Consumer Rights Wiki - User contributions [en]

Data lock-in

2026-02-28T07:50:11Z

SomebodyThatMayContribute: change line 5, 12 cites to https

'''Data lock-in''' limits how device owners can access and manage data stored on the device they own. For example, some mobile applications store user data in a way they can only be viewed from inside the app, with no possibility of creating backups or moving them to external storage to free space. Many social media platforms make it difficult to export data. '''Data portability''' is a more consumer friendly approach, where it is easy to move data from one application or platform to alternatives.

==Incidents==
===Saved pages in Samsung Internet===
The mobile web browser by Samsung stores saved pages in the <code>/data</code> directory. This is a locked-in directory where apps store data only accessible to themselves.

Users have requested Samsung developers to change its browser to store saved pages in a non-locked-in place that makes them accessible from other applications and makes it possible to create backups, or to let users export copies of saved pages, but Samsung refused to implement this change. Some users have stored thousands of web pages this way before realizing they are unable to create backups or move them to external storage.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250806152342/https://forum.developer.samsung.com/t/regarding-saved-webpages/5304/1 Regarding saved webpages - Samsung Internet - Samsung Developer Forums]</ref>

Rooting a device would make the <code>/data</code> folder accessible, but this requires an unlocked bootloader. The process of unlocking the bootloader involves a factory reset, which deletes all user-generated files from internal storage.

In comparison, Google Chrome on mobile stores web pages as MHTML files in the download folder where they are not locked in, and Firefox on mobile completely lacks a feature to save pages.

===Saved pages in Apple Safari on iPhone===
Apple refers to saved pages as the "reading list", a name that implies the feature is intended for storing pages only until they are read, not for archival. Like with Samsung, people have asked for an ability to export saved pages. Apple has not responded.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250806152342/https://forum.developer.samsung.com/t/regarding-saved-webpages/5304/1 How do you EXPORT your Reading List from Safari - Apple Community]</ref>

===User data in mobile web browsers===
No major mobile web browser lets the user export their session (list of opened tabs) and browsing history and bookmarks to a local file. Exporting all tabs may be desirable to start with a fresh session without losing the existing session, and exporting the history makes it easier to search for pages a long time after visiting, beyond what the browser retains.<ref>[https://beepb00p.xyz/sad-infra.html The sad state of personal data and infrastructure] - Karl Icoss ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260203233117/https://beepb00p.xyz/sad-infra.html Archived])</ref>

Some web browsers have a "Sync" feature that allows synchronizing tabs and bookmarks across devices, but it is cloud-based, meaning it depends on an online service that can cease to operate at any time.<ref>[https://karl-voit.at/cloud/ You Can't Control Your Data in the Cloud] - Karl Voit ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260202071758/https://karl-voit.at/cloud/ Archived])</ref><ref>[https://workona.com/pages/how-to-export-chrome-bookmarks/ How to Export Chrome Bookmarks for the Last Time] - Workona ([http://web.archive.org/web/20251126072849/https://workona.com/pages/how-to-export-chrome-bookmarks/ Archived])</ref>

===Text messages===
The built-in text messaging applications of both Android and iOS lack a built-in local export option.

On Android, the third-party app "SMS Backup+" can create exports, but they can not be directly stored locally, only uploaded to the middleman GMail, which requires Internet connection and a Google account, and can cease to function at any time due to Google API changes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250314125929/https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/974 Feature request: save to local file · Issue #974 · jberkel/sms-backup-plus · GitHub]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250313124817/https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/1110 SMS -Backup+ unable to log into my email to backup SMS messages · Issue #1110 · jberkel/sms-backup-plus · GitHub]</ref>

On iOS, exporting apps require payment, an external computer, and save as PDF, resulting in much larger files than plain text.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20251111204709/https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255416051?sortBy=rank Export iMessage conversation - Apple Community]</ref><ref>[https://megalodon.jp/2026-0228-1623-45/https://discussions.apple.com:443/thread/255674743?sortBy=rank I want to download my messages to an external drive (flash drive) - Apple Community]</ref>

Chat messages can be archived manually with screenshots and screen recordings, but this takes lots of time and manual work, and the resulting files can not be searched for text and will be much larger in size than a plain text-based export would be.

