Comment by gruez
1 day ago
>Shouldn't the government prosecutors handle this "hacking" case and demand jail time, like they do for $random_kid playing around with security vulnerabilities?
Because there's probably some clause buried in the ToS that gives them the right to do this, so it would not count as "exceeds authorized access" under the CFAA.
edit: it's not even buried. there's a screen that specifically says "facebook uses aggregated onavo data for market and business analytics"
So... Where was the negotiation step where there was the option to do VPN'ry without the surveillance? Take it or leave it license agreements in my opinion violate meeting-of-the-minds, and our legal system has just cut a pass for the last half a century to one sided take it or leave it levels of exploitative entering into contracts at scale. Not one company, in particular, tech companies, have a legal pipeline that can support redlining a contract or facilitating negotiation at scale which is the actual desired incarnation of contract law as a tool of mutual empowerment through agreements. We need to seriously hold our system to account for building only the accept as-is part of the pipeline, but not the negotiation side of the pipeline.
Make no mistake either, as that was an intentional decision to chase growth in the interests of becoming TBTF. We need to clamp down and make it clear, big mofos do not get to call unilateral shots and that it is not acceptable for terms to be dictated only in one direction. Yes, this complicates the hell out of business logic, but ya know what, the ones who have TBTF'd have drank of the waters of economies of scale to get the sweet draught, it's about damn time they got the bitters too.
>Take it or leave it license agreements in my opinion violate meeting-of-the-minds, and our legal system has just cut a pass for the last half a century to one sided take it or leave it levels of exploitative entering into contracts at scale.
I might be sympathetic to this if this was some essential service with strong network effects such that there's no alternative (eg. facebook or whatsapp), but that's not the case here. This is a separate "security" app, of which there's probably dozens of competitors that you can choose from if you don't like the ToS/privacy policy of this one, so the "one sided take it or leave it levels of exploitative entering into contracts at scale" aspect you're decrying really rings hollow.
>This is a separate "security" app, of which there's probably dozens of competitors that you can choose from if you don't like the ToS/privacy policy of this one, so the "one sided take it or leave it levels of exploitative entering into contracts at scale" aspect you're decrying really rings hollow.
You mean like a loud ass bell rings? Point out to me a single piece of software utilizing a EULA that supports individual redlining and renegotiation on a user by user basis, with a feedback loop tight enough to be reasonable. I'll wait. The point is there might be the illusion of user choice there, but when the overarching legal framework operates in unity in a take it or leave it fashion, with no escape hatch, every business model behaves the same. No one builds the business willing to charge for contractual dumb pipe, because everyone is just dumping anyone else who won't take the default terms. The entire architecture of our networked world has turned into building machines through which everyone gives up every right and civil protection through a goddamn click, nevermind the fact Third Party Doctrine in this age has completely dismantled the 4th Amendment by extension.
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