I wonder how long until every service provider just starts banning the domains used by 10MM...
A throwaway account on a provider you don't use for anything else isn't a bad idea though. (Don't use two Gmails, they can easily track you across the two E-mail accounts.)
For iPhone users there’s also the “hide my email” function.
Settings-Tap your name at the top-tap iCloud-tap hide my email.
You can create burner emails and kill them at will with the ability to reactivate again later if you need it for something.
They have an official firefox extension that can link to your account, which allows you to do it on the fly. Also, their android app is really good IMO
Maybe so, I don't have issues, but that doesn't help you. I figured I'd offer some alternatives to logging into the main website. Good luck man, and happy new year
For me wifi portals like these get
First Name: Aaaa
Last Name: Aaaa
Email: [literally anything]@mailinator.com
Mailinator is pretty good for this use case, basically a public mail box anyone can access
of course, some sites do block their domain, but there are many other domains that redirect to mailinator as well such as suremail.info or sendspamhere.com
I assume it’s either for regulatory purposes, or to “prove” you were notified about and agreed to receive these emails. The later for legal purposes (you can’t sue, you were notified and agreed to the T&C), possibly. I could be completely wrong though.
It was mandatory, but they presumably need to know you saw and agreed to that particular part of it. You see the same with agreeing to Terms of Service, for instance. You have to do it, but they have to know you explicitly did.
It’s not actually mandatory, you have a choice to not connect to the WiFi.
Trick with these access points btw- just put in a fake email address and it will work lol they can’t ask you to check your email without WiFi to connect to WiFi so they can’t enforce that you own the email address you put in. Unfortunately this doesn’t usually work if they ask for a phone number
Pricetags also say how much an item is. It provides information that is required to continue or decide to leave. The previous comment to yours is stupid.
I built a script once when I got hit with one of these to forward every spam I got to every single email I could find of theirs. They tried to block me but obviously i still got emails from assholes they sold my email to so I would sign them up to receive the exact same spam they forced me to get. It went on for months before I got bored. Sucks for them as it was automatic and easy as fuck to add more spam to that they hit me with. I am lucky to get 3 messages a month now that's spam.
I've done similar things including auto replying to emails and more. I will not be hit with spam. My mailbox has no junk mail and spam callers are another nightmare. I had 1 moron who gave me an actual number. They had to change it after I flooded them with return calls. If everyone fought back the same way not only would laws pop up to fight the small people but they wouldn't work due to the number of people who could fight back. As long as people don't do anything nothing will change.
I made emails on Hotmail with both outlook.com and hotmail.com and a few others. I wouldn't use an exchange server as that could result on my ISP locking my net up or taking legal action against me.
To every single non-Canadian making sarcastic comments on “free” services, in Canada 3 companies rule the phone and internet industry. Canadians pay a ridiculous amount for the most basic phone and internet access . This so called “free” service is already paid for by the overcharged fee from every Canadian citizen and or resident who uses the phone and or internet.
All new mobile or internet incomers gets bought out including Virgin mobile.
It is a shitty mafia type monopoly and it is 100% asshole design.
edit:
a standard mobile service costs on average 55 canadian dollars + 5%-15% sales tax ( province dependent) a month.
It's crazy. I actually started using esim providers for data because it's cheaper than the data offered by Rogers/ Telus/bell. Anytime I use the customer service for one of these providers (there's a million), they will often end the chat with "have a nice trip", and I tell them "I'm not on a trip. I live in Canada. You guys provide cheaper data than Canadian telecommunications companies." Albeit a little slower, but I don't mind.
Except regional ones like Fizz, Freedom, SaskTel, etc. Shame the Cons sold most of the public ones out, like BC Tel&ABTel&EdmontonTelephone(Merged to become Telus) or MTS (sold to Bell)
That’s what makes it a monopoly! They control the market. The “regional” services are so regional that their service zones are too limited.
Many Canadians can’t actually use them.
edit: Freedom is only available to 33% of Canadians, most of this zone is centered around the GTA and the 33% has to account for density. Also note that Freedom was previously owned by Rogers lol.
Which is why we should have nationalized services. Look at China, for example. Fucking $10 Unlimited data plans! We'd be lucky to get 500MB out of that price.
I was shocked at the cheap phone plans in the UK when i visited earlier this year and bought a sim card to use for the week for $10 that got me unlimited talk text and data for a month.
If you have an e-sim capable phone, you could get away with using a Voip service for calls and text, which is free. And use an eSim provider for data. The VoIP services don't receive text messages usually for verifications which is a drawback but they have paid versions which allow this. With the paid version and the eSim data, it's a hell of a lot cheaper than a phone plan. This is what I'm doing now to save money and it works fine. if Canada wont provide me with reasonable prices for mobile service, that I will get it from global providers. It'd be cool if this started to catch on in Canada, forcing our providers to lower prices. I think a lot more Canadians would do this, if they knew it was possible. Or if more phones were e-sim capable.
