Terms of Service.

1. Who We Are

Frustrated.io ("the Site," "we," "us," "our") is operated from the United Kingdom. For all questions about these terms, contact us at [email protected]. There is one address. We have explained this on the privacy page as well. We will probably explain it again somewhere.

2. The Parody Disclosure

This is the most important section in this entire document. Please read it.

Every interactive experience on Frustrated.io is a work of original parody. This includes, without limitation:

• Cookie banners that look like real consent banners
• Forum threads that look like real Microsoft Answers or Apple Discussions threads
• Cancellation flows that look like real Netflix, Adobe, or gym-membership cancellations
• Eye tests, vision-screening pages, and medical-adjacent forms
• Tabloid celebrity-news articles (always real celebrities, always invented stories)
• CAPTCHAs, login forms, security checks, virus scans, and other quasi-official-looking interfaces
• Loading screens, progress bars, error messages, and system dialogs
• Customer-service chatbots and retention agents (Brendan from Retention is not real)
• Subscription gauntlets and fictional services (ScreamFlix is not a real streaming service; PrivacyShield™ is not a real consent platform; CelebGossipDaily is not a real publication)

If you reasonably believed that any part of the site was real and acted on that belief in any way that caused you concern, please email [email protected] and we will explain in plain language what was happening. We have done this before. We are not embarrassed for anyone who has had to ask. The whole point of the site is that the parody surfaces are convincing.

3. Real Brands Mentioned in Parody

Several experiences and catalogue pages reference real brands, real public figures, real platforms, and real services. These references are made for purposes of commentary, criticism, parody, and comparative review. Specifically:

• References to real celebrities (Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, etc.) in headlines or copy are parody headlines, not factual claims about those individuals.
• References to real services (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Adobe Creative Cloud, OneTrust, Cookiebot, Microsoft Answers, etc.) in catalogue pages and comparison tables are factual where stated and editorial commentary where stated.
• Descriptions of real legal cases (Custom Communications v. FTC, FTC v. Amazon, etc.), regulations (UK GDPR, GDPR, ROSCA, the FTC's Click-to-Cancel rule, California's CCPA/CPRA), and academic research (Brignull's 2010 dark-patterns paper, Kahneman & Tversky's 1979 prospect theory paper, the Norwegian Consumer Council's 2023 report) are accurate as of the date stated and cited where relevant.

No brand mentioned on the site has endorsed, sponsored, partnered with, approved of, or even necessarily heard of Frustrated.io. Where a real brand believes a specific reference has crossed from parody into something else, the contact email is [email protected] and we will respond.

4. Acceptable Use

You may use Frustrated.io to:

• Visit it
• Click the Frustrate Me button
• Browse the catalogue
• Read the experiences and the catalogue pages
• Share links to specific experiences with friends
• Submit suggestions through the Suggest page
• Email us at [email protected]

You may not use Frustrated.io to:

• Scrape the site at a rate that interferes with normal hosting (one request per second per IP is fine; one thousand is not)
• Run automated tools that bypass the cookie consent banner or the rate limits set by Cloudflare
• Republish the experiences or catalogue content on another site as if it were yours
• Use the site to harm, defraud, or deceive any specific person (sharing a parody with a friend is fine; using it to perpetrate a real fraud is not)
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the underlying code with intent to clone the site (the JavaScript is open-source-friendly to read; cloning it commercially is not on)
• Attempt to compromise the security, integrity, or availability of the Site or any related infrastructure

If we believe you are using the Site in a way that violates these terms, we may block your access without notice. We have not yet had to do this. We are aware that saying it on a parody site about hostile UI is mildly funny. The clause is required regardless.

5. Intellectual Property

The original content of Frustrated.io — the experiences themselves, the catalogue pages, the body prose, the brand identity, the visual design, the deadpan voice, the character of Brendan from Retention and his Slack channel about Janet — is owned by us and protected by UK and international copyright law.

You may:

• Link to any page on the site freely
• Quote short passages with attribution for the purposes of review, commentary, or news reporting (UK fair dealing / U.S. fair use)
• Screenshot pages and share them on social media
• Embed individual experiences in articles, presentations, or academic work, with a link back to the source page

You may not:

• Republish entire experiences on a different domain
• Strip the Frustrated.io branding and present the work as your own
• Use the brand identity (the wordmark, the design system, the colour palette, "Brendan from Retention") to suggest endorsement of a product or service

6. User Submissions

If you submit a suggestion through the Suggest page or by email, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual licence to use, modify, adapt, and incorporate that suggestion into the site or related materials.

