Be careful about freelance contracts too.

I once was negotiating a gig with Company X (I'm not naming them for legal reasons). They wanted me to write some comic scripts that were basically media tie-ins. Fine. This work tends to pay decently. It also almost always comes with an NDA.

NDAs are standard in creative freelancing, but the purpose they generally serve is to keep the freelancer from revealing details of the product before it's released. They're standard, and they're non-restrictive. It's just "Don't talk about it publicly without permission." (Which sometimes turns into "Please talk about it!") right before release.

So, when these people handed me an NDA to sign I was expecting it...except that we had not begun contract negotiations yet. This included any discussion of pay.

The "NDA" they handed me to sign included me agreeing that anything I wrote in their world belonged to them (also standard) and anything I wrote that looked like it was inspired by anything in their world belonged to them. With no sunset clause.

I stared at it hard, then sent a very polite note back saying that I was not signing this as it stood and we needed to negotiate. (It would have signed over an active web serial I was writing as well as one of my book series because basically "looked like it was inspired by" was so broad.

They ghosted me. I heaved a huge sigh of relief because it was clear that these people were, in fact, going to be nightmares to work with.

Read ALL of your contracts carefully. Of course, it's much tougher with employment contracts when you are facing down eviction, lack of health coverage, and the way our society enslaves you to an employer.

But scanning your children's iPads? That should be illegal.