You’re signing up for a new service, you’re asked to read the terms and conditions. A screen pops up with 12+ pages long, entailing a dense document that you must agree to in order to proceed to using a service. But who actually reads it? What are we checking yes to?
Terms and Conditions may apply breaks down the items that we had signed up for, and the information that we have signed away to platforms such as Facebook and Google. You let them know where you live, what you do for a living, where you go to school. This gives each server information about your economic standing, which allows target advertisements based on how much money you have or make.
We also don’t take into account that we allow the government to track our searches on Google. Our locations, emails, online documents are not private. The terms & conditions allow the government to have the information from us.
We feel that we are free in our searches and internet uses, however we are handing off a large amount of power to our government. We give away our privacy, and it fuels the power of law enforcement, the FBI, etc. We have given them the right to pre-emptively arrest people. We are monitored, without even thinking that we are monitored. We are essentially lab rights, and we are ignorant to our own presence.
A notable part of the documentary was when Mark Zuckerburg asked “Are you guys recording?”. “Yes.” they replied. His reply was “Will you not, please?”
A man with major social influence and success, a platform that monitors everyone’s existence, asked if he could not be filmed. When you create a large network of people, and sign away their rights to the government, you must be incredibly aware of how internet surveillance takes a tole. And thats why he asked to not be recorded.
Another part that I found interesting is the fact that since Hoback only pretended to comply with Zuckerburg’s request, isn’t that exactly the point he was trying to prove? Mark requested privacy, but Hoback didn’t give it to him. Not sure if the hypocrisy was intended, but I thought it was a very interesting part of the documentary.
A massive realization of the documentary that I find incredibly important, is the fact that the issues do not lie with Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc. The problem is with us, and how apathetic we are to the fact that we know that we are giving these rights away, and we do it anyway. We don’t think about it regularly, but we are society’s own downfall.
- Knowing that you are giving your rights away to servers, do you feel less inclined to blindly agree to the terms & conditions?
- What would make you stop having an internet presence all together?
Nice blog post. 🙂
Well every time I download something or update something a huge Terms and Conditions pop up which I have to agree. I start to read them but after one or two paragraphs I give up and I blindly agree. They are making them so hard to read and understand on purpose. I know this and I know that they get our information especially after watching the documentary (which was scary) but I don’t really have a choice. I don’t want to agree the terms and conditions but if I want to use the service I have to.
After watching the documentary I got the feeling to cancel all my social media accounts but then I realized that it’s not going to change anything. I’ll still have the emails and I’ll still use cell phone and a computer. We need them in order to work, to connect with people and so on. And everything has it’s own Terms and Conditions so there is no way out unless you’ll decide to have a zero internet presence, no cell phone or computer .. and then you’ll fill cut off from the world. It will be like you don’t exist.
I think for me, I cannot be without a internet presence because of how long I’ve had one and be connected instantaneously. I think I would have to stop when my information would finally be used against me, whether its an employment rejection, or worst case scenario being accused for a crime. Basically, until it is me who gets the short end of the stick. I would skim the terms and conditions, and usually I give up after a few minutes.