If we build an experience based directly on your suggestion and you provided your name, we will credit you on the experience page. If we don't build it, nothing changes — we may still keep the suggestion in our archive for future reference.

We do not pay for suggestions. The site does not have a budget for suggestion payments. If you would like to be compensated for an idea, please send the idea somewhere with a budget.

7. Third-Party Links and Content

The site contains links to external websites — for example, the Friends page lists other sites operated by us, the Privacy Policy links to Google's policies, the catalogue pages occasionally link to academic papers or news articles. We do not control external sites and are not responsible for their content, privacy practices, or anything else they do.

The Friends page features sites we like. Our liking them is not a guarantee of anything. We may not always agree with everything those sites do. If a Friends page link goes somewhere you would rather it didn't, email us.

8. Advertising

Frustrated.io displays advertising via Google AdSense. AdSense places a single ad slot per page, served by Google based on the page content and (with your consent) your interests. We do not control which specific ads are shown. If you see an advertisement on the site that appears to violate Google's policies (misleading claims, unsafe products, scam offers), please report it to Google through the standard "Why this ad?" mechanism on the ad itself, and feel free to also email [email protected] so we can flag it ourselves.

Advertising on this site is not an endorsement of the advertiser. The presence of an ad on a page about (for example) the Cookie Banner From Hell does not mean the advertiser approves of, has commented on, or has any relationship with the parody. Ads are served algorithmically by Google. Sometimes the algorithm gets it ironic.

9. Disclaimers

The site is provided "as is" and "as available." We make no warranty, express or implied, that the site will be:

• Always available, uninterrupted, or error-free
• Free of viruses, bugs, or harmful components (we believe it is, but we are not making a contractual warranty about it)
• Suitable for any specific purpose you have in mind (the site's purpose is making you mildly frustrated for comedic effect; if you wanted it to do something else, that is on you)

The site does not provide medical, legal, financial, psychological, optometric, IT, dental, or veterinary advice. Where catalogue pages reference real laws, real research, real fixes, or real procedures, that information is provided for general interest only and should not be relied upon as professional advice. If you have a real problem you are searching the internet to solve, please consult someone qualified after you have finished laughing at the parody.

10. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from or related to your use of the site, including but not limited to:

• Loss of time spent reading parody articles
• Loss of patience while interacting with parody experiences
• Embarrassment caused by being momentarily fooled by a parody
• Loss of friendship caused by sending a parody to a friend who did not find it funny
• Lost productivity at work caused by sending a parody to a colleague
• Indirect damages of any kind related to the use, misuse, or inability to use the site

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded under UK, EU, or U.S. law — including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or fraudulent misrepresentation. We have not caused any of those things and we do not plan to. We are mentioning them because the law requires us to.

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claims, damages, costs, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your use of the site in violation of these terms — for example, if you scrape the site at a rate that takes it offline, or if you republish content on a different domain in a way that triggers a copyright claim against us.

This clause does not apply to ordinary use of the site. Reading a parody and then having a strong opinion about it does not trigger this clause. Sharing a link with a friend does not trigger this clause. Almost nothing triggers this clause. The clause is required regardless.

12. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any dispute arising from or related to these terms or your use of the site will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

If you are a consumer in the European Union, this clause does not deprive you of the protections of the law of your country of residence, and you may bring proceedings in your local courts. The European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution platform is available at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

If you are a consumer in California or another U.S. state, applicable consumer protection laws of your state of residence may grant you additional rights that these terms cannot override. Where state law conflicts with these terms, state law applies.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms from time to time. If we make a material change, we will update the "Effective" date at the top of the page and post a notice on the homepage for at least seven days. Continued use of the site after a material change constitutes acceptance of the updated terms. Trivial changes (typos, clarifications, adding new sections that don't reduce your rights) we will just make.

14. Severability

If any clause of these terms is found to be unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remaining clauses continue in full force and effect. The unenforceable clause is the only thing that goes.

15. Entire Agreement

These terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any cookie consent decisions you have made, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the site. We have not made any other promises, representations, or warranties to you. If we had, we would have written them down somewhere visible. We are aware that this is what every Terms of Service page says. We are saying it anyway because we have to.

16. Contact