Inspired by this post by Malcolm Coles on websites that ban users from linking to them, I decided to scope out the terms of use for various Singapore websites. It will come as no surprise that they have similar clauses banning links or deep links without permission. Malcolm Coles had fun trying to get ‘written permission’ to link to the Royal Mail’s website — perhaps someone with more time would like to try that with the various Singapore organisations.

The Prime Minister’s Office:

You must secure permission from PMO prior to hyperlinking to, or framing, this Web Site or any of the Contents

The Ministry of Health:

Except as set forth below, caching and links to, and the framing of this Web Site or any of the Contents are prohibited… You must secure permission from the Ministry of Health prior to hyperlinking to, or framing, this Web Site or any of the Contents

MCYS:

Except as set forth below, caching and links to, and the framing of this Website or any of the Contents are prohibited.

You must secure permission from MCYS prior to hyperlinking to, or framing, this Web Site or any of the Content

The Straits Times:

you may not do any of the following without prior written permission from STI (and neither may you allow a third party to do any of the same):
[…]
deep link to, frame, spider, harvest or scrape the STI Content or otherwise access the STI Content for similar purposes
[…]
A site or service that links to the STI website… may link only to the homepage of the STI website unless STI has otherwise given prior written permission

As far as I can tell, ChannelNewsAsia and Today both allow links, including deep links, to their websites.

A*STAR:

Except as set forth below, caching and links to, and the framing of this Website or the Contents or any part thereof are prohibited.

You must secure prior permission from A*STAR prior to hyperlinking to, or framing, this Website or the Contents or any part thereof, or otherwise engaging in similar activities.

NUS:

The University should be informed of links from external websites… Deep linking to NUS web pages is prohibited - any links created by the user to the University’s website should be text links containing our domain name and which transfer other visitors directly to our homepage

SMU:

The University should be notified in advance of any links to its Website from external websites… Deep linking to and framing of pages and contents of the Website are prohibited

So I can’t link to the academic webpage of an SMU or NUS professor if it’s hosted on the universities’ servers! Note that NTU doesn’t seem to have such a silly policy.

www.gov.sg:

13. Except as set forth below, caching and links to, and the framing of this website or any of the Contents are prohibited.

14. You must secure permission from MICA prior to hyperlinking to, or framing, this website or any of the Contents, or engaging in similar activities. MICA reserves the right to impose conditions when permitting any hyperlinking to, or framing of this website or any of the Contents.

Hwa Chong Institution:

13. Except as set forth below, caching and links to, and the framing of this Web Site or
any of the Contents are prohibited.

14. You must secure permission from HWA CHONG INSTITUTION prior to
hyperlinking to, or framing, this Web Site or any of the Contents

Raffles Institution:

13. Except as set forth below, caching and links to, and the framing of this Website or any of the contents are prohibited.

14. You must secure permission from Raffles Institution prior to hyperlinking to, or framing, this website or any of the contents, or engaging in similar activities. Raffles Institution reserves the right to impose conditions when permitting any hyperlinking to, or framing of this website or any of the contents.

That’s enough examples for now. It’s clear that many of these websites merely copy-and-pasted a template for terms of use without thinking about what those actually meant for users.

Incidentally, I think there’s a correlation between the quality of web design and the presence of such a clause in the website’s terms of use. Websites with such clauses all seem to have a certain fixed look to them. Most of them use similar fonts and layouts (RI’s being a notable exception).