Ambiguity is an Asshole

So, I am recently obsessed with this online site and app called Poshmark–though I primarily only use the application, as it seems infinitely quicker. It is basically a social media site to sell clothes and accessories that you either don’t want anymore or maybe you never wore them in the first. When I went to look at the Terms & Conditions policies, I found that the company refers to itself using ambiguous, kind of creepy language, calling it “the Service.” It also refers to the “Related Companies” that Poshmark make use my personal data for, with or without my notice. I’m not finding three specific methods that the app uses to collect data that would not be typically assumed; but one of the things that this app can gather is information about my demographic: “Also, in an ongoing effort to better understand and serve the users of the Services, Poshmark may conduct research on its customer demographics, interests and behavior based on the Personal Data and other information provided to us.” Also, apparently by agreeing to Poshmark’s Terms & Conditions, I cannot be personally identified, but the company’s research, aka my data, can be shared with its “affiliates, agents and business partners.” The app wanting to understand information that relates to demographics for business purposes makes total sense to me; but I resent the fact that I cannot find the names of these Related Companies easily/on the same page where I’ve found all the other information regarding my privacy.

This app also says it “may” also track what other websites I view and it “may” share that information with other, third parties. I don’t really like this because I don’t know who the third parties are. Also, how many parties can really be the third party? That seems unfair. What if there are like, 40 third parties?

I feel really conflicted when I consider whether or not these situations can be defined as ethical or unethical. It seems duplicitous to a certain, obvious degree if we think about how company’s often develop their policies based around ambiguous language in case a user actually reads the terms and conditions. Excuse my language, but it just seems shitty. However, I do hold the power to sign up for a certain app or to not do that. It is my decision to comply to the terms and conditions, but I still think that company’s can definitely be clearer in their on-the-side goals and reasons for collecting certain data. For instance, who the heck sits in the category of Poshmark’s “Related Companies”…? I’d love to know. And while their business partners might change from time to time, it would be decent, to say the least, for Poshmark to inform me on where and to whom my information might be going for their business purposes. I don’t think that it is right to consider it to be hacking solely because this app likely relies on the fact that I haven’t read and studied its terms. Still, there is a degree of shadiness going on.

Ethics is kind of flexible, depending on the person. Would I share data with people because I think it’s my civic duty? I don’t know. I don’t think that people or their data should be taken advantage of, but then I wonder about loyalty to our country. But then I think about the blurred lines when it comes to loyalty because if my data is being used in a corrupt way then why would I want to remain loyal to who’s corrupt? Ah, but then it comes down to power in most cases. And the people with power are always up to something because that’s just the way life goes, and no amount of ethics and morality can ever really fix that.

For the Panama Papers, I’ve done some reading, and I do think it is ethical to put people on trial based on stolen data. I am pretty sure this contradicts everything else in my post thus far, but as I said, what a person feels to be ethical is flexible. I’m not sure if I would reveal information that I found if I was a hacker… it would have to be detrimental to society at large. Otherwise I think I could gradually overcome any guilt I have placed on myself for stumbling upon information that reveals some corruption taking place.