Security Firms Fined Over Never-Ending Subscriptions 194
Barence writes "'Security firms Symantec and McAfee have both agreed to pay $375,000 to US authorities after they automatically renewed consumers' subscriptions without their consent.' The two companies were reported to the New York Attorney General after people complained that their credit cards were being charged without their consent. The investigators found that information about the auto-renewals was hidden at the bottom of long web pages or buried in the EULA."
Pathetic (Score:5, Insightful)
Fine (Score:5, Insightful)
Security firms Symantec and McAfee have both agreed to pay $375,000 to US authorities
And how much are they going to pay to the people they defrauded?
Subscription services and auto-renewal are new? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is there anyone surprised that if you sign up for a subscription, that it keeps going?
Re:Fine (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Humph... (Score:5, Insightful)
Synamic products = Virus
Anti-Synantec = Anti-Virus
Re:Subscription services and auto-renewal are new? (Score:5, Insightful)
I get periodic statements for my newspaper and cable/TV/phone subscriptions. Generally speaking those subscriptions are month-to-month. If I don't send a check, the newspaper stops. These folks do offer automatic billing to your credit card, but the ones I have seen are VERY clear about this offer. They don't bury the renewal option in the fine print.
A better example to the anti-virus subscription is a magazine subscription. You know up front that you are signing up for a one year, two year, or some other subscription time period. As that time period nears an end (usually much sooner) you start to receive notices that you should renew. Even if you paid the initial subscription with a credit card, they don't automatically renew with that card.
Re:Subscription services and auto-renewal are new? (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, I can't think of a single subscription service I have that _doesn't_ auto-renew. In fact, I would be quite annoyed if I had to explicitly tell them "Yes, please, I want the Internet / satellite TV / newspaper tomorrow as well".
Is there anyone surprised that if you sign up for a subscription, that it keeps going?
I think part of the problem is that a lot of people still don't think of computer security in general, and virus/malware/etc protection in particular, as an ongoing necessity. People's computers slow down, crash, display popups or whatever, they go out and buy some product to "fix it", and think of it as a one-time deal. They don't think of it as a "subscription" and don't expect to have to renew it.
Malware (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fine (Score:5, Insightful)
rtfeula tag? (Score:2, Insightful)
EULA not binding (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Pathetic (Score:3, Insightful)
This is unconscionable. AVG [avg.com] has also auto-renewed my subscription perpetually ever since I installed it. I want my bandwidth back!
Seriously though, "cost of business" is exactly right. If the return outweighs the risk*most-likely-consequence, no business would act ethically. It's like insurance companies randomly denying claims knowing that some denials will go unchallenged and they'll come out ahead. The punishment should outweigh the crime.
Re:Fine (Score:5, Insightful)
As a consumer, I would expect that any rebill stuff should be clearly presented to the customer to prevent any confusion, at the time of checkout. It should be in bold, and might include a checkbox to check representing that you understand that this will be rebilled.
I feel that at best, it was underhanded and deceiving, and at worst downright fraudulant.
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Pathetic (Score:5, Insightful)
In the past, when an aristocrat or lord committed a crime against a lesser citizen, they were not held to account in the same way as an ordinary man would. Instead of summary justice, they needed only to pay a small fine or make some other slight amends. This included crimes such as aggravated assault and murder.
Our society is not so different.
Ah yes... (Score:2, Insightful)
Home users shouldn't pay for Antivirus (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh huh... (Score:2, Insightful)
I hate to be an "I told you so..."
No I don't. I told all my family and friends, geek and non-geek alike, to opt-out of bundleware, especially Symantec and MacAfee. There are a number of free offerings out there that are less annoying, just as or more effective, and by that are less likely to steal from you.
Re:EULA not binding (Score:4, Insightful)
Hmm, there is no case law contradicting his statement.
see how easy that is without proof?
ClamAV (Score:3, Insightful)
sadly, some government departments institutionalise this ("all PCs must have anti-virus") which led to a spate of pointless "virus scanner" programs for gnu/linux with virus-signatures from the 1980's.
If mail is going through your Linux box, wouldn't you want to run ClamAV on the attachments?
Standard here in NL (Score:4, Insightful)
Here in the Netherlands automatic renewal of subscriptions to anything is standard. You have to call or write to the organization to stop your subscription by the next renewal period. This is extremely annoying and tedious of course. I'm so glad I have an American provider for my websites and email! Every year I get an email from them, in which they ask me in a friendly way to renew my subscription. That's the way I like it!
Re:EULA not binding (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Fine (Score:1, Insightful)
You anal what?
You anally rape goats?
Sorry, I had to. I just had to. Every time I see IANAL I always think "you like anal sex? Ewww!"