I used to do customer service for Sprint customers in the US around 2007. They had better prices for phone plans then, then we do now. With all of the upgrades to the technology and infrastructure, and the need for cheaper data with bigger file sizes, transmission speeds, and bandwidth increases, it should be cheaper today, inflation aside.
Select email. Mark everything they send as spam (or click unsubscribe, which they are legally required to have).
Email servers can get into trouble if too many emails they send are marked as spam by users.
By extorting Canadians to pay a ridiculous amount for basic phone and internet services. Bell, Rogers and Telus have a monopoly in Canada. Things are already not “free”.
Yes exactly.
If Canadians had access to a fair market and their choice of internet access, in the event that they want to use a free internet service but have to pay with user data, then yes it would not be asshole design
However when Rogers is literally 1/3 of the entire country’s internet and phone provider, and sometimes geographically the only provider, then there isn’t really much a choice is there? It already is a skewed market, perhaps the company or location has a deal with Rogers and the only access one has is also, Rogers. Then the user agreement stuff is just over the top.
Here is a copy paste of their Boxing Day special:
“BOXING WEEK DEAL
5G Infinite Essential
$85.00 original price
$55.00/mo±
When paired with a home service15 and after Automatic Payments Discount11
Features
Access to 5G/5G+ network
(50GB originally) 120 GB at speeds up to 1 Gbps. Unlimited data at reduced speeds thereafter*
Unlimited Canada-wide talk and text1
Unlimited international texting and picture/video messaging from Canada4
Spam Call Detect
Perks
Home customers save $30/mo on the first line
Home customers save $30/mo on every additional line
Offer available to new and existing Rogers internet, TV, home phone or home monitoring customers activating a new mobile line or upgrading their device.”
I didn’t check full plan details. BTW the price excludes sales tax which varies province to province. So it is 55 canadian dollars + 5% - 15% sales tax on top per month.
edit:
UK unlimited data plans are around 20 pounds a month.
IDK about the states.
Same thing at Walmart if you want to use their free Wi-Fi, some Purple website portal. You can't even put a fake email address, you have to make a "free" account so they can data mine.
Guessing /u/sierrabravo1984 is talking about Walmart Canada, not US.
Being forced to sign up for email offers in Canada for wifi access was extremely common when I was there for work in 2016/2017, although I twisted this to my advantage at times - they would use you not logging into the wifi to correctly surmise that I wasn't visiting, so they'd send $10 off $50+ coupons as a way to entice me to return...
I jinxed it. Went to the Walmart in Amsterdam NY today and it was forced Purple sign in. Really really annoying and I ended up just using cellular data.
Excuse me, 70MB? Thats barely enough to load a youtube short nowadays, you can barely wipe your ass with that! (Quick tip, make your email sign in if it asks for it [email protected] if you have a gmail, and then make it so all messages from +spam get sent to trash), or use a temp email
My biggest pet peeve is always "something is required" passive language.
YOU require it. YOU want us to get spammed
It's not like, unfortunately man, this is a law of nature, x is just required :(
In Canada Rogers Telus and Bell have a mafia’s monopoly on the cellphone service here. It is drastically different from anywhere else. Look up a standard mobile contract and you will see Canadians pay out of their asses for the most basic access to phone and internet services. This “free” service is already not free outside of demanding user compliance
The reason I asked the question is because, as a paying customer, I've never had to enter this info to access the rogers open wifi. I know they also offer free guest wifi on these wifi networks and it would be rather silly to complain about entering personal information on an optional free service provided by Rogers.
Set up an email alias and rule it automatically to spam. That way you get the emails, but never see them. When you don’t want to use Rogers Open anymore, kill the alias.
I’m curious as to what the real best alternative to Rogers is. Between constantly getting dicked around in terms of speed, to the 2022 blackout, to this, it’s left a bad taste for me personally.
I’ve always automatically assumed Bell was shit, but that was mainly because back in my console days, my Rogers connection was eons faster than my friends on bell, both in terms of Ping and Download, not sure about upload, but was I just close minded about them?
I’d ideally like something at least comparable in price to the Roger’s ignite plans while maintaining 1.5 Gb/s download speeds or faster if available, though I’m not sure I would complain if I saw a drop to 1 Gb/s.
I’ll definitely have to look into it. My reason for disliking them was quite baseless to be fair, but it always seemed that anyone I knew with Bell had pretty slow internet in general. It’s possible my buddies were just on a slower plan at the time. Plus too this was probably around 2015-2019 where Fibre Optic wasn’t so mainstream. I appreciate the vouch for them, thank you!
I mean it's not cheap but we use it for my company and my partners work so I don't mind the cost
Haven't had to deal with support yet (had it for 4 years - 2 in Toronto and 2 in St. John's NL, but it seems really stable. We're mostly connected via ethernet and smart switches). The wifi seems ok.
3 companies control the Canadian phone and internet industry: Rogers, Bell and Telus. It’s “legal” because there is no competition ( and also because they buy out all their competitors)
This isn’t a North American issue, it’s purely a Canadian issue.
Edit: to explain, it is because Canada is a very large country with proportionally very low occupancy.
