AIBU to think commerce has utilised technology in a way that makes some aspects of our lives more cumbersome

[HauntedBungalow]

Supermarket shopping for example, not just the customer physically doing more but also the multi-tiered pricing systems.

Having to book many leisure activities in advance is another, also the pricing of these has gone rogue.

Accessing films, music too is complicated - theoretically we have everything at our fingertips but actually it's all parcelled up in subscription services and ownership/access changes all the time.

And if you hit a bump in service of any kind, your only remedy is to have a bot chat at you.

I thought the technological revolution would look a bit different, from this.

Paypal is very very very bad for passwords.
So is ebay- and ebay likes to update you when they have confirmed the order, posted the order, put the order on the van, almost delivered the order, delivered the order, and then they want feedback from the order.

I recently tried to set up and new one off payee in Internet banking with santander.

I had to click through thirteen various "are you sure" screens before it ultimately told me I wasn't allowed to send the money.

It's a money transfer, not giving up your virginity.

It doesn't save any energy to have a slow kettle. In fact, quite the opposite. Newton's law of cooling demonstrates this.

I definitely agree that technology makes life harder.

Everything has to be done right now. For example, in the past, as a lawyer, you would have made amendments to a contract and sent it out in the post. Then you could forget about it for at least a few days. Now it will come back within minutes or hours and you have no time to reflect. It means that things get rushed. AI will make this even worse.

And then you have all the security issues with two factor authentication, and having to change passwords, and not being able to download things because your company don't let you use a particular system, etc etc. And when websites decide to log out out for your security and you can't remember your passwords to get back in again.

It also makes life much easier - I actually like being able to see if a swimming pool is busy and book a slot when it isn't! And being able to buy a train ticket while I am sitting at home and not have to queue up to do it. So I can see both sides.

Oh those things are so annoying. Especially the ones that keep making you do it for several screens worth! Just so Google can teach its AI or something. And are some of the websites really being targeted by bots? I can imagine that some are, but some are really not the sort of websites that are going to be subject to a DOS attack!

Oh yes and when they say "caught you looking"! AAAAAAGGGGGHHHH. So annoying and tacky!

that's where the training comes in. It took about 10 goes for me to get my new phone to write Gladbach. I now only have to write Gl and it comes up as a choice. etc etc. Where it is using collective "AI knowledge" it is simply because that is how people write and it assumes we are all the same.

Because people liked it. You register in advance and then you get there and don't have to queue.

Before covid you'd get there and hang around in a massive queue. Now you drive straight in.

I don't like queuing. In that regard I much prefer tech solutions that mean I don't have to.

We do have a modern consumer law. It only came into force this year and there are new provisions to come next year on subscription traps,

But there was a LOT of lobbying to water it down.

PussInBin20 · Today 14:09
Was at a recent dog festival where a company were offering a free sample of their dog food. Great I thought. Til he said you have to download the app, sign up to a subscription, get your free sample and then cancel it if you want.

We've had people coming to the door asking us to sign up to donate monthly to a charity. I always say “I’m happy to give you a tenner now but I don’t want to sign up”
That, however, isn’t possible.

That verifying if you are Human when you enter a website. So you wait. How do they know I'm human doing that, then two factor verification and you have to be quick on my phone to catch the code, memorise before it disappears.

I think it's time to post this. I don't know who wrote it, I've seen it a few times.

WINDOWS
Please enter your new password.
USER :
Cabbage
WINDOWS:
Sorry, the password must be more than 8 characters.
USER:
Boiled cabbage
WINDOWS:
Sorry, the password must contain 1 numerical character.
USER:
1 boiled cabbage
WINDOWS:
Sorry, the password cannot have blank spaces
USER:
50damnboiledcabbages
WINDOWS:
Sorry, the password must contain at least one upper case character
USER:
50DAMNboiledcabbages
WINDOWS:
Sorry the password cannot use more than one upper case character consecutively.
USER:
50damnBoiledCabbagesShovedUpYourButtIfYouDon'tGiveMeAccessNow!
WINDOWS:
Sorry, the password cannot contain punctuation.
USER:
ReallyAngryNow50DamnBoiledCabbagesShovedUpYourButtIfYouDontGiveMeAccessNow
WINDOWS:
Sorry, that password is already in use

@DuesToTheDirt that is hilarious - I remember seeing it somewhere so I’m delighted to be reminded and I’m going to take a screenshot.

I use a lot of websites for work. Recently I decided to clear my cookies after perhaps 3 or 4 years of not doing so. There were about 2000!!! It took a couple of hours to get rid of them.

I try to decline cookies where I can, but sometimes it takes too long as you have to go to a page of options, or you can't use the site unless you accept cookies.

Also, why do pages I've visited 600 times before, including in the last week, ask me to consent to cookies yet again when I visit them for the 601st time?

I vaguely remember an MP trying to get rid of the cookies nuisance but he/she evidently failed in his/her quest.

Just tell them you want a paper receipt. They have no right to your personal data, they just want to market stuff at you and probably flog the data too.

actually asking if we want cookies, or not, is IMO a good thing.

It is how they do it, that grates. All it needs is a 3 option box with radio buttons: consent to all, reject all, only necessary

Yes, I definitely don't want to just have the tracking cookies applied without me even being told or asked.

I agree about the ones that deliberately force you to scroll down loads and loads, making you switch every one off individually. It's very dishonest and most certainly isn't seeking genuine freewill consent, when they're clearly banking on you giving up or making a mistake in withdrawing your consent to be tracked and monetised.

There was a very popular parenting website that did just this until relatively recently.

Legitimate interest is a nasty scam, too - nobody seems to know what it actually is. It's like a determined, deliberate last-ditch attempt to not respect your clearly-expressed wishes and ignore them anyway.

Isn't it interesting that they don't usually default it to cookies off and then invite you to opt in. I mean, if they're so great, everybody will be clamouring for them... won't they?!

Well now many sites: mumsnet, daily mail etc won't let you opt out of cookies unless you become a paid subscriber. Not quite sure how that isn't against the law.

I tried to open a bank account recently, moved to a new country. They refused to see me in branch, I had to apply through a website.

The process was OK but it was very much at their convenience. Send in your proof of ID, selfie, proof of address and then in five days we'll tell you whether or not we accept it. And honestly, in this day and age, asking what you do for a living and only having a pick list is bullshit. Give me a free text box and if you don't understand the answer, give me another free text box to briefly explain it. You can review it in the five days it's apparently going to take you to look at my passport.

The cookies thing is really annoying because it's so inconsistent. If you opt out of email marketing they can't keep asking you if you want to opt back in (in theory at least, it does happen on occasion).

But even though cookies are (currently) regulated by the same regulations, the website operators can apparently ask you every time you visit the website! It's very very annoying.

There's a new UK data protection act (Data Use and Access Act) now and I know there are some changes to cookie rules but I don't know if it changes the number of times you can be asked about them. And it's not in force yet.

I think that's because the website is providing a service, and you either pay in money, or you pay in data. If you don't want to pay in either, you don't get the service/content.

Regulators aren't massively happy about it, but I think they have to accept that businesses can do it.

I did finally crack and accept the cookies on Mumsnet but I don't think it's right - you shouldn't be tracked based on what you are reading or posting on here as it could be highly personal - it's not the same as reading the Daily Heil.