Interesting article from the Art Model here:
I have long thought about the unbalance that exists between us, the
consumers and providers of mobile and on-line services such as
Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest,
Box.com etc.
Some argue that we are not consumers since we do not pay for the
service but they're wrong since we do pay with our participation, with
our data, our facts, our contact lists, our interactions with others,
our words and pictures while often being fed targeted advertising
based our data. What is then the difference between the consumption of
physical products and services, consumption of services in which we
pay with money or our participation? Since we are consumers of these
services I call for a their user agreements, terms and conditions etc.
to be reasonable from a consumer perspective.
Now I know that those who are of a politically liberal view usually
advocate a anarchic wild west philosophy of "do you like it then don't
use Facebook." and some claim the same but from their naive minds.
With the same nativity lots of people seems to think that these
companies are kind towards us, that they are trustworthy and almost
your friend. They're global corporations and not non-profit
organizations or government institutions. They're harvesting your data
for profit and unknown purposes and usage come with a cost. One CEO in
the days of the first dotcom bubble (IT-bubblan in Swedish) claimed
"In the new economy you do not have to make a profit." and see how it
went. Now we're in a second era of hyped IT companied but some of them
have learnt a lesson.
Read more here:
http://oblyg.blogspot.se/2012/04/consumer-rights-against-on-line-mega.html
