https://www.eff.org/wp/clicks-bind-ways-users-agree-online-terms-service
No one reads the Terms of Service. Few of us understand who has access to the data we generate all day every day. Rachel Maddow and others continue to refer to Cambridge Analytica/Facebook as the former "stealing" data from the latter, when actually, the latter's business model depended on the former doing what it did.
Our (us as people and civil society) relationship with the companies that make our phones, sell us internet access and data plans, "give" us apps, social media feeds and "free" cloud storage is a mess. Part of it the problem is the metaphors. So here's a new one. Don't think of the software, internet, cloud, app, hardware companies whose products you use as vendors, think of them as landlords.
Then think about how you read your lease. How you ask for better terms and negotiate for buildouts or rebates. And how, if they told you they'd be coming in and rummaging around in your file cabinets at any time of day or night, taking what they wanted, claiming it as their own, using it to sell to other renters, and even selling it - you'd run.
People are beginning to recognize the creepy landlord relationship they have with their tech vendors. Nonprofit organizations and foundations who depend on Facebook and/or its APIs, Salesforce and its Philanthropy Cloud, Google docs or hangouts - they're your landlord. You're running your programs and operations in their space. By their rules. You wouldn't stand for it in physical space - why do so in digital space?
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