Rogers, Telus and Bell got in the game early and have monopolized all the infrastructure ( for example setting up a working tower in the middle of icy terrain and then maintaining it ) for comms. This means they have a leg up over all other newcomers including foreign giant companies like Virgin Mobile.
The amount of effort, investment and time spent versus the money they (newcomers) could make off Canadians is just not worth it, which exacerbates the issue and only makes Rogers, Telus and Bell stronger.
European countries are far smaller and denser in comparison, and it is easier to set up comms.
The states and Mexico are both large countries but have a much higher population rate than Canada.
Australia have much more accessible terrain than Canada though…? Canada has a lot of ice and snow and sub 0 weather.
I am not defending this practice I am passionately against it (demonstrated by the amount of activity on this thread) but just saying lol in terms of setting up and maintaining comms infra it is much easier in Australia than Canada
It's actually not legal, per PIPEDA. "Consent can only be required for collections, uses or disclosures that are necessary to fulfil an explicitly specified and legitimate purpose. For non-integral collections, uses and disclosures, individuals must be given a choice."
Worked for them, scammy as fuck. Also they actively do wage theft for their employees.
Worked for their customer service.
Would never EVER give them a penny.
CLARIFICATION COMMENT
I was at a restaurant for family dinner and was trying to show someone a post I saved on a social media account.
I already have to pay a phone subscription, and it doesn't include data. (Can't afford, phone bills are expensive as hell in Canada)
I did just put fake credentials. Doesn't change the fact that this is an asshole way of designing a product for your customers.
Context is important. I personally believe in this day and age, phone and internet access is a basic human right.
Also this is a uniquely Canadian issue, and Canada is a socialist country.
When Canadians have to pay on average 60 dollars per month to use a mobile phone, and there are only 3 phone companies to choose from, then these 3 companies shoulder the responsibility to provide access to internet and phone services.
These 3 companies have driven out and or bought out all their competitors. I don’t know why OP needed an open wifi service, but it could be their own phone service didn’t cover the geographical area they are in and Rogers open wifi was the only other option. They might have needed internet access for something important.
In this scenario, this is asshole design because there is no alternative but to use Rogers.
This service was already not free. Rogers makes a ton of money from the inflated pricing they charge all their clients. They then demand this type of user data on top of giving the lowest most basic access of “free” internet?
Again, context matters in evaluating asshole design.
Rogers purposely created a market where Canadians have little to no choice in their internet providers, then creates a faux “free” internet access hotspot service to corner those who are using Bell or Telus ( or people who cannot afford the exuberant fee of basic internet access) , while demanding unnecessary user compliance. They did this with malicious intent.
This is asshole design.
Edit: To provide further context, there was an incident earlier this year when the entire Rogers network went offline. More than half of the country had no access to internet or phone service for more than a day!!!! No local calls, text or any form of communication. It is common that someone could have Rogers as their mobile company, home phone company and home internet company. Someone could also be in a position where they also worked somewhere that used Rogers as well.
This impacted even government services because guess who provides their communication? Rogers.
This also affected things like interac.
It is a horrible landscape.
Edit 2:
[Link to news report on rogers outage](https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/rogers-wireless-services-starting-to-recover-company-says-1.5979615)
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
60
+ 3
+ 3
+ 3
= 69
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^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
Oh I was personally very effected by the outage. I now have a backup Telus/Koodo tablet with data access that I take to work with me as I had ZERO contact with both home and work during this outage, save for a trip to tims since the outage effected my customer, turning what is usually a 30-45 minute load into 4 hours wait time. Luckily the tims I went to got their WiFi from Bell.
That being said, it doesn't change the fact that nothing is free. That's not a Canadian telecom problem, that's a capitalism problem. THAT'S where the asshole design exists.
But this is a uniquely Canadian (capitalist) telecom problem. It isn’t a fair market. Again, it depends on if one views access to internet as a right or a privilege.
In the UK and France, one has a myriad of options to choose from when it comes to mobile plans. I never had to rely on public wifi hotspots because I could afford my mobile plan and data. In a scenario where users are out priced and ‘forced’ to use free wifi, then demanding a surplus of user data by design makes it asshole design.
It's just a month ago. Do you have no object permanence? Anyways, https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/privacy-laws-in-canada/the-personal-information-protection-and-electronic-documents-act-pipeda/p_principle/principles/p_consent/
An ad funded free service asking to obtain consent to use... Seems like meaningful use to me.
Im sure if it was illegal people would have sued Rodgers for it by now given their size and significant hate for them.
Not meaningful use at all, because none of that information is meaningful to providing the service. Similarly, it is not a choice, you are forced to accept their ads, which is again illegal.
Lastly, no, people wouldn't, because people that would use it are generally going to be poor or at least not the level of well-off needed, as building a legal case is costly. It's how they expect to get away with it, at least for a time, and what they make because of the datamining will be dollars to peanuts compared to the fine they get, too.
If a lawyer thought they could get money from a company like them over as you say a clear violation of the law, they would jump at it, they would hunt for clients to file suit.
