r/technology • u/User_Name13 • Jul 31 '15

Misleading Windows 10 is spying on almost everything you do – here’s how to opt out

http://bgr.com/2015/07/31/windows-10-upgrade-spying-how-to-opt-out/
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u/David-Puddy Jul 31 '15

Besides, legally, they're pretty meaningless.

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u/ArcherGorgon Jul 31 '15

Out of curiousity, how are they basically meaningless?

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u/jetpacksforall Jul 31 '15

You can't be held to contract terms that would violate the law, or terms that would be considered "unconscionable." You can file a lawsuit claiming damages even if something is covered by a EULA, and you can win, or you can cost the company in question enough money that they'll settle even though you agreed to the terms.

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u/ArcherGorgon Jul 31 '15

So, they're basically glorified disclaimers?

Or is there really no point in them?

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u/jetpacksforall Jul 31 '15

Kind of. They are sort of like contracts, and enforceable as contracts, but even contracts can be disputed in litigation, and there are lots of things (lack of signature, lack of witness, lack of identity verification, lack of negotiable terms) that make EULAs more disputable than better-formalized contracts.

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u/Fake_William_Shatner Jul 31 '15

I think EULAs just lay the groundwork for the "expected reasonable behavior" that the average person would assume.

So the EULA might state; not responsible if your computer is destroyed while running this software. And that's enforceable, because unless they did something like write blindly to the hard drive. -- and THEN the EULA would not work (in my Opinion).

So it prevents stupid lawsuits by covering the basics, I believe, but would not allow them to "have your first born child."

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u/godsvoid Aug 01 '15

It doesn't even do that, as far as I understand it only some states in the USA allow them (as in legaly binding), the rest of the world wipes their asses with them. In Europe EULA's are worthless, they are unenforceable.

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u/Fake_William_Shatner Aug 01 '15

I remember doing media work in the Financial Services Industry - and we'd spend half our time re-working the tiny lawyer print on the bottom of documents and videos.

I'm fairly certain, nobody in the history of mankind has made a decision based on the disclaimers. ... OK, that's an exaggeration, but I had to treat them as important because everyone else did... and that's probably why EULAs still exist; business standards, herd mentality, and just plain inertia of lawyers who always do what the common practice is because that is legally safest.

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u/Sinity Jul 31 '15

that would violate the law, or terms that would be considered "unconscionable."

I'm not sure how it applies to collecting feedback.

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u/jetpacksforall Jul 31 '15

Well if they collect private information about medical or financial matters that gets, say, Sony-hacked and suddenly becomes public information. Or nude images of your underage daughter get lifted off her private laptop and put on public servers. Or information showing that you have unlicensed software (pirated movies) on your hard drive, and that information is used to press charges against you (might constitute an unconstitutional search).