Dev.SN

Have Terms of Service Become Totalitarian Tools?

posted by Dopefish on Monday February 24 2014, @05:00PM   
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."

• Re:The poor serfs have an option Re:The poor serfs have an option (Score: 5, Insightful) by biff on Monday February 24 2014, @05:46PM

  by biff (170) on Monday February 24 2014, @05:46PM (#6214)

  It's great while there's a choice, but when this transitions from an overreach by one organization to standard terms across the industry...?

  I thought bandwidth caps were a terrible idea, too. But when one business starts doing this and there's no regulatory pushback, if there's any boost in revenue or perceived reduction in liability there's really nothing stopping this idea from spreading. Unless you've figured out how to get the average consumer to follow a boycott; there are services and products I don't buy out of principle, but like voting the only benefit is the illusion I have some say in the process.

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• Re:The poor serfs have an option (Score: 1) by pjbgravely on Monday February 24 2014, @08:48PM

  by pjbgravely (1681) <pjbgravelyNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Monday February 24 2014, @08:48PM (#6307) Homepage

  Customer backlash does work sometimes, even against a monopoly. A few years ago my ISP decide to cap DSL to 5 gig a month. People were dumping DSL and going back to dial up because that is what their data rate would be anyway. I guess they lost so many customers they didn't need the cap anymore so they canceled it. So far they haven't brought up the subject again.

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• For quite a long time, foreign ATMs were free (Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday February 24 2014, @09:52PM

  by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) on Monday February 24 2014, @09:52PM (#6322) Homepage

  That is, if I had an account at Bank of America, I could use a Wells Fargo ATM to withdraw cash from my Bank of America account, and there was no charge to me.

  Nowadays, I would pay Wells Fargo as much as three dollars per withdrawal. Quite often BofA would charge me too.

  Automated Teller Machines were ALL free of charge for quite a long time, seeing as how they enabled live, human tellers to quit their jobs of dreary servitude to devote themselves to lives of leisure and creative pursuits.

  But then some bank got the bright idea to charge $1.50 or so to withdraw cash from accounts at other banks. Almost overnight, all the banks followed suit.

  Now it is quite common even for banks to limit the number of withdrawals from their own ATMs. Go over that monthly limit and you start paying fees.

  --
  I have a major product announcement [warplife.com] coming 5:01 PM 2014-03-21 EST.

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