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Hiding Your Choices And Saying You Made Them

Posted by timothy on from the lowest-underbelly-of-the-lowest-snake dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Lawmeme's Paul Szynol describes how during installation RealPlayer hides checkboxes that elect that the user receives spam, making it look like the user chose to make the selections when in fact he probably just didn't see the options. "This is essentially a cheap and dirty marketing tactic which creates an illusion of informed acceptance by the user where no such acceptance really exists." Other people have posted similar examples from other applications. Is this illegal, or just annoying?"

4 of 484 comments (clear)

  1. OT: Slash update? by stevey · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Is it just me, or did Slashdot get a code update sometime today?

    Things seem slightly different, even the comment posting box - it now says 'no karma bonus' instead of 'no +1 bonus' for me.

    Isn't this newsworthy? .. I noticed one bug - in a story page there's a link to my homepage in the top right, the link is broken, it's prefixed with 'http://slashdot.org/'

    Sorry for the interruption

    1. Re:OT: Slash update? by Cruciform · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      Yeah, I noticed that too.
      Even with "excellent" karma, it doesn't mod to +2 automatically anymore. Not that I mind, but I'm sure there's a few karma-whores tearing out their short and curlies with frustration :)

  2. Can't d/l a full install package by ferreth · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Another problem is sites that don't (or make it hard to)let you download the install package and install it later, for example, you need to install QT on three machines, or you don't trust Apple to leave old versions of QT on their web site. Not to mention the waste of bandwidth.

    THEY want to control the install process (for various reasons), which conflicts with ME wanting to control the install process, and not having to rely on them to make what I want available.

    --

    W9x:Thanks for the make-work project Bill.

  3. Re:One more reason to not to install non-GPL softw by MrLint · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I am likely to get clobber for flame bait (and off topic but the original one was already in that area), but here it goes anyway...

    I have been watching this, i'll use the term "movement" for tha lack of anything better at moment, regarding the vitirol spewed at anything non-gpl. Quite frankly its starting to go beyond just the code being 'open' per se, its becoming an (arrogant?) mindset. Quite frankly its giving me vibes of what i'll call the 'PETA principle'. The idea that if something doesnt conform for "insert dogma here" it must be crap/evil/whatever. To be brutally frank, a piece of 'GPL" software could have also done the same backhanded hidden signup for spam thing too. But hey you get to look at the source code and see that before you install it right!? You did go an read all the code first right? See this is the point, he glp donest prevent anyoem from doing scummy thing.. just taht they have a better chance of getting caught for it. But as *nix apps and tools move forward into the use by the general public (even if they are the 'holy' GPL) not only will most ppl not bother with looking at the code. most ppl wont have the ability to know taht the code exists to be read.. its not part of their vocabulary.

    Perhaps we should stick to making comments relavent to actual *actions* of the software devlopers and the quality of the work instead of holding up your golden calf and demand it be worshipped. </rant>

    (sacred cows makes the best burgers)