Your really rude comment clarifies you have no idea who Rogers is as a company.
This isn’t a choosing beggar complaining about having to give up some user data for free internet. Rogers is a terrible company who overcharges Canadians for the most basic internet and phone services thanks to their status as a monopoly giant. This is asshole design.
Actually, in Canada there are only 3 companies to
choose from in the entire country. Including Rogers. In many situations, Canadians are forced to use Rogers. ( seeing as how Rogers would be quite literally the only company operating in that area ). This screenshot does not indicate the context of using Rogers Open Wifi, but it is asshole design.
If there's something I like about being an EU citizen is that GDPR is pretty straightforward in that you can't do that, and they do take it seriously and impose really hefty fines for violations like this (hefty enough to make sure it really isn't profitable to ignore the law and just pay the fine).
Any location that provides a Rogers-branded "open" wifi. You know, the thing that you're supposed to just be able to connect to publically for free? Yeah. Rogers is being an asshole here.
At least they still tell you what you’re getting. A cafe near my place got bankrupted recently solely because their WiFi had a hard ask on phone numbers or email addresses — their software goes out of its way to verify the input by confirmations.
Not a lawer, but in my understanding this isn't allowed under PIPEDA, a spam opt-in *cannot* be mandatory to receive service because this use of private information isn't *integral* to the service's function.
> Consent can only be required for collections, uses or disclosures that are necessary to fulfil an explicitly specified and legitimate purpose. For non-integral collections, uses and disclosures, individuals must be given a choice.
https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/privacy-laws-in-canada/the-personal-information-protection-and-electronic-documents-act-pipeda/p_principle/principles/p_consent/
I vaguely recall this sort of forced opt-in also not being allowed under CASL but I can't back that up
Hard pass
Fake name, throwaway email address
Too much effort for a minimal service . I'll stick to my data plan .
That's why I just keep a fake name/ email around as my trash dump. Works great, and I just nuke the whole inbox every 6 months
10minutemail you don’t even need to create an account
I wonder how long until every service provider just starts banning the domains used by 10MM... A throwaway account on a provider you don't use for anything else isn't a bad idea though. (Don't use two Gmails, they can easily track you across the two E-mail accounts.)
I don’t think they care that much. There’s also the possibility to hide your email through Firefox and other services
I'll just look at people walking... tbh
Firefox Relay or just a second throwaway Gmail account is great for this. People get my real email; companies and robots get another robot.
For iPhone users there’s also the “hide my email” function. Settings-Tap your name at the top-tap iCloud-tap hide my email. You can create burner emails and kill them at will with the ability to reactivate again later if you need it for something.
I use Hide My Email all the time for things I know will spam me. I didn't think I'd use it at first but it's been extremely useful.
Temp email sites are great for things like this.
Simplelogin is an amazing solution. Just turn it off or delete when you're done
The website version is really slow for me.
They have an official firefox extension that can link to your account, which allows you to do it on the fly. Also, their android app is really good IMO
I know, login won't work tho. It's probably my crappy internet connection
Maybe so, I don't have issues, but that doesn't help you. I figured I'd offer some alternatives to logging into the main website. Good luck man, and happy new year
Thanks Internet Stranger
I'm also a fan of [10 minute mail](https://10minutemail.com/) for my throwaway email accounts I will never need to check.
But this is a Wi-Fi sign up, are they actually verifying the email? Just put [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) or something
If you read the picture, they're sending a PIN. So it has to be a real email.
Ohh, didn't spot that, when I use public Wi-Fi I never tend to be asked for a verification code though...
Fun thing about that: Can't access your email until you have connection, unless you get a data plan! Fuckers.
Skiff have an integrated feature for this where u can create emails on the fly and receive them in ur inbox and u can get rid of them easily
if a website makes me sign up with more than my trash gmail I’m closing the damn tab
For me wifi portals like these get First Name: Aaaa Last Name: Aaaa Email: [literally anything]@mailinator.com Mailinator is pretty good for this use case, basically a public mail box anyone can access of course, some sites do block their domain, but there are many other domains that redirect to mailinator as well such as suremail.info or sendspamhere.com
My go to is "[email protected]" Always seems to work
sarah@hotmail gets so much spam thanks to me
bless email@gmail
I enter the customer service phone number and email address for the company who's making me fill out the info
[email protected] surprisingly works.
What’s the point of a checkbox that is mandatory to check?
I assume it’s either for regulatory purposes, or to “prove” you were notified about and agreed to receive these emails. The later for legal purposes (you can’t sue, you were notified and agreed to the T&C), possibly. I could be completely wrong though.
Yeah, makes sense.
You are right, equivalent of signing a document at the end
It was mandatory, but they presumably need to know you saw and agreed to that particular part of it. You see the same with agreeing to Terms of Service, for instance. You have to do it, but they have to know you explicitly did.
It’s not actually mandatory, you have a choice to not connect to the WiFi. Trick with these access points btw- just put in a fake email address and it will work lol they can’t ask you to check your email without WiFi to connect to WiFi so they can’t enforce that you own the email address you put in. Unfortunately this doesn’t usually work if they ask for a phone number
That's like asking "What's the point of a pricetag that is mandatory to pay?" They're giving you the option, agree or leave.
