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posted by Dopefish on Monday February 24 2014, @09:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-click-ok-to-accept-the-eula dept.

andrew writes:

"Alternet.org reports recent updates to terms of conditions for Bank of Americas cell phone app and Capital Ones new credit card contract have given banks unsettling new abilities. These privileges include the authority to access to your phone microphone and camera or even showing up at your workplace and home unannounced at any time.

From the the article:

We're witnessing a new era of fascism, where corporations are creating intrusive and over-bearing terms and conditions that customers click to agree to without even reading.

As a result, corporations in America have acquired king-like power, while we're the poor serfs that must abide by their every rule or else."

 
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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by TrumpetPower! on Monday February 24 2014, @09:04PM

    by TrumpetPower! (590) <ben@trumpetpower.com> on Monday February 24 2014, @09:04PM (#6170) Homepage

    The type of mentality that causes people in power to think that this sort of thing is a good idea...well, historically, it hasn't proven to be a long-term winning strategy, even if it does tend to be effective in the short term. And, the worst of it is, the failure mode when it stops working is generally pretty spectacular.

    Cheers,

    b&

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by keplr on Monday February 24 2014, @09:39PM

    by keplr (2104) on Monday February 24 2014, @09:39PM (#6209) Journal

    The psychopaths in power are betting that they'll be part of the generation who live like kings in their gilded mansions for their natural lives, and not the psychopaths who end up with piano wire neckties when their pyramid scheme finally crashes to the ground.

    --
    I don't respond to ACs.
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by zsau on Monday February 24 2014, @11:12PM

      by zsau (2642) on Monday February 24 2014, @11:12PM (#6266)

      It's a very safe bet. Most people who abuse power get away with it until they hit the grave when they're old, fat and happy. It's instructive to look at North Korea.

      Then of course there's the fact that a great many of them don't actually realise they're doing anything wrong. We've trained people to think that if you agree to it, and it's a financial transaction, then it's fine---especially if parliament/congress hasn't passed a law against it. Of course not every voluntary financial transaction is ethical, but the discourse of our age is such that it's extremely difficult to communicate that idea without sounding like a kook or---indeed---a psychopath.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by TheLink on Tuesday February 25 2014, @03:41AM

        by TheLink (332) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @03:41AM (#6371) Journal
        Yeah nowadays there's too much tendency for everyone to go "It's in the T&C/contract, you shouldn't have accepted it" to the victims of crappy T&Cs/contracts and leave it at that.

        True they shouldn't have accepted, but we should fight such BS. Similar for "Yes it's a crappy T&C/contract but it's unenforceable by current laws". Publicizing really crappy T&Cs and boycotts might help. But it has to be done while there still are reasonable alternatives.
        • (Score: 2) by zsau on Tuesday February 25 2014, @05:24AM

          by zsau (2642) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @05:24AM (#6413)

          "True they shouldn't have accepted it" is going to far, and boycotts and advertising are playing at the wrong place. The very offer of the term is unethical, and our language and ethical discussion needs to be based around that principle, not just tacking it on at the end with a boycott.

          What alternative do they have? No-one can properly value everything that goes into one of these t&cs, but you need to agree to all sorts of crazy shit just to get by. The language is designed to be incomprehensible and ignored. You have no capacity to challenge it, and you're only option is to turn down something that you need.

          People these days think the medievals were evil because, for instance, of making people serfs. But all the serfs voluntarily got into that position because they or their ancestors agreed that they and their children would have a guaranteed place to live and work in exchange for a share in the produce of the land.

          People these days think that slavery is always evil, but many slaves voluntarily agreed to a debt, where one of the t&cs was that if you couldn't repay, you would be enslaved.

          T&Cs generally can't be rationally interpreted by people. The exchange should be money for a product, not money and your first-born son for a product. Unreasonable and overly complicated terms simply shouldn't be offered.

          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by TheLink on Tuesday February 25 2014, @06:40AM

            by TheLink (332) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @06:40AM (#6430) Journal
            Yeah you've put it better - long time ago many people got crappy T&Cs and they accepted because the other alternatives were really crap (starving to death, or getting raped, robbed, pillaged by bandits and other Lords).

            Later a whole bunch of our ancestors finally rejected that. But now we're letting it happen again, bit by bit.
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Tuesday February 25 2014, @03:15AM

    by hemocyanin (186) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @03:15AM (#6361) Journal

    A lot of history proves you wrong -- just how long was the French monarchy crushing its citizenry? Hundreds and hundreds of years. For most of that time, it totally paid for the rulers to be assholes. Same thing with Czars. It is only rarely that things go wrong for the ruling class, and then, we just get a new ruling is installed.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday February 25 2014, @11:11AM

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @11:11AM (#6542) Journal

    I can't think of a suitable XKCD to refute your post, so here's a highly relevant OOTS instead: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0763.html [giantitp.com]