[LINK] Apple is turning into the evil empire

[Roger Clarke]

At 14:41 +1100 9/3/11, Ivan Trundle wrote:
>On 09/03/2011, at 2:37 PM, Roger Clarke wrote:
>
>>  Tragic and frightening aspects include the following:
>>  (1)  users don't understand what they're buying into
>>  (2)  users are therefore not giving consent, just being conned
>>       into accepting conditions that are against their interests
>
>This can apply to almost any transaction where your details are 
>recorded, and isn't strictly just an IT-related issue.
>
>Do people know what happens to their details when signing up for 
>rewards schemes? Do people who phone for  home improvement quotes 
>know what will happen to their details? Do people who buy phone 
>contracts really know what happens to their data?
>
>I'd venture to say that most people don't care about what they are 
>consenting to - and even fewer read the fine print.

Which is "tragic and frightening".

And hence consumer advocates spend a great deal of time fighting to 
achieve reasonable terms.

And hence (some) consumer protection laws exist.

Which business continually works very hard to wind back (in recent 
years with far too much success, as brown-nosed Australian 
governments have adopted US 'corporate laissez-faire' extremism).


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University