bad, and Neutral. This saves users from sifting through lengthy legal jargon, allowing them to understand their rights and responsibilities quickly.

How we built it

We created the extension with a cyberpunk-themed UI using React. Upon detecting a ToS page, it captures the text and sends it to the backend, where Django and OpenAI summarize and categorize the content. The summarized points are then returned to the frontend for display.

Challenges we ran into

We initially used free libraries for our backend, but they provided inaccurate summaries and sentiment analyses. We pivoted to AI solutions, starting with the free version of OpenAI, but faced account issues. After attempting to switch to Azure, we encountered persistent errors. Ultimately, we opted for the paid OpenAI API, which helped us move forward.

We also struggled with the popup functionality, as it sometimes failed to activate despite successfully detecting a ToS page.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Leveraged the power of the OpenAI API to deliver accurate and meaningful summaries of complex Terms of Service documents, significantly reducing the time users spend deciphering legal jargon.

What we learned

Encountered various technical challenges throughout the development process, fostering a problem-solving mindset and the ability to adapt quickly to new tools and technologies.