About

Terms & Conditions is a newsletter written by myself, Van Newman, for exploring how to reclaim agency and autonomy in the digital age.

My hope is to arm and aide you with the context needed to empower you to set your own terms of use and boundaries with the Big Tech platforms that profit off our data while forcing our collective hand to blindly accept their rules on their terms, while examining and breaking down the social, political, cultural, and economic conditions under which we inter-connectedly exist online.

This newsletter was born in January 2025, out of a rage towards today's tech leaders and CEOs, who, in the wake of a second Trump presidency, have chosen to pour the millions of dollars they've made off us users into the pockets of presidents, leaders, policies, and laws that put this earth and its people, with an emphasis on those of marginalized identities, in the path of direct harm and violence.

This year I say, enough is enough. This newsletter is a commitment to no longer blindly accepting the terms and conditions that are handed to me. To creating the terms, conditions, and boundaries that I want and expect out of my relationship with technology. And honoring those terms, for myself, and for the greater good.

This year, I am not afraid to leave platforms that do not serve my boundaries or best interest. Through this newsletter (and weekly support call for paid subscribers), I will encourage others to do the same.

Terms & Conditions will take a critical look at the platforms we use, why we use them, and how. With investigation will come action and recommendation: Keep (and tweak usage, if necessary), Switch (to a similar service), or Ditch entirely.

Humans have existed for millions of years without companies such as Meta, Apple, and OpenAI. I'm not saying we should return to the past. I'm saying, perhaps relying on these platforms already is the past. What could a future look like where the platforms we spend the majority of our time on and subscribe to with our dollars are built with our autonomy, agency, consent, care, wellbeing, and safety as the utmost priorities and core guiding principles? What could a future look like where the majority of our time isn't spent online at all?

I won’t always get it right. I may not be able to de-tangle myself from every platform and corporation. But I promise to try, help you try, and explain my choices as thoroughly and transparently as possible every step of the way.

I hope you'll follow me on the journey and maybe even join along the way. Together, we can remember that these platforms need us more than we need them.

In the words of writer, Akwaeke Emezi, "each choice is carving out a future, finding our way out of the desert. Trust me, it's glorious on the other side."