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Why is Google allowed to remove purchases from our Play Store accounts without telling us?
(www.androidpolice.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Because you signed (digitally) an agreement that lets them do that.
Pirate everything.
Read by almost no one, it is interesting because in many countries contracts are considered invalid if one of the parties is not properly informed and still accepts, affirmative consent is legally crucial.
Everyone knows that EULAs violate it systematically, tens or hundreds of millions a day, but it doesn't seem to be a matter of interest.
Imagine how hard it would be to buy stuff or use free services if you actually had to read and understand the contracts every time.
Ok, I’ll just quickly check on Google maps what’s south of Mongolia. Oh, I need to read all that before seeing the map? Well, maybe later. Don’t really have the time for that right now.
If that’s what life was like, laziness would win nearly every time and companies would have hardly any users or customers. Eventually some companies would probably make super short contracts in order to lower the threshold.
I can already see it: "We'll do whatever we want without accepting any responsibility and we'll spy on you to monetize it. Click here to accept."
It's a complicated issue, maybe with summaries, requiring affirmative consent only for certain actions, or splitting them up? I don't know, it all seems messy. But I hope it leaves behind the expectation that we lie by agreeing to sell your firstborn's soul after reading for hours in legalese.
#SellYourChildrenWithAffirmativeConsent.
LOL, that was a brilliant summary about what these contracts usually boil down to. However, they should probably include these things too: “You’re not allowed to do anything cool. If anything goes wrong, it’s always your fault.”
These brutally honest super short contracts could be fun to read.