All Too Common
If you buy an iPhone or have an online subscription, odds are you’ve come face to face with one of these schemes. Not only are they seriously annoying, but they’re totally unnecessary, too. From outrageous terms of service to predatory subscription models, here are 20 recent tech changes that are widely controversial and unethical, but there’s nothing anyone can do about them.
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1. Terms of Service
Does anybody even read these? Well, most companies make it very hard to do just that by packing in pages of conditions, usually written up in intensive technical jargon. Even if you did go through it all, you have to do the same thing again for almost every service. Plus, they often change these terms at a later date and simply flag you with a “click here to accept and continue using our services.”
2. Email Marketing
When you visit certain websites or buy a product, you might have no choice but to sign up for those annoying email newsletters. That would be fine and all if unsubscribing weren’t an impossible process. Sometimes the unsubscribe link doesn’t lead to anything, and often they’ll still send you random emails (usually around the holidays) even after you’ve unsubscribed.
3. Subscription Models
Back in the day, you would pay once to buy a product, and then it would be yours forever. But that’s no longer the case, as companies from Microsoft Office to Adobe to art software will now make you pay monthly prices. The worst part is you probably need these features, so you’ll have to pay up.
4. Printer Cartridges
Buying a printer may be affordable and all, but that’s because they’ll be getting you with the cartridge costs. This is a needlessly complex process, as the printer won’t even print in gray or other colors just because your magenta or yellow is low. Most printers also make it impossible to know exactly how low you are on certain colors.
5. Hardware Limits
In a perfect world, when your hardware gets outdated, you’ll simply upgrade it. For example, if your Mac needs more memory, you’d think you’d be able to get more. Well, that’s not the case, as laptops hard lock memory, RAM, and other features, meaning you have no choice but to buy a new one.
6. Subscription With Ads
So, you know how you just paid $10 to watch shows on this streaming platform? Well, guess what, they’re still going to show you ads anyway! You’ll have to pay $20 for the no-ads version, of course. This is a silly feature that allows companies to make more expensive tiers for the same service that should be ad-free.
7. Memberships
It’s kind of ridiculous that if you want to use a product like DoorDash or Amazon to order food or a product, you’ll also have to pay for a yearly membership on top of that. Sure, they’re optional for now, but companies will lock services and necessary features behind these memberships. It would make way more sense just to use their service without having to pay for the privilege.
8. Non-Replaceable Batteries
There’s nothing more annoying than not being able to replace the batteries in your own products. So looks like when your phone or tools are out of juice, you’ll just have to throw them away and buy a new one. Some companies do this, claiming it ensures the batteries are water-resistant, but the irony is that the phone itself still isn’t water-resistant.
9. Physical Device Apps
Nowadays, you need to have an account on your TV. Oh, and an account for your internet. And let’s not forget the account for your Roomba and humidifier, and air conditioner. It’s so silly that you can’t just use products anymore without having to sign up on your phone to control them.
10. Website Sign-Ups
You can’t even scroll or peruse most websites without having to give up your email. Want to read this article or do a little online shopping? Please enter your email and first name, and phone number here! These pop-ups are increasingly annoying and make online browsing a hassle.
11. Accounts for Tickets
Let’s say you’re planning a ski trip or want to book some concert tickets. Well, you need an account for that! Time to give up all your data again and get hounded by marketing emails just so you can have the privilege of buying a ticket.
12. Purposefully Slow Phones
Phones are no longer built to last, but instead designed to drop in quality and performance just in time for the next model. Many companies have built-in shelf lives in their phones and will even use software updates to bring current models down. All these efforts are to force you to pay for a new phone.
13. Fake Scarcity
Don’t you hate the mental pressure sites put on you when they tell you there are only so many items left in stock? Or when you click onto an e-commerce store just to see that sale countdown on the top. How many of these sales are legit, and how many are just set up to trigger the moment you click on the site to pressure you into buying?
14. Talking to a Person
In the past, when you had a problem with a service or a product, you would simply call up the customer service number and maybe wait in a line. Now, you’ll be stuck talking with chatbots with no phone number in sight. If you do find an email, you’ll just get a robot replying to you.
Berkeley Communications on Unsplash
15. Forced Updates
Knowing that software updates can slow down your phone may be a reason to avoid those updates in the first place. But oftentimes, your device will force these changes, stating that it “must” restart. These updates then end up adding features or removing features that you liked just as they were.
16. Game Subscriptions
When you bought a game, you would usually own it, and that would be that. But now, you have to subscribe to lots of games to retain the right to keep playing them. Games like Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft force people to pay monthly fees or risk losing their progress.
17. Always Listening
By now, everyone knows that their devices are listening to them. After all, if the device wasn’t listening, how would it know when you suddenly said, “Hey Google” or “Hey Alexa”? In fact, it’s known that the devices will hear what you say and use it to target you with advertisements. Did you suddenly talk about cats only to find you’re being shown cat food products?
18. Data Collection
For lots of apps, you have to accept data collection agreements to use the features. But why does this data collection matter? Well, the apps will claim they’re for personalization, but in reality, they are selling your data to others, mostly marketers, for extra profit.
19. Microtransactions
It’s very common to get lured in by the false pretenses of a free game. But as you play, you might realize that you actually need to spend money to progress. Whether it’s because the best features are behind paywalls, or because the selling point of the game is pay-to-win. This is especially worse when it happens in kids' games.
20. Free Trials
Wouldn’t it be cool if a service would let you know when your free trial is over or check in before starting the official subscription? Well, they won’t say a word about this. That’s because they’re betting you’ll forget about it, and they can charge you full for a month or year before you realize.
