ServiceNow
Information Technology
34
out of 100. Number 361 of 512, counting from the worst.
Where ServiceNow does well
- Arbitration 2 of 20. Few problems found.
- No forced arbitration: the Subscription Service Agreement sends disputes to courts — New York law, exclusive jurisdiction of NYC courts (Sec 11.9) — with country-specific court provisions elsewhere; B2B customers keep full court access.
- No unilateral changes to the master agreement: Sec 11.6 requires any modification to be in writing signed by both parties, and updates to the Customer Support/Data Security/Data Processing Addenda only take effect at the end of the subscription term (Sec 2.3).
- Customer data is deleted after exit, not kept: after a 45-day retrieval window post-termination, ServiceNow 'will, unless legally prohibited, delete all Customer Data in its systems or otherwise in its possession' and confirm deletion on request (Sec 2.2).
- The Services Privacy Statement explicitly states ServiceNow does not 'sell', 'share', or use for targeted advertising the personal information it collects in connection with the Services themselves — the data-selling findings apply only to the website/events marketing side.
If ServiceNow terminates you for breach, you lose access immediately AND still owe the entire rest of the contract value — a termination for cause costs you everything you signed up for.
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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If ServiceNow terminates you for breach, you lose access immediately AND still owe the entire rest of the contract value — a termination for cause costs you everything you signed up for.
Within 30 days after the effective date of ServiceNow's termination for Customer's breach, Customer will pay all remaining amounts, if any, payable for the Subscription Term applicable to the terminated Use Authorization, regardless of the due dates in the Use Authorization.
Subscription Service Agreement, Section 10.2 (version 2020JULY24)
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ServiceNow openly admits it can 'sell' or 'share' website/event visitor data for targeted advertising — identifiers, commercial info, and browsing/activity data go to business partners, event sponsors, and marketing and advertising providers.
We may disclose your personal information to certain third parties, including our marketing and advertising providers, in ways that could be considered a 'sale' or 'share' (for purposes of cross-context behavioral advertising) of your personal information or the use of your personal information for targeted advertising.
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They don't just collect your info from you — they buy identifiers about you from data brokers, then share them with business partners and advertisers.
Identifiers (like your name, email, telephone number, etc.) | From you / From our partners or sponsors / From others, including data brokers, as permitted by law
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Any suggestion, idea, or improvement you give them becomes theirs forever — irrevocable and perpetual — to build into the product and sell to everyone else, with no payment or further rights for you.
Customer grants to ServiceNow a royaltyfree, fully paid, sublicensable, transferable (notwithstanding Section 11.1), nonexclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right and license to use, license, and commercialize Feedback (including by incorporation of such Feedback into ServiceNow Core Technology) without restriction.
Subscription Service Agreement, Section 5.3 (version 2020JULY24)
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Your name, email, account credentials and other identifiers collected through the platform can be used to train ServiceNow's AI models and shared with third-party AI development services — gated by 'your or your employer's consent,' but consent in enterprise settings is often perfunctory.
With your or your Employer's consent: To train and improve ServiceNow's artificial intelligence ('AI') and machine learning ('ML') models — disclosed to: Third party services that we use in connection with developing ServiceNow's AI/ML models
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ServiceNow can remotely audit your usage of the product; if they decide you're over your license limits, you have 30 days to buy more licenses or shut off usage — or they can suspend or terminate your service.
ServiceNow may remotely review the scope of Customer's use of the Subscription Service... If ServiceNow determines that Customer has exceeded its permitted access and use rights to the Subscription Service, ServiceNow will notify Customer and Customer will, within 30 days, either: (1) disable any unpermitted use; or (2) purchase additional subscriptions commensurate with Customer's actual use.
Subscription Service Agreement, Section 4.2 (version 2020JULY24)
How these were found
Documents read directly from servicenow.com on 2026-10-01; no mirrors used. (1) Subscription Service Agreement, footer version '2020JULY24', from the Nov-2022 PDF published in ServiceNow's legal docs library (link given). (2) Website and Events Privacy Statement at /privacy-statement.html (page title 'Website and Events Privacy Statement - ServiceNow'); no 'effective as of' date was visible in the fetched text. (3) ServiceNow Service Privacy Statement at /service-privacy.html. ServiceNow is B2B enterprise SaaS: customer-instance data is processed as a processor under the DPA at servicenow.com/upgradeschedules.html, which was not reviewed; this assessment covers the subscription agreement plus controller-context privacy disclosures (website/events marketing data and services account/contact data). Pricing and payment terms sit in a separate Reseller agreement that was not reviewed (the Agreement says refund claims must go to the Reseller). The current Agreement contains no auto-renew clause and no 'noncancellable and nonrefundable' language (older versions, e.g. the 2015/2019 General Terms and Conditions, did). Country-specific provisions replace the NY-law/NYC-courts clause for customers outside the US, Canada and Mexico.
These notes come from the original draft and are not independent verification.