"Microsoft Is Spying on Users of Its AI Tools"
You know how I feel?
I feel "No surprise there. And now that we know about it, will someone do something about it?
Of course not."
That's all. Just wanted to talk about that. Counterexamples or not, the reality is justice rarely prevails, and that is horrible. Thanks for reading.
Just as an example of how horrendous it has gotten for the protections you can give up look at a purchase agreement for an automobile or an RV or something like that. A physical piece of property with a warranty that is protected by law and you effectively give up everything the law could protect you on during that purchase. There is no negotiation on that point either you either purchase it or you do not because the free market has not provided that different dealers have better purchase agreements than others it's all boilerplate of you lose all protections except the most minimum which you cannot give up by law.
So speaking about Justice here, in a legal sense, what has been violated? Almost nobody reads those terms of service especially when the service itself may be free. Therefore they're bound to buy something they didn't really look at. Talking about it in a moral sense of justice, I agree these companies are abusive and will continue to be so. Putting legal restraints around them can't help but that is a double-edged sword as well it can have some benefits and it can have some downsides.
Now if there is actual laws that are being violated, the wheels of Justice do move slowly but eventually they catch up. Unfortunately and cases such as this it's often that the punishment when an organization like the FTC catches up isn't sufficient to prevent future violations. Companies feel emboldened that they can operate in what they consider a gray area knowing that they will secure enough profits to pay any fines should they happen in the future.
In the United States we often like to criticize certain things about China and their "regime", but I would have to say in some regards they actually have some teeth when it comes to corporations violating laws and other such things. In many ways much stronger personal property and personal identity rights. Unfortunately the will of the people is rarely unified enough to overcome the will of the corporations in the US.
The "blind response" is expecting human behavior to not justify bad practices with fallible, abstract logic. You're right, you are disillusioned if you're this deep into capitalism and expect orderly altruism from... the free market.