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And How Can We Trample on Your Rights Today?

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There is no such thing as a free App!

The TED Talk below is one that I watched right to the end.

If you care about protecting your rights then you would be well advised to take note of:

  • Cayla – the snooping, creepy, grooming enabling doll
  • Hidden consent boxes
  • Unequal terms
  • Warnings that you are signing your rights away in peroetuity and irrevocably just by ticking “Yes”
  • Dating Sites that get your permission to use your images (even those NOT uploaded to the Dating Sites) in any way, shape or form

First let me remind you of what things used to be like before the internet became all about money:

  • All information was free
  • People built and shared web sites for the greater good
  • When a web site asked you for your e-mail address you thought long and hard about sharing that ONE piece of personal information
  • When a web site asked you for your actual name you ran for the hills
  • I remember when MyPE ran a forum how fascinating it was trying to work out exactly who was behind a certain username and avatar
  • Then and Now we at MyPE have a simple privacy philosophy – We don’t want chapter and verse, we just want your name and email address along with permission to contact you if we have something to share and, if you want to leave then do so with our blessing. Along with that we promise not too share your name and email address with anyone.

We still find it hilarious that people give away their rights in order to use a ‘free’ service – in the very old days people used to say; “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” Today we need to say; “There is no such thing as a free App!”

Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad asks; “Have you ever actually read the terms and conditions for the apps you use?” Finn and his team at the Norwegian Consumer Council have, and it took them nearly a day and a half to read the terms of all the apps on an average phone. In a talk about the alarming ways tech companies deceive their users, Myrstad shares insights about the personal information you’ve agreed to let companies collect – and how they use your data at a scale you could never imagine.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.