Voluntarily sharing informative posts from unaffiliated sources.

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Joined 5 months ago
Cake day: January 16th, 2024
  • ForgottenFlux@lemmy.worldOPtoTechnology@lemmy.world•US sues Adobe for ‘deceiving’ subscriptions that are too hard to cancel | The Justice Department alleges that Adobe hid early cancellation fees and trapped consumers in pricey subscriptionsEnglish
    130·
    4 days ago

    Summary:

    • The US government is suing Adobe for allegedly deceiving customers with hidden fees and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions.
    • The Department of Justice claims Adobe enrolls customers in its most lucrative subscription plan without clearly disclosing important plan terms.
    • Adobe allegedly hides the terms of its annual, paid monthly plan in fine print and behind optional textboxes and hyperlinks.
    • The company fails to properly disclose the early termination fee, which can amount to hundreds of dollars, upon cancellation.
    • The cancellation process is described as “onerous and complicated”, involving multiple webpages and pop-ups.
    • Customers who try to cancel over the phone or via live chats face similar obstacles, including dropped or disconnected calls and having to re-explain their reason for calling.
    • The lawsuit targets Adobe executives Maninder Sawhney and David Wadhwani, alleging they directed or participated in the deceptive practices.
    • The federal government began investigating Adobe’s cancellation practices late last year.
    • Adobe’s subscription model has long been a source of frustration for creatives, who feel forced to stay subscribed to continue working.
    • Recently, Adobe’s new terms of service were met with backlash, with some users interpreting the changes as an opportunity for Adobe to train its AI on users’ art.
    • The company has also faced regulatory scrutiny in the past, including antitrust scrutiny from European regulators over its attempted $20 billion acquisition of product design platform Figma in 2022, which was ultimately abandoned.
  • ForgottenFlux@lemmy.worldOPtoTechnology@lemmy.world•Microsoft has blocked the bypass that allowed you to create a local account during Windows 11 setup by typing in a blocked email addressEnglish
    185·
    17 days ago

    Summary:

    In the past, you could bypass the sign-in requirement by choosing ‘Offline Account’ or ‘Sign in with a local account instead.’ However, Microsoft removed this option in recent years, meaning you would need an active internet connection to create a Microsoft account for a new Windows 11 install.

    Some users discovered that they could bypass this requirement by using the following blocked email addresses: example@example.com, a@a.com, or no@thankyou.com, and then typing in a random password. While this would let you fall back to proceeding with an offline account until recently, it now results in an ‘Oops, something went wrong’ message, which will return you to the same email input screen.

    Thankfully, there remains another way to install Windows 11 without a Microsoft account. When you’re at the log-in screen, you can hit Shift + F10 and type OOBE/BYPASSNRO, which will let you create a local account instead if you do not have an internet connection (so disconnect the internet for this). However, non-tech-savvy users will likely not know this, so many would likely end up creating another unwanted online account.

    This is just one of the controversial steps Microsoft has recently been taking, like including ads in the Start Menu, nagging Windows 10 users to upgrade, or adding a watermark if your PC does not support AI features.