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AA and all other US airlines argue that information about your customer account is part of a data set that belongs to them, so they set the terms by which the d

AA and all other US airlines argue that information about your customer account is part of a data set that belongs to them, so they set the terms by which the data may be accessed. It's in their terms of service. This isn't particularly unique to airlines either.

paxys 5y ago
Can a company write "Chrome is not allowed to access this website" in their terms of service and then sue Google when customers still use it?
- pishpash 5y ago
  They could (conceivably) if Google touted using their browser to access said website despite all this, especially if Google derived some benefit from it. It may well not come down to making available a tool, but to knowingly encouraging the breaking of ToS (assuming it's valid in the first place).
- tiahura 5y ago
  Someone else gave a decent answer to your question, but I’m not sure that’s this situation. TPG is scraping AA and then displaying the results in TPG’s app. There’s an http request being sent by a TPG computer and IP address to AA. I think that’s a relevant distinction. I also think that’s relevant to whether TPG is a party to the AA TOS.
  - paxys 5y ago
    I don't think that's an important distinction. TPG could be doing everything locally on the user's device (maybe they are?) and AA's complaint would be no different.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - martimarkov 5y ago
    What about ICloud plus Prody then? It comes from Apple’s servers. Add Safari reader on top of it and I think it becomes similar. Move Reader to iCloud proxy and I think it becomes almost identical?
Tostino 5y ago
That should simply not be enforceable, period. If we had any consumer advocacy in government in the US, this BS would have never even come up.
- tiahura 5y ago
  The US was formed under the premises that adults have the right to make their own decisions - good and bad, and that adults are the masters of their own property. I think these principles have served us pretty well despite the violations of human dignity like not being able to check your AA points from the TPG app.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    At the same time, doesn't AA have the right to protect themselves from potential abuse? I don't have a problem at all saying that I'm not supposed to share my credentials with 3rd parties. The user has no control over what the 3rd party might do, and can only make that decision based on what they think they are going to be doing.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > The US was formed under the premises that adults have the right to make their own decisions - good and bad, and that adults are the masters of their own property. Yes, and AA servers, copyrights, and trademarks are all, under the law, it's property, of which it is master. That's kind of the whole basis of the lawsuit.

paxys 5y ago

Can a company write "Chrome is not allowed to access this website" in their terms of service and then sue Google when customers still use it?

pishpash 5y ago
They could (conceivably) if Google touted using their browser to access said website despite all this, especially if Google derived some benefit from it. It may well not come down to making available a tool, but to knowingly encouraging the breaking of ToS (assuming it's valid in the first place).
tiahura 5y ago
Someone else gave a decent answer to your question, but I’m not sure that’s this situation. TPG is scraping AA and then displaying the results in TPG’s app. There’s an http request being sent by a TPG computer and IP address to AA. I think that’s a relevant distinction. I also think that’s relevant to whether TPG is a party to the AA TOS.
- paxys 5y ago
  I don't think that's an important distinction. TPG could be doing everything locally on the user's device (maybe they are?) and AA's complaint would be no different.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- martimarkov 5y ago
  What about ICloud plus Prody then? It comes from Apple’s servers. Add Safari reader on top of it and I think it becomes similar. Move Reader to iCloud proxy and I think it becomes almost identical?

Tostino 5y ago

That should simply not be enforceable, period. If we had any consumer advocacy in government in the US, this BS would have never even come up.

tiahura 5y ago
The US was formed under the premises that adults have the right to make their own decisions - good and bad, and that adults are the masters of their own property. I think these principles have served us pretty well despite the violations of human dignity like not being able to check your AA points from the TPG app.
- dylan604 5y ago
  At the same time, doesn't AA have the right to protect themselves from potential abuse? I don't have a problem at all saying that I'm not supposed to share my credentials with 3rd parties. The user has no control over what the 3rd party might do, and can only make that decision based on what they think they are going to be doing.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > The US was formed under the premises that adults have the right to make their own decisions - good and bad, and that adults are the masters of their own property. Yes, and AA servers, copyrights, and trademarks are all, under the law, it's property, of which it is master. That's kind of the whole basis of the lawsuit.