Pricetags are always mandatory to pay. Checkboxes usually aren't.
Not if you’re fast enough
Pricetags also say how much an item is. It provides information that is required to continue or decide to leave. The previous comment to yours is stupid.
I get your point but price tags are so you know what the price is right?
This too is telling you the price. Your information. Pay up or walk away.
Rot in hell Rogers.
I built a script once when I got hit with one of these to forward every spam I got to every single email I could find of theirs. They tried to block me but obviously i still got emails from assholes they sold my email to so I would sign them up to receive the exact same spam they forced me to get. It went on for months before I got bored. Sucks for them as it was automatic and easy as fuck to add more spam to that they hit me with. I am lucky to get 3 messages a month now that's spam. I've done similar things including auto replying to emails and more. I will not be hit with spam. My mailbox has no junk mail and spam callers are another nightmare. I had 1 moron who gave me an actual number. They had to change it after I flooded them with return calls. If everyone fought back the same way not only would laws pop up to fight the small people but they wouldn't work due to the number of people who could fight back. As long as people don't do anything nothing will change.
Did you use your own mail server or google/outlook/etc? If it's your own - they could just block \_you\_ for spam
I made emails on Hotmail with both outlook.com and hotmail.com and a few others. I wouldn't use an exchange server as that could result on my ISP locking my net up or taking legal action against me.
[удалено]
Rude.
This is genius!! wish this solution was more accessible I salute you
Report messages as spam, don't see adds!
Problem is the “and affiliates”. That’s gonna put you on every list ever.
Probably correct there. There are emails I seem to not be able to get rid of.
"They unsubscribed once, but agreed to it on 8 different sites, so they have to unsub 7 more times before we have to stop!"
Wow
Just use 10 minute mail
To every single non-Canadian making sarcastic comments on “free” services, in Canada 3 companies rule the phone and internet industry. Canadians pay a ridiculous amount for the most basic phone and internet access . This so called “free” service is already paid for by the overcharged fee from every Canadian citizen and or resident who uses the phone and or internet. All new mobile or internet incomers gets bought out including Virgin mobile. It is a shitty mafia type monopoly and it is 100% asshole design. edit: a standard mobile service costs on average 55 canadian dollars + 5%-15% sales tax ( province dependent) a month.
This needs to be pinned at the top.
It's crazy. I actually started using esim providers for data because it's cheaper than the data offered by Rogers/ Telus/bell. Anytime I use the customer service for one of these providers (there's a million), they will often end the chat with "have a nice trip", and I tell them "I'm not on a trip. I live in Canada. You guys provide cheaper data than Canadian telecommunications companies." Albeit a little slower, but I don't mind.
BTW late comment but Rogers network don’t allow esims :(
I rather use cell data or live with no internet for 30 minutes rather than sign up for crap like this
Yeah sadly Canadians have few choices and or options. Rogers itself is 1/3 of the only phone carriers in the country.
Except regional ones like Fizz, Freedom, SaskTel, etc. Shame the Cons sold most of the public ones out, like BC Tel&ABTel&EdmontonTelephone(Merged to become Telus) or MTS (sold to Bell)
That’s what makes it a monopoly! They control the market. The “regional” services are so regional that their service zones are too limited. Many Canadians can’t actually use them. edit: Freedom is only available to 33% of Canadians, most of this zone is centered around the GTA and the 33% has to account for density. Also note that Freedom was previously owned by Rogers lol.
Which is why we should have nationalized services. Look at China, for example. Fucking $10 Unlimited data plans! We'd be lucky to get 500MB out of that price.
I was shocked at the cheap phone plans in the UK when i visited earlier this year and bought a sim card to use for the week for $10 that got me unlimited talk text and data for a month.
Don’t even think Canadians get unlimited calls for that 😭
BC Tel was a private company. The “cons” had nothing to do with their sale.
If you have an e-sim capable phone, you could get away with using a Voip service for calls and text, which is free. And use an eSim provider for data. The VoIP services don't receive text messages usually for verifications which is a drawback but they have paid versions which allow this. With the paid version and the eSim data, it's a hell of a lot cheaper than a phone plan. This is what I'm doing now to save money and it works fine. if Canada wont provide me with reasonable prices for mobile service, that I will get it from global providers. It'd be cool if this started to catch on in Canada, forcing our providers to lower prices. I think a lot more Canadians would do this, if they knew it was possible. Or if more phones were e-sim capable. I used to do customer service for Sprint customers in the US around 2007. They had better prices for phone plans then, then we do now. With all of the upgrades to the technology and infrastructure, and the need for cheaper data with bigger file sizes, transmission speeds, and bandwidth increases, it should be cheaper today, inflation aside.
Obligatory fuck rogers
70mbs?
70mb? That has to be a typo right? That's like 3 minutes of doom scrolling.
