New Zealand is taking onboard a new smart phone system, 'Payforit' which will be launched late 2011 or early next year. Pullar-Strecker says "Payforit doesn't require customers to identity themselves, register to use the service, or even remember a password (2011)". Apparently the objective or the scheme is to "promote a safe and trustworthy environment". How trustworthy are we when it comes to using other peoples phones and is this actually just to make downloading easier so that companies get more money through 'accidental purchases'?
At the moment when using an iphone you get asked for your password to confirm an application purchase. You can save this password to your phone and many people do. However it's the same with the computer, you get asked for passwords for everything and its up to the individual to decide which ones to always be signed in, and which ones not to. Payforit takes away this choice. According to The Dominon Post there are already children spending up to $2,000 in a virtual world on virtual furniture on their parents smart-phones (2011). Part of this issue stems from Parents not reading the terms and conditions when they enter their credit card details to purchase the game, this means any in app purchases are often charged to the credit card. Children often don't have any concept of the value of money and these sorts of event are occurring more and more regularly. And then there are people saying that by taking away the privacy and password settings we are promoting "a safe and trustworthy environment"? This isn't how the world works.
What it comes down to is that no-one reads the terms and conditions anymore. They are often long, full of tedious law based points of information and if people havn't had trouble before they simply trust the brand, tick the box and go for it. I'd like to raise awareness of this blind trust in brands and companies and make a point about the importance of reading the terms and conditions.
Yo, sounding good.
ReplyDeletecouple of things....
lays out the issue well and states where you stand in terms of a critical position. I know its just the start of the draft but you could probably cut out a bit of repetitiveness and details/opinion about how it works etc as there is so much to cover in 1000 words after you strart getting into the other context stuff.
Could bring in some academic language (just to float her boat) ie. 'At present' instead of 'at the moment' 'I aim' instead of 'I'd like' etc etc.
You have started a sentence with 'And'...bad girl! haha
good start though....its easier once you get going!