Yahoo Finance The contracts for your Apple products may be longer than “The Hobbit”
Have you read the “The Hobbit,” the first Harry Potter book “The Philosopher’s Stone,” or the Canadian classic “Anne of Green Gables”?
Well, if you’re also an Apple user that owns at least five devices — such as a Mac, iPhone, an Apple TV, an Airport router and the Apple Watch — and use the software that comes with each, then you’ve agreed to at least 30 terms of service contracts that add up to more than 100,000 words, or a more marathon read than any of the aforementioned books.
The data comes from a new analysis by Quartz, in which the publication reviewed 100,000 words of Apple legalese from the company’s website, which lists more than 100 contracts.
And if you’re like most people, you don’t even bother to read these terms of service agreements and privacy polices that Internet users encounter on a regular basis.
A study released earlier this summer, which asked 543 university students to join a fake social networking site, found that 74 per cent of participants skipped the altogether privacy policy.
Perhaps even more troubling was the fact that 98 per cent of those who took a glance at the contract missed the experiment’s “gotcha clauses,” which said their data would be given to the NSA and that their first-born child would be taken as payment for access to the site.
Most of Apple’s contract stipulations are more innocuous: such as saying Apple isn’t liable if the product malfunctions; that users don’t own the software; and that they can’t hack it.
But these contracts aren’t the same across the board, and users likely miss out on finer details.
According to Quartz, the terms and conditions for iTunes give Apple permission to suspend a users access to books or music you’ve already purchased. Amazon has similar terms, which also apply to movies and TV shows.
iTunes’ contract could also pose problems for users who aren’t strictly device loyal to Apple.
It stipulates that the software can only be used on an “Apple-branded computer,” so there’s no guarantee that you will be able to read your eBooks on your Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy S7.
But overall, Apple isn’t any worse than many tech companies, and in fact, Quartz says that Google and Microsoft tend to have contracts that are even wordier and more difficult to understand.
It also doesn’t use “binding arbitration” clauses, which block users from taking legal action against it, unlike other companies such as Amazon, Airbnb, Adobe, Buzzfeed, Microsoft, Instagram, Slack, Tinder and WeChat.
And while it may not be realistic to read all of these contracts, it is important to know that they could be restricting your rights to free speech and ownership.
