What Have You Signed Away Today?

Can You Fight Back?

Consumers' angry reaction to some of these new rules has been swift: In recent months, Juno, Microsoft, Verant Interactive, and other Web and software firms have felt the sting of a backlash against particularly unreasonable terms.

For example, earlier this spring Microsoft abandoned its reviled Passport TOS in the face of widespread criticism. The policy granted the company and unspecified affiliates the right to "use, modify, copy, distribute, transmit, [and] publicly display" any message, file, or data that users entered into the Passport site.

"We were in error for having that up there," says Tom Pilla, a Microsoft spokesperson. He said Microsoft hadn't updated Passport's terms of use to reflect its business policies, or even to adhere to Passport's privacy statement. "It was very old language," he said.

Similarly, software maker Verant Interactive quickly jettisoned plans to introduce a monitoring tool to its popular multiplayer online game EverQuest. Citing the proliferation of cheating tools, Verant wanted all game players to permit the company to scan their hard drives for illicit utilities. Users protested and, within a day, Verant rescinded the plan.

But some vendors have not changed aggressive policies. In February, Juno, the nation's largest provider of free Internet service (which recently merged with NetZero), submitted a new TOS to its users, announcing its plans to enlist them in a distributed computing project.

Much like SETI@Home--the voluntary distributed computing project that searches for extraterrestrial life--Juno's Virtual Supercomputer project requires users to install software that will use their PC while it's idle to chug through complex computations.

Juno plans to sell that computing power to third parties, and it disclaims any liability for costs or for PC problems resulting from the software or the computations. Also, though Juno spokespersons claim user participation is currently voluntary, the TOS clearly reserves the right to require participation by users of its free service, and Juno could even order users to keep their PCs on all the time to perform the computations. Juno says it must investigate this option as it strives to stay in business and turn a profit.