Did you agree to their terms of service?
It’s truly ironic how things sometimes happen. I’ve been researching the “Terms of Serivce” of the major internet behemoths and how those terms have twisted common law, and human rights. Terms of Service have allowed corporations to side step consumer protection laws all over the place and nobody even whimpers. It’s the slow erosion of what were once human rights and freedoms.
Did you realize that if you kill a credit card to get hackers, dark patterns and cyber criminals from using it, and you get a fresh new card you’ve given PayPal permission to share the new card number with everyone? Yes, true. You have to dig down umpteen screens and menus to get to where you can “opt out” of the practice.
Did you realize that most ecommerce sites online can continue billing your charge card for anything they like, even after you’ve left the service, unless you “opt out.”
The worst example is your signature.
For a hundred years, contract law has required the signature and witness in order to be legal. Now, “Terms of Service” eliminates the need for signatures. You click a button. Would you buy a car, and send a five figure check to someone who clicked a button? Do you know who that person is? Are you sure it’s even the person you think it is? Do you realize how easy it is for someone else to sign up using your name by merely clicking the “accept” button?
Has truth and honor been redacted from your agreement? Do you feel lucky?
I’m providing the following information to intelligent adults as another example of how the internet and private entities have changed the landscape of human rights, ethics, and law. While it’s 20 years too late to try and do anything about it, everyone should be aware of it.
Fundamental rights in the online environment
Mariana Valente is an Assistant Professor for International Economics Law at the University of St.Gallen. She researches and teaches in the intersection between law, technology and society, especially in regulating the digital economy and fundamental rights in the online environment. She has experience in culture and education, intellectual property, the impact of technologies on democracy and social mobilization, and data justice issues.
Terms of Service as a Case of Legal Pluralism
Ms Valente writes : While discussions involving free speech often revolve around individual rights against the government, recent developments in technologies related to the Internet raise questions regarding new forms of censorship practiced by private Internet service providers. Past experiences, such as the movie pictures private regulation by the Production Code, illustrate how private agreements and practices can shape the level of free speech in certain realms. While obscenity and nudity became an obsession during the first regulatory efforts directed to the Internet, censoring legislation in this area often failed the constitutionality testing, and censoring efforts were shifted to more opaque practices. Recent cases of feminist protests using their bodies as political instruments in Brazil are analyzed and put in perspective with algorithmic and manual control in online social networks
Terms of Service as a Case of Legal Pluralism
Good luck, and thanks for reading!
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In case you get to read this article, and it’s not censored or blocked by Medium or Facebook, here’s a Facebook / Twitter friendly MEME you can post if you agree that telemarketing calls and robo calls are evil.
