Almost signed a 'no public reviews' NDA for a discount

So I was about to order from Hetzner, the price was very nice, but in the order notes I find this clause: "Customer agrees to refrain from public reviews or forum posts regarding the service without prior written consent." I almost click accept!! Can you imagine?? Hosting provider trying to silence the customers before the first packet. Voilà, the state of the industry. I cancel immediately and now I warn you all: read the fine print, even on cheap VPS.

As said, I've seen similar language in three other providers' terms. Bullet list of red flags I look for:

• Gag clauses in order notes (not even main TOS)
• "Partnership" language that assigns IP rights to your content
• Arbitration clauses with no opt-out
• Auto-renewal with 30+ day notice requirements

Hetzner pulled this in notes because main TOS wouldn't pass scrutiny. Numbers: 0.7% of users read order notes fully. They're counting on it.

This is why I always recommend against OpenVZ-style containers for anything serious, but that's not the point here. The virtualization tax on your rights is worse than any cgroup limit. I've seen providers try to bury NDA-like language in "network policy" sections too. Kernel-level transparency matters for software, contract-level transparency matters for hosting. No emojis needed. This is bad.

This is very « french » of them, no?? The hiding of the bad terms. I have seen similar from a provider, I cannot say which, but the clause was in the « Acceptable Use Policy », not even the main contract. And yes I signed, I was young, I needed the hosting. Now I am legally unable to confirm or deny if the provider is good or bad. Yes, I am bound. I can say: read before you sign. The random capitalization in my posts is nothing compared to the random clauses in the agreements.