this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2024
790 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

71761 readers
4698 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 239 points 1 year ago (3 children)

arguing that it’s not real consent if the only alternative is shelling out yet another monthly subscription fee

Very true, and hopefully many other verdicts will follow, like "It’s not real consent if....this or that.

This dark pattern has started to spread everywhere already.

[–] [email protected] 115 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's not consent if there are fifty pages of legalese to read before you press accept.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’m a big fan of TOSDR and recommend everyone check it out. It’s a site dedicated to translating TOS and EULA into English by attorneys working pro-bono. It’s amazing what you’ll find in some of those agreements.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

I’m a big fan of TOSDR and recommend everyone check it out.

I did not know this existed, thank you!

You waive your moral rights ...

Except to the extent that any such waiver is prohibited by law, you hereby waive the benefit of any provision of law known as "moral rights" or "droit moral" or any similar law in any country of the world.

Wow, I didn't even know it was possible to waive our moral rights, some heavy shit right there.

And I had to lol when I saw it was coming from Blizzard of all places.

Edit: It's actually a different kind of morals, not in the general public sense (Right vs Wrong) definition that we all know.

Still seems immoral though, controlling someone else's work, as if it is your own, so thoroughly.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I’m a big fan of TOSDR and recommend everyone check it out.

Also, you really should make a separate post about this, to bring awareness more widely.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

fifty

I can hear PayPal giggling

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

There's a core tenet in EU consumer protection law that if clauses aren't clear enough to understand by laymen, they can be challenged.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

"Nice data you got there. Be a shame if someone sold that for a premium"

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I wish they'd do that in the US for the stupid TOS nonsense they pull. I'm guessing a lot of it wouldn't hold up in court, but it's unlikely to get challenged because an individual just doesn't have the resources to do so, so it chills people into going along with it.

For example:

  • forced arbitration is on all the things now
  • Motorola's sketchy forfeiture of rights if you flash your phone's bootloader
  • "warranty stickers" - the FTC has actually cracked down a bit, but companies still try to do it

A lot of this is hidden behind dozens of pages of TOS that pretty much nobody reads. A general, "massive TOS isn't real consent" law could do wonders to improve consumer protections. Specifically, this is what I'd like to see:

  • any contract must be reasonably understood by an individual with an 8th grade education
  • contracts stay in force unless both parties agree to a change, and service may not be interrupted just because of a failure to agree to new terms
  • no forced arbitration, though private arbitration may be used if both parties consent
  • anything more than an average person can read in 5 minutes requires a formal contract, not a TOS

Or something along those lines. Consumer protections suck here, and I think this could solve a lot of the problems. Airing dirty laundry can solve a lot of problems.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 122 points 1 year ago (8 children)

What's really unhinged is the amount of resources invested into gaslighting Meta does. https://about.fb.com/news/2024/01/investing-in-privacy/

They even have a "Chief Privacy Officer". They have brainwashed entire departments into believing that Meta actually cares about privacy, it's so terrifying. I wonder if people working there realize that, or they have simply fell for the gaslighting.

[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Prior to joining Meta, she was a partner working on technology issues and co-chair of Covington & Burling's global data practice. Erin collaborates with policymakers and experts on Meta's products and features and is deeply involved in legislative and regulatory efforts around data protection, data portability, advertising, and Al.

E.g. ex lawyer working for a firm that ensured companies could sell and use as much data as possible and defended them if they got sued or fined. Now in charge of “Privacy,” e.g. making sure Meta can sell and use as much private data as possible. It’s literal doublespeak

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, when I saw "Chief Privacy Officer", my first thought was "Ministry of Truth", "Ministry of Peace", etc.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago

McDonalds sells salads too

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (6 children)

They probably don't care as long as they get paid so they can live and survive in this boring dystopia

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I wonder if people working there realize that, or they have simply fell for the gaslighting.

Or they're just like everyone else and are desperate for money to live so they sell their souls.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 103 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Please pull out of EU, it will be so much easier to convince more of my family to use signal.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

They keep throwing around threats of leaving.

Do it... do it you absolute chickens.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Leaving the EU could be an option.

[–] [email protected] 133 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Meta seemed to think that was a threat that would get the EU to cave to their demands and the regulators’ response was basically

Willy Wonka sarcastically saying, “Stop. Don’t. Come back.”

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

Chad EU vs virgin meta

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Following the laws another.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

lol tell us another one

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Wouldn't that be a treat!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Say one decides to pay...what guarantees do I get that my data won't be used or that I won't get targeted?

[–] [email protected] 96 points 1 year ago

Trust me bro

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Good luck proving that your data came from meta sources after you paid.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is great!

I wonder how many € I can rent an EU citizenship for ;-)

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's not about EU citizenship but if you are actually living in the EU.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

My VPN says I do

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago

Is cutting his hair an option? If he needs, I have a device that uses gravity to chop things...

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

Good news, that’s one point where the EU takes good decisions. Sadly, fight against privacy in terms of anti money laundering rules and similar

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Max Schrems, the Austrian activist lawyer whose 13-year legal crusade against Meta is what gradually removed those options

I wonder, does anyone know how would one go about acomplishing something like this? One of major websites here in Czech, and a major search engine, has started doing exactly the same thing - pay or agree. And I really don't like that. Are there organizations you can contact, or do you have to have the resources to just sue them?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You should search for something like "data protection office" in Czech language, they likely have tips on how to lodge a complaint.

edit: should be a good website: https://uoou.gov.cz/en/consultation/contact

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (5 children)

If there is still one option, is not it still an option? It is out of choices, but not out of options, right?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Bob, Stephanie, and Amir go to get ice cream. Their options are chocolate and vanilla. Bob orders chocolate, and gets the last of the chocolate. Stephanie can only order vanilla, and gets the last of the vanilla ice cream. Amir gets no ice cream, because he is fasting for Ramadan.

Who had options? Show your work for full credit.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Who had options? Show your work for full credit.

Well Amir had a fully diversified portfolio while Stephanie had a 401(k) and Roth IRA with some penny stocks for fun, but Bob mortgaged his house to buy the latest crypto because he was assured it was only going up and he was getting in on the ground floor and this wasn't like the other 67 times he bought crypto and... Oh.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Now there's the clarification everyone needs.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›