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Tumblr and Wordpress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools
(www.404media.co)
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this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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Technology
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Class actions need to be made. Not just against AI, but Facebook, Google, Microsoft, banks... Basically anyone who collects data for profit while slipping it in as a secondary transaction in the terms and conditions, without providing any consideration.
The data brokerage industry is a $400bn industry, yet there are only 8bn people in the world. Even if we assume everyone is online and everyone's data is of equal value (both are far from true), that means an individual's data is worth at least $50 per year on the market. These are just people buying and selling data, and does not include companies that keep proprietary datasets and only sell advertising, or the value of peoples' written works online (which is likely of even greater value). Businesses are now selling off our copyrighted work for far less than its worth, all the while not paying the creator their rightful dues.
It simply isn't the case that data is traded for access to the website or service. That isn't how the transaction is presented. Front and centre, the services are offered free of charge (or sometimes, eg with Microsoft, you already pay for the service) and then a second transaction is buried in the fine print in obscure language. The entire purpose of this is deception, so the user does not understand the value they are giving up, and so as to deny them a fair opportunity to assess any supposed value exchange - because it isn't an exchange, you're giving it up for free, just like they give you access for free. It's two separate transactions deceptively run parallel.
You can't build a car without paying for the nuts and bolts. They steal the nuts and bolts we produce and then sell them on as their own products.
Edit: weird formatting issues from posting with low signal.
I agree completely, it is ridiculous and should be stopped immediately, but I don't see a way this problem can be fixed. EU is trying, for example after GDPR all these cookies became horrendously annoying. What you're suggesting will lead to clearer and possibly lengthier EULA or TOS documents but in essence we would still have to either agree with them or not use that service. While a lot of open source and self hosted options exist to replicate many of the services, but you can't rely yet on that for everything.
You can sure as hell double down on strict privacy settings and use a lot of privacy friendly options like librewolf, mull, private dns, nextcloud, matrix/jabber, VPNs, immich, better search engines, Open street maps, and OSes like arch and Graphene.
The EU is trying to legitimise it, which is completely the wrong take.
I think one of either two courses of action should be taken by lawmakers. Either:
Data has value, it is completely unacceptable that this value is taken without consideration.
There is no hidden transaction, you signed up for a service to:
In exchange, they used to show you ads, and that was fair. Then, they started collecting your browsing data and selling that too... that is a second transaction, and got regulated. Now, they are selling a service of bundling together the content people asked them to share in the first place.
In your analogy, you asked them to send your nuts and bolts for free. In exchange, they advertised stuff to you. Then they started collecting the addresses of your clients... that was not fine. Now, they're throwing nuts and bolts from multiple people into a box and selling it as a "sampler kit", nuts and bolts you did ask them to send for free.
Did you not understand the value of your product? Maybe, but you asked them to do it anyway... and you're doing the same by posting content right here. 🤷
It is a hidden transaction. They try to argue it both ways, that it's an exchange of access for data, but then they hide the data in the fine print. When you buy something, the price isn't in the fine print, it's front and centre. When you buy insurance, they have to provide a "key facts page" where they detail what you're paying for in general terms. The key parts being exchanged are supposed to be at the forefront, not hidden in the terms and conditions.
People don't understand the value of their product because businesses hide that part in the terms and conditions to inhibit their ability to properly assess the value.
I didn't ask them, they advertised their service in bright lights saying it was free. Then, the fine print at the point of entry says they can pick the pockets of their guests.
You really are trying to advocate for the devil here, and I think if you take a step back you'll see that you're just parroting the same arguments they make. Such arguments have not been properly challenged yet, but if you stack them up against the core principles of contract law - through which all trade is conducted - they are clearly wrong.