Quote:
Originally Posted by barutanseijin
No such thing as a free lunch? Tell that to Amazon, Google, Facebook, et al.
And what do want people to do? Lie down and think of England?
|
Amazon, Google, facebook, et al are running a business where they provide a service to users in return for the user's content/personal info/eyeballs.
It is *always* a two-way transaction.
Those services cost big money to provide and they are no more free than anything else. They are not charities and they are generally upfront that you are paying in non-currency ways. (Remember the regular "scandals" when there are changes to the TOS?)
What should people do?
They should do what any savvy consumer brought up in a consumerist society does when confronted with something ostensibly "free": Ask, "What is in it for *them*?" and "Am *I* comfortable with that?" (No whinging would also be a good idea, but that's optional.
)
And if the Terms of Service offend them, I'd expect them to go elsewhere.
(I did: I may be the last person on Earth that pays for their primary email service but there is no way I am letting Google or anybody else manage and *keep* copies of my correspondence and documents.)
We are now twenty years into the wide-open internet age and the rules of the game should be pretty clear to anybody who isn't a North Korean refugee.
__________________________________________________ _
Oh, in case any North Koreans do run into this in the future:
Rule#1 is that if you're not the consumer, you are the product.
Rule#2 is that there is no privacy on the internet. Don't say or do anything you don't want attributed to you personally. Because one way or another, sooner or later, it will be.
Rule#3 is there is no undo on the internet; once it's out there it will be public forever.
