Click-wrap contracts function as a unilateral private seizure of user rights

Evidence

Legal scholar Margaret Radin observes the Alice-in-Wonderland quality of such “contracts.” Indeed, the sacred notions of “agreement” and “promise” so critical to the evolution of the institution of contract since Roman times have devolved to a “talismanic” signal “merely indicating that the firm deploying the boilerplate wants the recipient to be bound.” Radin calls this “private eminent domain,” a unilateral seizure of rights without consent. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 151

Categorization

• XREF: The phrase ‘private eminent domain’ recasts the contract as state-like expropriation — connects to reader’s interest in surveillance capital as a new form of power akin to state sovereignty. — connects to: Incomprehensible terms force users into uninformed agreement — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 310; Opt-in data sharing is coercive because refusing degrades product functionality — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 739; Google institutionalized secrecy to sustain behavioral surplus extraction — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 279 (+11 more)
• ADDENDUM: Relevant to the sacrifice essay’s theme of institutions restructuring individual rights without consent, though a different mechanism than ritual sacrifice.

Broader Connections

• Click-wrap agreements are designed to be long and complex to deter reading #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 150
• Surveillance capitalists self-authorize the right to modify user behavior for profit #corroborates (0.78) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 933
• Computer-mediated transactions make previously unobservable behavior contractible #expands (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 680
• Paying users for their data would legitimate rather than fix behavioral extraction #qualifies (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 299
• Google institutionalized secrecy to sustain behavioral surplus extraction #corroborates (0.70) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 279
• Sharing’s semantic unboundedness masks the corporate capture of data #expands (0.70) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 514