My phone provider (Fido, Canada) used to call me weekly to try and sell me random crap. Every single time, I would complain that I find being cold-called by a s

My phone provider (Fido, Canada) used to call me weekly to try and sell me random crap. Every single time, I would complain that I find being cold-called by a service I already pay for extremely rude. "But Sir, we're trying to offer you the best service possible, in no way is this rude". It took the threat of legal action to get them to stop... Shaw TV inserts ads taking up about a third of the screen real estate when browsing channels. When asked, I was told this was for my benefit and there was no way to disable it. Again, shoving ads in your face even though you're already a paying customer. I'm cancelling my TV subscription again (I pretty much never use it anyway). When going to the movies, all the major movie theatres will practically coerce people into turning up early for the official showtime ("get a good seat while you can!"), then proceed to show nearly 30 minutes of advertising (after having paid $15 for my seat...). I now go to independent movie theatres whenever I can. I recently bought a wireless HP printer for which the software is absymally bad. After installing it (twice), I proceeded to disable all the "cloud" options (this has to be done on both the PC AND the printer itself...). Throughout the installation, it keeps marking options as "recommended", such as having to register your personal details on their website. Any non-savvy user would easily fall for this. I missed one option (I don't even recall whether it was actually available) and ended up with a bunch of icons on my desktop for offers, as well as a huge icon in the taskbar displaying popups every so often for "special offers". I complained to HP, haven't heard anything yet (and doubt I ever will). Unfortunately, I have many more examples such as these... But to address the point made by the author: > Let's hope this isn't a sign of things to come. It is already happening, and in full force. How this sort of behavior is even legally tolerated is beyond me.