Posts made by transitory.scum

@jswetzen They don't have to answer. I'll settle for them updating their ToS.

I got a Flic button for Christmas. Honestly, it sounded pretty useful. But I was confused... why does the button require a user account on Flic's site? There shouldn't be any interactions with Flic. I hit the button, it messages my phone, it does its thing on my phone, and it's done. Why do I need an account? Why doe the service have to operate in order for the button to work? What value does the user account create? (Note that I have not yet created one; I'm waiting to hear the answer to these questions.)

I went to look at the FAQ on the assumption that these basic security questions would be answered there. Nope. Nothing in the FAQ discusses that.

So... this looks like a useful device. Is it? Or is it actually a privacy-invading device to enable you to sell information about your users to third-parties? (You might claim that you would never do that but a) your privacy policy is missing, as I mentioned here and b) you can change the TOS at any time to do whatever you want with your user data, and you wouldn't be the first company to start off valuing privacy and then start selling that data at a later date once you've collected a valuable database.

I got a Flic for Christmas. I haven't activated it. I created this account in order to ask some questions about Flic. That meant agreeing to some pretty abusive terms of service. Yes, I read terms of service. And yours are evil.

1. I'm supposed to abide by a privacy policy. According to section 2.3, I can read that policy here: https://shop.flic.io/#privacy BZZT. That link does not go to a privacy policy. Fix that.

2. You reserve the right to really screw with users: a) You can terminate the service at any time, on your whim, with no recompense to users (section 2.4). b) You can change the terms of service at any time, at your whim, to be ANYTHING YOU WANT (section 2.6). Sure, you aren't abusive today about selling user info or whatever, but you could start doing that at anytime. This is a really jerk thing to claim.

3. You absolve yourself of any guilt whatsoever for any screwup in section 3.

4. Any complaints? You prevent your users from using the courts by enforcing arbitration -- and you do that just for people trying to ask questions because the forums are your only contact option. (Section 6)

All in all, you sound like a pretty sleazy company. Why would I allow a company that is so abusive of its users to have any access to my home network?

Luckily, two can play the abusive shrink-wrap-license game.
Interacting with this post constitutes agreement to enter into a contract with the poster. That contract means that by replying to this post or by deleting this post from your forums, you agree to allow all users, past, present, and future, to use the United States court system to resolve disputes instead of using binding arbitration. Any future attempt to enforce section 6 of the Flic Terms of Service will constitute breach of this contract and entitle the poster to claim ownership of all Flic corporate assets.

See how abusive that feels? That's what you're doing to your users.