Google Voice forbids itself
The chocolate factory's latest service, Google Voice, expressly forbids using the service for voice mail - despite that being one of the most promoted features of the service. Google Voice not only records voice-mail messages, but also transcribes those messages into text for archiving, and to allow easy scanning for targeted …
You are expressly prohibited from posting our numpty policies and making fun of us....
She knows better...
...if you are still reading this you are very sad and if you are reading T&Cs for the express idea of taking the mickey out of us you really should get a life.
T&C's are pointless as they can be changed at any time by the more powerful side without warning or acceptance. What is the point!
Until T&C are mutually accepted with a contract term of at least 1 year they are as nothing.
Google misplaces comma.... glad I read /this/ story...
...when you copy and paste the EULA from another unrelated product.
Looks like they take EULAs as seriously as the users who are meant to read them.
"...junk email, voice mail, faxes..."
Presumably this means, "junk email, junk voice mail, junk faxes..." but it was rather cumbersome that way. As usual, this is a non-story - but I guess you needed another excuse to use the phrase "chocolate factory".
It's a legal document, binding on the user, where not following it can get people thrown in jail with a criminal record in certain countries (like the US). Given this, I'm all for taking the mickey out of what is actually written, not what you think it ought to have said.
Why do you need lawyers when you've got <ctrl>+c, <ctrl>+v? This isn't the first time that this has happened at Google (Apple have been at it too).
You'd think that two companies with such vast legal departments could afford a proof reader.
I preferred the Codeweavers one on their Crossover product for running Windows apps on Linux, which said something at the top about how important it was to read the whole thing, especially the bit about having to wash their car for them. At the bottom was something along the lines of "no, you don't really have to wash it, but if you insist, it's the red VW at the South end of the parking lot. Hah - made you look!".
it "transcribes those messages into text for archiving, and to allow easy scanning for targeted advertising"
I just want to know when they added targeted advertising to the NSA's operating chapter..
This is a good example of why all legal documents should be written by Lisp programmers.
of why EULA should be ignored.
Hopefully, the whole concept will be challenged in court, on the grounds that nobody reads them anyway.
In context, I would imagine you can use Google Voice as YOUR voicemail, but you can't use it to spam or otherwise irritate other peoples' voicemail.
I thought it was obvious... they're not responsible for the loss/deletion/deactivation of the voicemail that you're not allowed to use anyway.
Sign up, sign up for The Register's weekly mobile & wireless newsletter - click here
