Ask HN: What to do when a website violates their own TOS and sells your data?

1 pointMOARDONGZPLZ3 comments

I gave a website my email in a specific way with the Google + trick. Their TOS clearly stated that they neither sell nor share the data.

Now I'm getting unrelated emails that are addressed to the Google + email address I used to sign up. Evidence that they clearly sold my data.

Can anything be done in this situation? Are TOS's legally enforceable?

View on HN

I suggest 1) publicly shaming them, and 2) creating a completely separate throwaway email account instead of using the "+" trick.

I'm not a lawyer, but I've heard you can sue over these things, but you generally have to prove damage. Getting an errant email is probably not damage. Your only recourse is to report them to some governmental authority and hope that action is taken (unlikely).

So effectively a TOS has no force of law?

Privacy policies are often legally enforceable, and there may also be government agencies that will directly take and pursue complaints without you needing to bear the expense of legal action yourself.

OTOH, this all varies considerably by jurisdiction. (Both country and, within the US, state.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com