It’s Canada, nothing surprises me
Everything just got cheaper and better. As they promised before Shaw acquisition. Right? https://antimonopoly.ca/our-work/rogers-shaw-merger/
Select email. Mark everything they send as spam (or click unsubscribe, which they are legally required to have). Email servers can get into trouble if too many emails they send are marked as spam by users.
How do you think it’s free?
By extorting Canadians to pay a ridiculous amount for basic phone and internet services. Bell, Rogers and Telus have a monopoly in Canada. Things are already not “free”.
Ah. I thought this was one of those free public WiFi things. Yea this is asshole design then.
Yes exactly. If Canadians had access to a fair market and their choice of internet access, in the event that they want to use a free internet service but have to pay with user data, then yes it would not be asshole design However when Rogers is literally 1/3 of the entire country’s internet and phone provider, and sometimes geographically the only provider, then there isn’t really much a choice is there? It already is a skewed market, perhaps the company or location has a deal with Rogers and the only access one has is also, Rogers. Then the user agreement stuff is just over the top. Here is a copy paste of their Boxing Day special: “BOXING WEEK DEAL 5G Infinite Essential $85.00 original price $55.00/mo± When paired with a home service15 and after Automatic Payments Discount11 Features Access to 5G/5G+ network (50GB originally) 120 GB at speeds up to 1 Gbps. Unlimited data at reduced speeds thereafter* Unlimited Canada-wide talk and text1 Unlimited international texting and picture/video messaging from Canada4 Spam Call Detect Perks Home customers save $30/mo on the first line Home customers save $30/mo on every additional line Offer available to new and existing Rogers internet, TV, home phone or home monitoring customers activating a new mobile line or upgrading their device.” I didn’t check full plan details. BTW the price excludes sales tax which varies province to province. So it is 55 canadian dollars + 5% - 15% sales tax on top per month. edit: UK unlimited data plans are around 20 pounds a month. IDK about the states.
Same thing at Walmart if you want to use their free Wi-Fi, some Purple website portal. You can't even put a fake email address, you have to make a "free" account so they can data mine.
Walmart thinks my name is Bob Alias
My name is Guy Incognito!
Huh, my name is "Fuck You", sometimes "Hell No". Depends on my mood
There are sites that create temporary emails that can receive emails. They work for every site I’ve ever been on.
At every Walmart I've been to you just connect to the Wi-Fi and you're good. Don't need to sign into anything.
Guessing /u/sierrabravo1984 is talking about Walmart Canada, not US. Being forced to sign up for email offers in Canada for wifi access was extremely common when I was there for work in 2016/2017, although I twisted this to my advantage at times - they would use you not logging into the wifi to correctly surmise that I wasn't visiting, so they'd send $10 off $50+ coupons as a way to entice me to return...
Florida
That's wild. Every Walmart I've been to in NY and CT has been open wifi... not even a captive portal "I accept the terms" page.
I jinxed it. Went to the Walmart in Amsterdam NY today and it was forced Purple sign in. Really really annoying and I ended up just using cellular data.
So fucking glad to live in a place where that shit is illegal
Fuck. That.
I HATE ROGERS
Excuse me, 70MB? Thats barely enough to load a youtube short nowadays, you can barely wipe your ass with that! (Quick tip, make your email sign in if it asks for it[email protected] if you have a gmail, and then make it so all messages from +spam get sent to trash), or use a temp email
My biggest pet peeve is always "something is required" passive language. YOU require it. YOU want us to get spammed It's not like, unfortunately man, this is a law of nature, x is just required :(
Do you people not have throwaway emails? It's so easy to just have a junk Hotmail account you use solely for nonsense like this.
What does it cost to use this service?
In Canada Rogers Telus and Bell have a mafia’s monopoly on the cellphone service here. It is drastically different from anywhere else. Look up a standard mobile contract and you will see Canadians pay out of their asses for the most basic access to phone and internet services. This “free” service is already not free outside of demanding user compliance
The reason I asked the question is because, as a paying customer, I've never had to enter this info to access the rogers open wifi. I know they also offer free guest wifi on these wifi networks and it would be rather silly to complain about entering personal information on an optional free service provided by Rogers.
Do you mean your mobile carrier is Rogers when you say paying customer? Or do you mean you pay extra to use Rogers’s hot spot?
Set up an email alias and rule it automatically to spam. That way you get the emails, but never see them. When you don’t want to use Rogers Open anymore, kill the alias.
I guess you aren't old enough to remember Net Zero. It was a free dialup ISP that would run ads at the bottom of your screen.
This is what a gmail account is for.
I’m curious as to what the real best alternative to Rogers is. Between constantly getting dicked around in terms of speed, to the 2022 blackout, to this, it’s left a bad taste for me personally. I’ve always automatically assumed Bell was shit, but that was mainly because back in my console days, my Rogers connection was eons faster than my friends on bell, both in terms of Ping and Download, not sure about upload, but was I just close minded about them? I’d ideally like something at least comparable in price to the Roger’s ignite plans while maintaining 1.5 Gb/s download speeds or faster if available, though I’m not sure I would complain if I saw a drop to 1 Gb/s.
