Apple Pulls VPN Apps From China App Store As Russia Signs Law Banning Their Use

[flameproof]

Rather interesting part while VPN's are blocked in China Wechat Chat app is thriving.

What is interesting about it? The two are not related. You can write while VPN's are blocked in China there is lunar eclipse in the USA. WeChat has zero encryption and does message filtering. You can't write i.e. 法轮功 (Falun Gong). The message will simply not be transmitted. So I wonder if you can discuss VPNs via WeChat. They have total control and I am sure they (Tencent) will not protect you and delivery you to the authorities in a Second.

 

[asiga]

So basically your point is let's inconvenience consumers, burden businesses, make such services more expensive, and contribute more paper waste to the environment. Got it. Yes, your idea will absolutely do that.

Come on!!!! Is it so hard to understand? I'll summarise:

In a single sentence: your data in your device only.

Do you really believe you couldn't have convenient online shopping while having your data in your device only? Of course it would be possible. But you cannot do that because people is giving their data to companies for free, and of course companies make money from it.

If anybody else wants to store your data, make their business require annoying paper contract, so annoying that they prefer using your data from your device without storing it (they can do it, but they prefer to store it because that way they can make money from your data, and that's what should be forbidden or really difficult)

Is it best understood now, or do I need it to clarify it more?

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Come on!!!! Is it so hard to understand? I'll summarise:

In a single sentence: your data in your device only.

Do you really believe you couldn't have convenient online shopping while having your data in your device only? Of course it would be possible. But you cannot do that because people is giving their data to companies for free, and of course companies make money from it.

If anybody else wants to store your data, make their business require annoying paper contract, so annoying that they prefer using your data from your device without storing it (they can do it, but they prefer to store it because that way they can make money from your data, and that's what should be forbidden or really difficult)

Is it best understood now, or do I need it to clarify it more?

No, it's not hard for me to understand. I 100% understand your point, it's just your way of going about it that is impractical. I think you are getting frustrated with me because I don't agree with your flawed premise. But I do understand what you are saying and trying to accomplish.

Yes, people are giving their data to companies --- not for free though, in exchange for whatever service it's offering. It's a bargain between two (or more) parties (the legal meaning of the word not the "good deal" meaning so don't twist. Thanks.) That is what a contract is. They are doing so freely. They probably are not reading the fine print but that is negligence on the consumer's part. But every contract between a big company and a consumer, be it online or paper is heavily weighted toward the big company. Only legislation is going to give consumers any kind of leverage.

 

[asiga]

Let's see. You first say this:

No, it's not hard for me to understand [...]

...then you proceed to:

They probably are not reading the fine print but that is negligence on the consumer's part

...and finally you get to:

But every contract between a big company and a consumer, be it online or paper is heavily weighted toward the big company. Only legislation is going to give consumers any kind of leverage.

...which, BTW, is exactly my point. Only legislation can make it hard for companies to benefit from user data so easily thanks to the consumers negligence or ignorance.

If legislation was working in the way it should, we wouldn't be in the muddy waters of lack of privacy and lack of freedom we are seeing nowadays.

Then you might say "but it's because of the negligence of others". Well, maybe, but the "negligence of others" is also affecting us because companies feel they don't need to offer services that don't store the user data just because most users agree to lose their privacy and their freedom (be it by negligence, ignorance, or teen-happiness).

That's one thing legislation is lacking: it should force companies to work without storing the user data. Perhaps the most practical way is to enforce endless paper contracts when user data storage is requested. Make it very easy when the user data is not stored. Make it extremely hard and difficult when the user data is stored. And that's just what I was saying from the beginning.

Aren't you arriving to these conclusions as well?