What to do when free service implodes–not much

nbruce writes “CNET news reports: Legal experts said there is generally little recourse for consumers in the event of data loss on services such as Hotmail, which are typically covered by terms-of-service agreements that provide broad liability exemptions. Story here.“

June 7, 2004 by Uncategorized 4

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4 Responses

  1. mdoneil says:
    June 7, 2004 at 9:20 am

    Uptight…me?
    OK, I’ll admit, I’m one of those uptight people that read the terms of service or contract for everything. Even with my web hosting provider I added a service level agreement that results in a pro rata refund should the service fail for more than 4 hours per month. It never has, but still I am covered if it does.

    “You get what you pay for” has never been more true. If you use a free mail service be prepared to be treated as if you use a free mail service. I have never lost mail because mine is stored on 3 machines, 1 of which I have to remove manually.

    Saving email from a mail client (not a web based mail service but from a client like Eudora or some such application) is remarkably easy. I back my mail up to CDRom every few months and then deleted it from the server. I have never lost a message.

    To get upset because hotmail lost your business correspondence is nonsense. If you use hotmail for business you deserve what you get. I don’t do business online with people who don’t have their own domain or at least an ISP email address. ( If I hire someone who can’t afford email, I generally don’t do it online. I use the phone or do it in person.)

    So if you want reliability, privacy or guaranteed uptime you really should pay for it. You should also read the terms of service and prepare for possible outages.

    Redundancy is key. I have told many people that a lack of planning on their part is not an emergency on my part. Its true, I know emergencies and I know failure to plan for outages. No one ever died from not getting email.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous says:
    June 7, 2004 at 10:46 pm

    If you use hotmail for business you deserve…
    “If you use hotmail for business you deserve what you get.“

    I really want to say YES, but yet I can’t help but think there are pleanty of people who just don’t know any better. They’re hard at work doing whatever it is they do for a living and they just don’t have time to care about this kind of thing. They make the assumption that since MSFT runs it, it’s safe, secure, and they’re not going to lose anything. Much of what we know as geeks is not really common sense for the majority of the world that doesn’t spend all day tied into computers.

    It seems like most people would know “Redundancy is key” but I just don’t think that’s a fair assumption to make, there’s no written test to use the internet, there’s a million little things to know about, too much for most people.

    As librarian’s we’re in a good position to teach these kind of geeky little details.

    So, mdoneil, I guess I agree, about 49% or so.

    Reply
  3. Walt says:
    June 8, 2004 at 12:10 am

    Re:If you use hotmail for business you deserve…
    Geez, Blake, I never disagree with you, but…

    Those are, I suspect, the same people who don’t really think they need full-time antivirus protection, much less firewalls. And who really, truly don’t believe that opening an attachment can hurt them…

    If someone asks a librarian, they should certainly be able to correct this, but most people don’t use librarians as the first line of tech support. Particularly people who think free services are guaranteed to work perfectly and forever.

    I guess I’m with mdoneil on this one. Common sense should tell you that, to some extent, “you get what you pay for.” And that free tools used to support your business need a little attention. I don’t think librarians can make up for a lack of that level of common sense.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous says:
    June 8, 2004 at 12:31 am

    Re:If you use hotmail for business you deserve…
    And I’m with you being with mdoneil on this one, but only about 49%. Common sense SHOULD tell you this, but for many people it doesn’t. Common sense doesn’t come easy on computers for most (many?) people, this is all learned, and it takes a great deal of experience to gain “computer sense.”

    I wouldn’t expect people to use libraries/ians as a first line of defense, that was just an observation of a teachable moment I guess.

    Everytime I get a virus that I know what the result of someone opening an attachment I think “what the *@&%! are people thinking?!” but I know that’s not the right reaction, people just don’t know about this stuff, there’s just too much to know, and unless you’re really into it, none of it matters much anyway.

    I suspect that rather than being people who don’t really think they need help/firewalls/virus/etc. these are people who don’t know they need it. Big difference? Perhaps.

    Reply

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