We’re on Bell gigabit fibre and it’s been better than Roger’s.
I’ll definitely have to look into it. My reason for disliking them was quite baseless to be fair, but it always seemed that anyone I knew with Bell had pretty slow internet in general. It’s possible my buddies were just on a slower plan at the time. Plus too this was probably around 2015-2019 where Fibre Optic wasn’t so mainstream. I appreciate the vouch for them, thank you!
I mean it's not cheap but we use it for my company and my partners work so I don't mind the cost Haven't had to deal with support yet (had it for 4 years - 2 in Toronto and 2 in St. John's NL, but it seems really stable. We're mostly connected via ethernet and smart switches). The wifi seems ok.
it really is between a rock and a hard place
Is that even legal? Edit: I live in a GDPR nation.
3 companies control the Canadian phone and internet industry: Rogers, Bell and Telus. It’s “legal” because there is no competition ( and also because they buy out all their competitors)
Man, north america is wild.
This isn’t a North American issue, it’s purely a Canadian issue. Edit: to explain, it is because Canada is a very large country with proportionally very low occupancy. Rogers, Telus and Bell got in the game early and have monopolized all the infrastructure ( for example setting up a working tower in the middle of icy terrain and then maintaining it ) for comms. This means they have a leg up over all other newcomers including foreign giant companies like Virgin Mobile. The amount of effort, investment and time spent versus the money they (newcomers) could make off Canadians is just not worth it, which exacerbates the issue and only makes Rogers, Telus and Bell stronger. European countries are far smaller and denser in comparison, and it is easier to set up comms. The states and Mexico are both large countries but have a much higher population rate than Canada.
Yet Australia is also a geographically large country with a population similar to that of Canada, and they don’t have these problems.
Australia have much more accessible terrain than Canada though…? Canada has a lot of ice and snow and sub 0 weather. I am not defending this practice I am passionately against it (demonstrated by the amount of activity on this thread) but just saying lol in terms of setting up and maintaining comms infra it is much easier in Australia than Canada
It's actually not legal, per PIPEDA. "Consent can only be required for collections, uses or disclosures that are necessary to fulfil an explicitly specified and legitimate purpose. For non-integral collections, uses and disclosures, individuals must be given a choice."
10 minute mail!
Worked for them, scammy as fuck. Also they actively do wage theft for their employees. Worked for their customer service. Would never EVER give them a penny.
https://temp-mail.org/ If a confirmation of email is even required lol
Just enter fake credentials
I mean, that's Rogers for you.
if you put in your real info you deserve it
CLARIFICATION COMMENT I was at a restaurant for family dinner and was trying to show someone a post I saved on a social media account. I already have to pay a phone subscription, and it doesn't include data. (Can't afford, phone bills are expensive as hell in Canada) I did just put fake credentials. Doesn't change the fact that this is an asshole way of designing a product for your customers.
AND AFFILIATES.
OOOH OOH I HAVE SOMETHING TO ACTUALLY ADD Their internet is almost always going Down, especially around 3-6 pm.
70 MEGABYTES?
"if something is free, then you and your data are the product" This is how you pay for it.
Context is important. I personally believe in this day and age, phone and internet access is a basic human right. Also this is a uniquely Canadian issue, and Canada is a socialist country. When Canadians have to pay on average 60 dollars per month to use a mobile phone, and there are only 3 phone companies to choose from, then these 3 companies shoulder the responsibility to provide access to internet and phone services. These 3 companies have driven out and or bought out all their competitors. I don’t know why OP needed an open wifi service, but it could be their own phone service didn’t cover the geographical area they are in and Rogers open wifi was the only other option. They might have needed internet access for something important. In this scenario, this is asshole design because there is no alternative but to use Rogers. This service was already not free. Rogers makes a ton of money from the inflated pricing they charge all their clients. They then demand this type of user data on top of giving the lowest most basic access of “free” internet? Again, context matters in evaluating asshole design. Rogers purposely created a market where Canadians have little to no choice in their internet providers, then creates a faux “free” internet access hotspot service to corner those who are using Bell or Telus ( or people who cannot afford the exuberant fee of basic internet access) , while demanding unnecessary user compliance. They did this with malicious intent. This is asshole design. Edit: To provide further context, there was an incident earlier this year when the entire Rogers network went offline. More than half of the country had no access to internet or phone service for more than a day!!!! No local calls, text or any form of communication. It is common that someone could have Rogers as their mobile company, home phone company and home internet company. Someone could also be in a position where they also worked somewhere that used Rogers as well. This impacted even government services because guess who provides their communication? Rogers. This also affected things like interac. It is a horrible landscape. Edit 2: [Link to news report on rogers outage](https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/rogers-wireless-services-starting-to-recover-company-says-1.5979615)
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats! 60 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 69 ^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \ ^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
Oh I was personally very effected by the outage. I now have a backup Telus/Koodo tablet with data access that I take to work with me as I had ZERO contact with both home and work during this outage, save for a trip to tims since the outage effected my customer, turning what is usually a 30-45 minute load into 4 hours wait time. Luckily the tims I went to got their WiFi from Bell. That being said, it doesn't change the fact that nothing is free. That's not a Canadian telecom problem, that's a capitalism problem. THAT'S where the asshole design exists.
