Every service, store and product has a Terms of Service. Terms of Services tell the customer what to expect from the seller. In many ways, Terms of Service is the explanation of the contract. Terms of Service came into being when people figured out they could sue companies when they did not like a product or a service. Companies wrote out all the rules of engagement and posted them somewhere and that, they believed, protected them from law suits. When a person goes to a hardware store and buys a ladder, the ladder is covered with all sorts of stickers which are the ladder’s terms of service. So when a person misuses a ladder they cannot sue the store or the manufacturer.
Recently Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook was called before Congress. He was summoned because over the past many years, Facebook has been taking the data of their users and selling it, manipulating it, categorizing it and making all sorts of money offering it to advertisers. One company, Cambridge Analytical, got all the data of the Facebook users and sold it to political campaigns. The problem with this, is that users of Facebook gave their data to Cambridge and Cambridge also took the data from the friends of Facebook users who did not sign up. In other words, for the past many years, all data that is on a user's computer or phone was open to Facebook, if they had a Facebook account. This was in Facebook’s Terms of Service. Buried in the lawyer-speak under many, many pages of Facebook’s TOS was the statement that they could scour your computer and phone and find any data on anyone, including contacts, websites visited, phone calls made, text messages sent and emails sent. Anyone on Facebook was allowing Facebook to know everyone they knew. This information has now become public and everyone is upset and blaming Facebook. The engineer from Cambridge, on 60 Minutes said that he thought everyone knew and no one cared. Apparently we did not know and now we care.
The fall out of this is that I have been getting emails from every company that I have ever done business with. They are sending me their new Terms of Service. I am averaging 4 emails a day for the past 2 weeks from software venders that I still use and from companies that I have no recollection of using. Everyone is scrambling to cover their behinds. First there are people who advertised on Facebook and who obtained all this user data from Facebook and there are tens of thousands of companies and programs that did that. Second there are companies that are just running scared and who do not want to be hauled up before Congress.
The Terms of Services that I am receiving are simple, short, have many underlines and bold sections. Companies are trying to make things clear and they want to give people the opportunity to opt out of tracking and still use the software. One program that I use every day gave me the opportunity to use their software anonymously, and remove all account information from their servers. It is a new world of Terms of Service, I think.
Of course, I must end by stating that God’s Terms of Service are plan, obvious and have not changed in over 2,000 years. There will be no update from God and Congress will not call him, He is going to hold Congress to account.
Recently Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook was called before Congress. He was summoned because over the past many years, Facebook has been taking the data of their users and selling it, manipulating it, categorizing it and making all sorts of money offering it to advertisers. One company, Cambridge Analytical, got all the data of the Facebook users and sold it to political campaigns. The problem with this, is that users of Facebook gave their data to Cambridge and Cambridge also took the data from the friends of Facebook users who did not sign up. In other words, for the past many years, all data that is on a user's computer or phone was open to Facebook, if they had a Facebook account. This was in Facebook’s Terms of Service. Buried in the lawyer-speak under many, many pages of Facebook’s TOS was the statement that they could scour your computer and phone and find any data on anyone, including contacts, websites visited, phone calls made, text messages sent and emails sent. Anyone on Facebook was allowing Facebook to know everyone they knew. This information has now become public and everyone is upset and blaming Facebook. The engineer from Cambridge, on 60 Minutes said that he thought everyone knew and no one cared. Apparently we did not know and now we care.The fall out of this is that I have been getting emails from every company that I have ever done business with. They are sending me their new Terms of Service. I am averaging 4 emails a day for the past 2 weeks from software venders that I still use and from companies that I have no recollection of using. Everyone is scrambling to cover their behinds. First there are people who advertised on Facebook and who obtained all this user data from Facebook and there are tens of thousands of companies and programs that did that. Second there are companies that are just running scared and who do not want to be hauled up before Congress.
The Terms of Services that I am receiving are simple, short, have many underlines and bold sections. Companies are trying to make things clear and they want to give people the opportunity to opt out of tracking and still use the software. One program that I use every day gave me the opportunity to use their software anonymously, and remove all account information from their servers. It is a new world of Terms of Service, I think.
Of course, I must end by stating that God’s Terms of Service are plan, obvious and have not changed in over 2,000 years. There will be no update from God and Congress will not call him, He is going to hold Congress to account.
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