HN · HACKER_NEWS// 32d agoPOLICY REGULATION

Ninth Circuit backs TOS updates by email

In a nonprecedential ruling in Ireland-Gordy v. Tile, the Ninth Circuit said Tile's emailed notice of updated terms plus users' continued app usage was enough to bind them to revised terms, including arbitration. The decision matters beyond Tile because it gives software and connected-device platforms more cover to push legal changes by email instead of forcing an in-app reaccept flow.

// ANALYSIS

This is a platform-friendly contracts ruling with real product implications: courts may accept "we emailed you, you kept using it" as assent even when the email did not spell out every material change.

–The case centered on Tile's October 2023 email linking updated terms and warning that continued use after November 26 would count as agreement
–The Ninth Circuit treated later app activity as clear assent, even though one plaintiff said the email landed in spam and another said she never saw it
–Legal scholars are already criticizing the opinion's reasoning as unusually loose on online notice, so teams should not treat this as blanket approval for every email-only TOS update
–For developers and product counsel, the practical takeaway is that audit trails for notice emails, prominent links, and post-update usage logs now matter even more

// TAGS

tileregulationsafety

DISCOVERED

32d ago

2026-03-10

PUBLISHED

34d ago

2026-03-09

RELEVANCE

5/ 10

AUTHOR

dryadin