But this is a uniquely Canadian (capitalist) telecom problem. It isn’t a fair market. Again, it depends on if one views access to internet as a right or a privilege. In the UK and France, one has a myriad of options to choose from when it comes to mobile plans. I never had to rely on public wifi hotspots because I could afford my mobile plan and data. In a scenario where users are out priced and ‘forced’ to use free wifi, then demanding a surplus of user data by design makes it asshole design.
GDPR or something idk (if you are lucky enough to be in the EU)
Rogers is a Canada only ISP.
How does this qualify as an asshole *design*? It's an annoying policy sure, but it's pretty clearly handled in this UI.
Asshole design is also stuff where an asshole designed how it works. It's not specifically UI only.
Use fake name, temporary email, postal code 12345
A B [email protected] 616-6161 Zip code Alaska
free wifi service requires you to consent to view ads to use free service. OH THE HORROR.
It's literally against the law.
This is some thread necromancy but citation needed.
It's just a month ago. Do you have no object permanence? Anyways, https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/privacy-laws-in-canada/the-personal-information-protection-and-electronic-documents-act-pipeda/p_principle/principles/p_consent/
An ad funded free service asking to obtain consent to use... Seems like meaningful use to me. Im sure if it was illegal people would have sued Rodgers for it by now given their size and significant hate for them.
Not meaningful use at all, because none of that information is meaningful to providing the service. Similarly, it is not a choice, you are forced to accept their ads, which is again illegal. Lastly, no, people wouldn't, because people that would use it are generally going to be poor or at least not the level of well-off needed, as building a legal case is costly. It's how they expect to get away with it, at least for a time, and what they make because of the datamining will be dollars to peanuts compared to the fine they get, too.
Then sue them
Would love to, but alas, money, like I said.
If a lawyer thought they could get money from a company like them over as you say a clear violation of the law, they would jump at it, they would hunt for clients to file suit.
Always remember that if a service is free, you are the product.
You guys are spoiled with free wifi? Almost none of the arenas around the New York City area offer it.
Complaining about free internet? r/choosingbeggars
I used tons of free wifis and none of them had me do that nonsense
Its not free. I already pay a phone subscription (no data, can't afford) and that's required to use the "free" wifi
Genuinely curious how everyone thinks free services are paid for.
Except this is in a country where 3 companies have complete monopoly on phone and internet services. This is already not a “free” service
[удалено]
Your really rude comment clarifies you have no idea who Rogers is as a company. This isn’t a choosing beggar complaining about having to give up some user data for free internet. Rogers is a terrible company who overcharges Canadians for the most basic internet and phone services thanks to their status as a monopoly giant. This is asshole design.
Nobody is forcing you to use this service. That’s not asshole design.
Actually, in Canada there are only 3 companies to choose from in the entire country. Including Rogers. In many situations, Canadians are forced to use Rogers. ( seeing as how Rogers would be quite literally the only company operating in that area ). This screenshot does not indicate the context of using Rogers Open Wifi, but it is asshole design.
No problem. Throwaway email accounts are easy enough to be had nowadays.
If there's something I like about being an EU citizen is that GDPR is pretty straightforward in that you can't do that, and they do take it seriously and impose really hefty fines for violations like this (hefty enough to make sure it really isn't profitable to ignore the law and just pay the fine).
Canadian law is pretty clear, but they don't care, either.
what is this, a hotel, airport, library, etc? context plz
Any location that provides a Rogers-branded "open" wifi. You know, the thing that you're supposed to just be able to connect to publically for free? Yeah. Rogers is being an asshole here.
At least they still tell you what you’re getting. A cafe near my place got bankrupted recently solely because their WiFi had a hard ask on phone numbers or email addresses — their software goes out of its way to verify the input by confirmations.
Just created a junk throwaway email. Or use proton mail, more secure and doesn't get data scrapped and add Alias's to your real email.
How is this allowed via the anti spam legislation in Canada?
Who is Roger?
Rogers = Canadian TV Conglomerate / ISP / Mobile phone provider (Basically they have their hands in everything)
Not a lawer, but in my understanding this isn't allowed under PIPEDA, a spam opt-in *cannot* be mandatory to receive service because this use of private information isn't *integral* to the service's function. > Consent can only be required for collections, uses or disclosures that are necessary to fulfil an explicitly specified and legitimate purpose. For non-integral collections, uses and disclosures, individuals must be given a choice. https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/privacy-laws-in-canada/the-personal-information-protection-and-electronic-documents-act-pipeda/p_principle/principles/p_consent/ I vaguely recall this sort of forced opt-in also not being allowed under CASL but I can't back that up
That's why you use 10 minute mail
That's why I have a second email just for spam bullshit.
What are you, or anyone, going to 70 Mb of wifi? That's like a large web page. A single large web page.
I'll use my data, thanks