MSCI
Financials
27
out of 100. Number 438 of 512, counting from the worst.
Where MSCI does well
- Arbitration 4 of 20. Few problems found.
- Renewals 0 of 20. Nothing found.
- MSCI's Privacy Notice states plainly, twice, 'We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties.' There is no forced-arbitration clause anywhere in its public terms — disputes go to ordinary New York courts (with a jury waiver).
- The notice also says 'We do not track your online activities across the Internet' and commits not to use personal information for automated decision-making or profiling.
- The site's materials are also explicitly off-limits for AI training by visitors, and MSCI publishes an AI Contracting Supplement governing client AI use of its data — unusually protective of its data product.
MSCI can rewrite its app terms at any time with no notice to you — the changes take effect immediately, and merely opening the app afterward counts as you agreeing to them.
The fine print
6 clauses and findings from the draft archive, dated 1 October 2026. The plain English comes first; the small print is the company's own words. None of these has been checked yet.
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MSCI can rewrite its app terms at any time with no notice to you — the changes take effect immediately, and merely opening the app afterward counts as you agreeing to them.
MSCI reserves the right to change these terms of use and any such changes will be effective immediately. Accordingly, you should review these terms of use whenever you access or use the MSCI Materials. Your access to or use of any MSCI Materials following any change to these terms of use will constitute your acceptance of the terms of use as modified.
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You give up the right to a jury trial, and any claim you have against MSCI must be filed within one year — a much shorter deadline than many statutes of limitation allow — and only in New York state or federal courts.
The parties unconditionally waive their respective rights to a jury trial. Any cause of action you may have arising out of your use of this site must be commenced within one (1) year after the claim or cause of action arises.
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MSCI buys your professional contact details from commercial data brokers so it can cold-prospect you — the B2B data vendor is itself a data broker customer.
Information we receive from other sources may also include business contact information lawfully obtained from reputable data broker partners and other third-party providers to help us identify business contacts who may be interested in our products and services.
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MSCI tracks whether you open its emails and which links you click, and the links are tagged so MSCI can identify you personally — then correlates that with its CRM data to build sales leads.
We may use web beacons (also known as web bugs, pixel tags or clear GIFs) allowing us to receive interaction information about clients and prospects (opening of emails, clicking of links and associated actions)... metadata in these links may enable us to identify you as the person clicking the link.
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MSCI holds onto your personal data at least as long as you're in contact with them, and potentially far longer — invoking open-ended legal and compliance reasons rather than giving any concrete deletion timeline.
While we generally aim to retain your personal information for the period during which we have a relationship with you, there are many reasons why we may need to retain your data for longer... for a term that corresponds to a statute of limitations, to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, or as otherwise permitted or required by law.
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If anything goes wrong with your use of MSCI's app or data — even something not your fault — you must pay MSCI's legal bills and cover its losses. Meanwhile MSCI's own liability to you is capped at whatever you paid them (often nothing).
You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the MSCI Parties and their agents, directors, officers or employees from and against any claims, losses, damages, liabilities, costs and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys' and experts' fees and costs, as incurred, arising in any manner out of your use of, or inability to use, any of the MSCI Materials.
How these were found
Documents read live via browser_open on Oct 1, 2026 directly from msci.com (no mirror needed; nothing was blocked). Versions relied on: Privacy Notice last modified May 27, 2026; Mobile Application Terms of Use last updated October 2025; Terms of Use and Disclaimer page (legacy IPD-branded index-data terms). MSCI is a B2B index/data provider with no consumer purchase or subscription flow, so there is no auto-renewal or cancellation-trap clause to score — the autorenew category is genuinely zero, not just 'not found.' Client license agreements (which likely contain the heftier terms) are private and were not assessable.
These notes come from the original draft and are not independent verification.