• brombek@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    So what it says is:

    • we will spy on you and sell data collected to unknown third parties for our profit, or you can’t use the TV
    • you don’t own this product and we can take parts of it’s functionality away from you at any time for any reason
    • we will make more money off you by selling ads directly to your screen based on data that we have collected on you to maximize our profit and effect of advertisement on you and your family for our partners gain
    • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      I’m tired of telling people that they 🤬 read the TOS and PP of a product / service, before using it. If they would do so by avoiding accepting these abuses, these practices would have been finished long ago.

      • MerchantsOfMisery@lemmy.ml
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        2 years ago

        To quote Jerry Seinfeld…

        “Have you read that thing? It’s like the Declaration of Independence.”"

        Point is,

        a) most people don’t have the time to read the TOS;

        b) most people don’t understand half of what a TOS even talks about; and

        c) people have fewer and fewer alternatives to these companies because this sort of thing is becoming so common.

        • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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          2 years ago

          I understand that reading these things, often full of judicial jargon, is something undesirable, but not doing so is the same as signing a loan in a bank, without reading the conditions, it can give many unpleasant surprises and consequences. The companies calculate with this and it does not cause them any problem to fill this with abusive and even illegal clauses. But it is not a problem to use for this some of the good services that show the conditions in a summarized and understandable way, such as TOSDR. On the other hand, it always amuses me when many say that this is why they use FOSS, because it allows them to read the script. In this, the first thing naturally comes to mind ‘how are they going to read a script of hundreds of thousands of lines, when not even reading the TOS and the PP, given that currently many FOSS also practice surveillance advertising, selling user data for create your income?’ This is also specified in their terms of use. Nobody reads this ‘Since FOSS is synonymous with privacy and security’, FALSE, it is not. They also carry APIs from FB, Google, MS, Amazon and others to profile and track the user. These APIs themselves are also FOSS, on GitHub, which is proprietary and owned by Microsoft. The only security that the normal user has is to look at the conditions before signing a contract, both online and in real life.

          • MerchantsOfMisery@lemmy.ml
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            2 years ago

            I understand that reading these things, often full of judicial jargon, is something undesirable, but not doing so is the same as signing a loan in a bank, without reading the conditions, it can give many unpleasant surprises and consequences.

            I agree. And similar to bank loans, TOS are often predatory and reliant on working class people not understanding what they’re getting into.

            I think you’re blaming the victims of a very predatory practice. In fact, I’d venture to say that even you don’t 100% know what you’re getting into when you’ve read various TOSs. Given the fact that they’re often written by corporate lawyers with the intention of obscuring any nefarious intentions, I think you should try to understand the Sisyphean task you’re assigning working class people with very limited time and resources.

            • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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              2 years ago

              I am not a lawyer, and I certainly have trouble understanding some things in these documents. But at least it can give a clue, how the site treats your data, the main problem is that they use tracking practices to sell the data to third parties, this in most cases is quite clear. The alternative to this would be to refer to the summaries of TOSDR and others to find out. Also Blacklight and Unfurl can expose it (Exodus Privacy for Android apps). That is, there are possibilities to check this, without having to study law first, but of course you have to want to do it. In real life, you don’t sign a 40-year mortgage either, without first reading the conditions and, if you don’t understand them, consult someone who does.

              • MerchantsOfMisery@lemmy.ml
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                2 years ago

                You’re missing my point. Most working class people don’t have the time/resources to look into all of these alternatives. This is like telling someone who shops at Wal-Mart that if they looked harder, they could find a more ethical place to shop without realizing that the reason why they shop at Wal-Mart is because they can barely afford the time or gas to get there and back.

                • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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                  2 years ago

                  I think it’s not lack of time, but lack of interest or knowledge. If you need a new PC, you also don’t go to the corner store and buy the first one you see on the shelf without hesitation. At a minimum, you inform yourself before which one best corresponds to your needs and expectations, as well as the price and conditions. Well, with services and software it’s the same, but it’s not done, due to lack of time? I doubt it.