[[WhatsApp]] lets the user export messages to a text file, but this has to be done for each conversation individually, and starting with an April 2025 update, exporting can be remotely disabled by the other participant.<ref>[https://archive.today/2025.08.28-001731/https://faq.whatsapp.com/715385484388016/?cms_platform=web About advanced chat privacy | WhatsApp Help Center]</ref>

===Android data folder===
Since Android 11, apps can no longer browse the <code>Android/data</code> folder in the shared user storage (not to be confused with <code>/data</code>, which was locked in since the beginning).<ref>[https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage Storage updates in Android 11 | Android Developers]: If your app targets Android 11, it cannot access the files in any other app's data directory, even if the other app targets Android 8.1 (API level 27) or lower and has made the files in its data directory world-readable ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260130032658/https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage Archived]).</ref>

===Videos downloaded inside the YouTube app===
YouTube provides no official way for people to create permanent local copies of videos. This includes Creative Commons media.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 07:20</ref> The only exception is YouTube Studio allowing channel owners to download their own videos in up to 720p.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6UHS1-vDMM Changes to Unlisted Videos Uploaded Before 2017], 4:30 ([https://preservetube.com/watch?v=l6UHS1-vDMM Archived])</ref>

While the YouTube app lets paying YouTube Premium subscribers download videos for offline viewing, the videos are only accessible through the YouTube app, encoded in a proprietary format, and forcibly deleted after 29 days.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 06:41</ref><ref>[https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7381437 YouTube videos offline FAQs - YouTube Help] ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260207132551/https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7381437 Archived])</ref><ref>[https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3383/warning-youtube-premium-downloads-arent-mp4-files Warning: Youtube Premium "Downloads" aren't MP4 Files - Virtual Curiosities] ([http://web.archive.org/web/20251126100053/https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3383/warning-youtube-premium-downloads-arent-mp4-files Archived])</ref><ref>[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.html What's Wrong with YouTube - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20260216041246/https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.html Archived])</ref>

Permanent local copies are necessary to preserve Internet history when YouTube ceases to operate:
<blockquote>
Whenever I tell people that we need to plan for the day when YouTube goes offline, I mostly receive weird reactions. It seems to be the case that people can't think of YouTube being gone. Unfortunately, I'm convinced that most people will face the day when we lose this enormous library of videos.
</blockquote>
<ref>[https://karl-voit.at/cloud-dependencies/ My Dependencies on the Cloud] - Karl Voit ([https://web.archive.org/web/20260216041319/https://karl-voit.at/cloud-dependencies/ Archived])</ref>

===Telekom Entertain media receiver recordings===
The German Telekom, an Internet and Internet Television provider, sells landline Internet television receivers and recorders. A former product line were the "Entertain" Media Receiver 300, 301, 303, and 500. (The 100 and 102 were secondary devices with no internal hard drives. The others had hard drives between 160 and 500 GB.<ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-101349/https://www.telekom-profis.de/vermitteln/news/media-receiver-mr-102-wieder-erhaeltlich-60.html Media Receiver MR 102 wieder erhältlich! - Telekom Profis] (June 2011)</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/manualzilla-id-6725650 Media Receiver 100] (user manual)</ref><ref>[https://www.woogmedia.de:443/downloads/BDA_MR300.pdf Media Receiver 300 Bedienungsanleitung] (user manual) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260210175058/https://www.woogmedia.de/downloads/BDA_MR300.pdf Archived])</ref><ref name="MR300">[https://www.hifitest.de/test/stereoanlage-und-komplettanlage/deutsche-telekom-t-home-media-receiver-300-380 Deutsche Telekom T-Home Media Receiver 300] - hifitest.de (June 2009) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260208092154/https://www.hifitest.de/test/stereoanlage-und-komplettanlage/deutsche-telekom-t-home-media-receiver-300-380 Archived])</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-101343/https://www.golem.de/1101/80856.html Media Receiver 303: Neuer Festplattenrekorder für Telekom Entertain - Golem.de] (January 2011)</ref><ref name="MR500" />)

