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Why is Google allowed to remove purchases from our Play Store accounts without telling us? (www.androidpolice.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[+] -28 points 2 years ago (16 children)

It's also a private company and they can do whatever they want on their platform and their property.

It's like renting space in an apartment .... don't be surprised if the landlord decides to change the agreements and do things you don't like. You're renting things, you don't own anything.

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  • [–] 38 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    You can't arbitrarily change agreements for renting without consent or lease renewal. At least not in civilized countries.

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  • [+] -30 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Their property, their rules🤷🏿

    That’s life.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    why would you defend this

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  • [–] -5 points 2 years ago

    I'm not defending or condoning it ... I was just pointing out something for what it is. I keep my purchases, rentals and anything paid for to a minimum with services like Google, Amazon or any other cloud or electronic service. They are not purchases of ownership, they are marketed as things that we buy and own indefinitely but in legal terms, they are more or less indeterminate rentals or leases from the company with terms that can be set by the company that controls them.

    I agree, in terms of comparing to an apartment rental, there are more laws because the thing that is involved severely affects a person's life because we're talking about a roof over a person's head.

    But in terms of electronic or digital items or services that only exist online, it's a lot easier to remove / change / delete them because these actions won't put you out on the street, make you starve or physically hurt you in any way. We lose the convenience and we lose out on something.

    I'm not belittling any of it, I wouldn't want to lose anything I paid for either but at the same time, we have to understand that when we sign up to pay for something with a multi billion dollar corporation, we hardly have any rights to anything, agreed to or implied ... and if we argue that in court, the one with the most money wins.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Your argument is cargo-cult libertarian bullshit. There are lots of things private entities can't do on "their property!" Murdering visitors, for example. Fraudulently claiming a sale isn't really a sale is right up there with that in terms of how clear-cut the rule is.

    What we have here is squarely a failure of the FTC to do its goddamn job. Nothing more, nothing less.

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  • [+] -6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I think everyone took there comment in the wrong light. They're not defending Google, but rather pointing out that this behavior should be expected from a for profit company, and thus people should have avoided the situation in the first place. Not that it should be that way, but we live under capitalism unfortunately, and people need to be way more skeptical of these companies.

    Rather than blaming inaction of the FTC, why not just stop using play store all together and encourage people to use Fdroid instead? Companies will never stop abusing 'e-goods' , it's just not going to happen. People should just get beyond ownership and embrace the advantages of free software.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    Rather than blaming inaction of the FTC, why not just stop using play store all together and encourage people to use Fdroid instead?

    Because boycotts don't fucking work and are not a replacement for meaningful consumer protection law!

    I do use F-Droid myself, thankyouverymuch, but I'm not so naive as to think it's an actual solution instead of a workaround. Even if it's technically possible to continuously defend yourself from the avalanche of corporate abuse, it's fucking exhausting. The masses not only aren't capable of it, but shouldn't have to be in the first place because abuse should be prevented, not worked around. That's what government is for!

    This shit about boycotting abusive companies instead of actually regulating them is just as brain-dead as arguing that we shouldn't have police because we can just hire a personal security detail to follow us around instead.

    Companies will never stop abusing ‘e-goods’ , it’s just not going to happen.

    Not with that attitude. Companies could certainly be forced by the government to stop doing that, but apologists like you are letting government off the hook.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Well I personally think the FTC should do more, but until money out of politics, it will never happen. And pending some mass upheaval; that is probably in all reality unlikely as long as people are fed, money will almost certainly never be out of politics.

    So all the more necessity to encourage people to just abandon these profiteering companies.

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