this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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For me: Cancelling paid subscriptions should be as easy as subscribing. I hate the fact that they actively hide the unsubscribe option or that you sometimes should have to write an e-mail if you want to unsubscribe.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 17 hours ago

For subscriptions, I highly recommend using disposable cards like Privacy.com (no affiliation, just a customer). If I want to try out Prime, or Starz, or a "free until..." promotional offer, I just spin up a card. It's connected to my bank account, locked to that single merchant, and they can't charge more than whatever spending limit I put on that card. Honestly, I don't always even sign in to a service to cancel, it's much easier to just pause or delete a card, and then they can't charge you anymore. It's free for us because they collect a small portion of the transaction amount (like Visa, PayPal, etc)...

[–] [email protected] 17 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

Shooting plainclothes cops that execute a no-knock warrant on your home.

Seriously.

All states--ALL states--have a castle doctrine that allows you to use lethal defense to protect yourself inside your home. A no-knock warrant being executed by cops out of uniform means that you have a reasonable belief that your home is being invaded, and that your life is at immediate risk. Now, admittedly, you probably aren't going to survive that exchange of gunfire. But the state is going to have a really hard time charging you with shooting at/killing a cop if you do.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I'm gonna assume by "all states" you mean "all states within the USA".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 50 minutes ago

I believe that most other countries call them provinces rather than states. But yes, if you live in a country that has a normal police force, and you don't have to worry about out-of-uniform cops using no-knock warrants to kick your front door in, then this is definitely not going to apply to you.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 19 hours ago

A free trial automatically rolling into a paid subscription.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

police being able to lie to you

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 minutes ago

"Are you an undercover cop" actually works in the UK?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 19 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago

Dating sites besieging their users with bots and fake profiles.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The FTC under Biden was actually craking down on that. It was called the "Click to Cancel" rule, but that was literally a month before the election. :/

[–] [email protected] 17 points 22 hours ago

Lina Khan was a perhaps once in a lifetime bureaucrat doing good for the people at a rapid pace on normal government timelines and now she’ll probably never get that job or a better one again.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 19 hours ago

I think in the eu we have some legislation about it. I have the feeling of reading about a law like that before. Subscription buttons needing to be as clear as unsubscribe.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

I don't know how this works in the US, but where I live after a year subscription (let's say for your internet provider or something). They can only renew per month. So if the year subscription is over you can cancel any service every month and they can't hit you with any fees.

Back in the day if you'd forgot to cancel your plan you'd be stuck with them for another year. It sucked!

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

In the US, unsubscribing from email spam is legally required to be easy under the CAN-SPAM act. For paid subscription services, I believe they also are required to be as easy to leave as they are to join in the EU and California.

Somewhat related, many dark patterns are treated like fraud.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

the CAN-SPAM act

I once wrote a community college paper for my friend in exchange for some work on my car. He had to write a paper on the CAN-SPAM act.

I did the assignment, covered all the requirements, explained it and whatnot. I then wrote a SECOND paper, appended to the end of the first. This second paper also met the length requirements, but was a parody. About the Hormel meat product, Spam. In cans. Can-Spam. I was very proud of it. It was funny.

I kept asking my friend if he ever got feedback from the professor. He never did. It was then that I learned professors often don’t read papers like this, they just assign them to get students to read and practice writing. It made me sad.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

I've seen a few memes where people go to the canned spam on social media, report their posts: reason: It's spam

[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Loaning money to your own political campaign and then paying yourself back, including an interest rate set by you, using donor funds.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

There are a number of things that are legal here in the US, which would count as corruption in other places.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Companies changing the terms of the contract on you.

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[–] [email protected] 94 points 1 day ago (21 children)

Advertising. At what point did we as a society decide that it was perfectly acceptable for companies to manipulate us - especially children - into buying shit we don't need and didn't even want until the ad sold us on it? It's fucking wild.

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[–] [email protected] 113 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Corporations that don't pay taxes being allowed to make millions in profit while their employees qualify for welfare because they pay them so little.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Any type of exit fee like account closing. Any costs for leaving should be charges before leaving as part of business costs either at the start or part of monthly or whatever. Leaving should be free.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 20 hours ago

Looking at you, Adobe.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 day ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (2 children)

all i’m going to say is whatever shit adobe is pulling because i could yap about this forever with anyone

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 day ago (9 children)

EULAs that say 'using this indicates your acceptance of these terms'. Seems like it ought to be illegal but it's super common.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago

Paying for anything and then being stopped from owning it should be illegal.

What the fuck am I buying software for if not to own it and have my privacy protected while using it?

Fuck EULA's and the companies trying to push the boundaries of acceptable behaviour 😤 just for a couple extra bucks selling our data to the highest bidder.

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