USA TODAY Terms Scorecard

Grade D — Sign with caution (score 55/100)

The terms include a class action waiver, a perpetual license to your content, and a one-year statute of limitations for legal claims.

Class action waiver, perpetual content license, and short claim window.

Terms at a glance

Sells your data
UNCLEAR
Forced arbitration
YES
Trains AI on your content
LIKELY
Collects biometric data
UNCLEAR
Shares data with government
YES
Easy to cancel
UNCLEAR
Tells you before changes
YES
Deletes data on request
UNCLEAR

What the terms actually say

Section 3.1(i) — User Content License

grant us... a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to use... such material... for any purpose that we choose

You grant the company a permanent, irrevocable license to use anything you post for any purpose, including selling it, without paying you.

Section 19 — Class Action Waiver

You and USA TODAY Co. agree that each party may bring disputes against the other party only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class or representative proceeding

You waive your right to participate in class action lawsuits against the company.

Section 20 — Statute of Limitations

any claim or cause of action that you may have... must be filed by you within one year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.

You must file any legal claim within one year, or you lose the right to sue entirely.

Section 16 — Termination

we may suspend or terminate your password, account... or use of the Site... at any time, for any reason, without notice.

The company can ban you and delete your content at any time without giving you a reason or prior notice.

Section 2.2(v) — AI Training Restriction

use our Site or any Content to develop or improve any software program, model, algorithm, machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system or tool

The company prohibits users from using their content to train AI models.

Section 1 — Modifications

if we do intend to enforce a material change retroactively, we will notify you by posting a prominent notice of the change on the home or landing page of the Site

The company commits to providing notice on their site if they make material changes to the terms.

Last reviewed 2026-07-27 under rubric v3.5.

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