Friday, August 06, 2004

Overkill on the User Terms for Hilton WI-FI

Does anyone else think the User Terms to which we must agree before using the Hilton's Wi-Fi network a bit odd and extreme? Here are my favorite clauses:

  • Hilton claims ownership of nearly all of the data that we transmit using their network [maybe that's why I can't get my VPN software to work to connect with the office, hmmm?]
  • We agree that "Information" is not personal information or "private proprietary information" [whatever that means]
  • We won't transmit any "objectionable" information
  • We consent to their monitoring of stored transmissions
  • We acknowledge the passwords are known to Hilton\
  • They must care about us, because in addition to reminding us that people may lie in chat rooms, they want to make sure we know that "it is not a good idea to trade or make any investment decisions based solely or largely on information you cannot confirm."
  • They disclaim the implied warranties of "DESIGN, ACCURACY, CAPABILITY, SUFFICIENCY, SUITABILITY, CAPACITY, COMPLETENESS, AVAILABILITY, and COMPATIBILITY. Those are new ones to me.
  • They aren't responsible for "failures, delays or difficulties, or late, lost, stolen, illegible, incomplete, garbled, misdirected, mutilated or postage due mail." Thanks, but I'm not planning to send mail requiring postage over your network.
  • They also reserve the right to kick us off if we show "a disregard for this Agreement or act in an unsportsmanlike manner." Wow! I hope they understand this post is intended to help further the development of sane user agreements, and I mean no disrepect, despite my tone.

I'm not kidding. Check it out for yourself. Here's a link to it.

1 comment:

Christopher Chopin said...

My favorite part is where they tell you to print a copy of the EULA because it may change...do they have magic self-updating hard copy producing printers in the Hilton now or what?