Their operating systems were designed in a way that they would not boot without connecting to Telekom servers, and the devices stored the television recordings on their internal hard drive in a proprietary format, and provided the user with no means of copying or moving recordings to external media such as an external flash drive or hard drive, meaning users were forced to delete recordings when running out of disk space. While the devices featured up to two USB ports, some even an eSATA port, they had no use other than supplying electrical power.<ref name="MR500">[https://www.hifitest.de/test/sat-receiver-mit-festplatte/deutsche-telekom-media-receiver-500-sat-6114 Deutsche Telekom Media Receiver 500 Sat] - hifitest.de (June 2012) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20250621145244/https://www.hifitest.de/test/sat-receiver-mit-festplatte/deutsche-telekom-media-receiver-500-sat-6114 Archived])</ref><ref name="MR300" /><ref>[https://telekom.tarife-angebote.de/magenta-zuhause/entertain/media-receiver-empfaenger/mr303-iptv-festplattenrekorder Telekom Media-Receiver 303 (MR303 Festplattenrekorder)] - telekom.tarife-angebote.de ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260127112814/https://telekom.tarife-angebote.de/magenta-zuhause/entertain/media-receiver-empfaenger/mr303-iptv-festplattenrekorder Archived])</ref>

In 2019, its users lost access to all recordings stored locally on the devices when the online service their operating system depended on was shut down. The devices were in service for eight years (since 2011), meaning users would lose access to up to eight years of television recordings.<ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-095619/https://web.archive.org/web/20190825100604/https://www.telekom.com/de/konzern/details/magentatv-loest-entertain-ab-558808 MagentaTV löst Entertain ab | Deutsche Telekom]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210412055921/https://www.onlinekosten.de/news/telekom-zieht-2019-beim-alten-entertain-den-stecker_214313.html Telekom zieht 2019 beim alten "Entertain" den Stecker]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Enshittification]]
*[[Right to own]]

==References==
<references />
[[Category:Common terms]]

Data lock-in

2026-02-28T07:42:40Z

SomebodyThatMayContribute: replaced cite to closest available (20250806 compared to 2024.10.12 on AT;) on IA (as the original page doesn't exists - for any more recent capture

'''Data lock-in''' limits how device owners can access and manage data stored on the device they own. For example, some mobile applications store user data in a way they can only be viewed from inside the app, with no possibility of creating backups or moving them to external storage to free space. Many social media platforms make it difficult to export data. '''Data portability''' is a more consumer friendly approach, where it is easy to move data from one application or platform to alternatives.

==Incidents==
===Saved pages in Samsung Internet===
The mobile web browser by Samsung stores saved pages in the <code>/data</code> directory. This is a locked-in directory where apps store data only accessible to themselves.

Users have requested Samsung developers to change its browser to store saved pages in a non-locked-in place that makes them accessible from other applications and makes it possible to create backups, or to let users export copies of saved pages, but Samsung refused to implement this change. Some users have stored thousands of web pages this way before realizing they are unable to create backups or move them to external storage.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20250806152342/https://forum.developer.samsung.com/t/regarding-saved-webpages/5304/1 Regarding saved webpages - Samsung Internet - Samsung Developer Forums]</ref>

Rooting a device would make the <code>/data</code> folder accessible, but this requires an unlocked bootloader. The process of unlocking the bootloader involves a factory reset, which deletes all user-generated files from internal storage.

In comparison, Google Chrome on mobile stores web pages as MHTML files in the download folder where they are not locked in, and Firefox on mobile completely lacks a feature to save pages.

===Saved pages in Apple Safari on iPhone===
Apple refers to saved pages as the "reading list", a name that implies the feature is intended for storing pages only until they are read, not for archival. Like with Samsung, people have asked for an ability to export saved pages. Apple has not responded.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20250806152342/https://forum.developer.samsung.com/t/regarding-saved-webpages/5304/1 How do you EXPORT your Reading List from Safari - Apple Community]</ref>

===User data in mobile web browsers===
No major mobile web browser lets the user export their session (list of opened tabs) and browsing history and bookmarks to a local file. Exporting all tabs may be desirable to start with a fresh session without losing the existing session, and exporting the history makes it easier to search for pages a long time after visiting, beyond what the browser retains.<ref>[https://beepb00p.xyz/sad-infra.html The sad state of personal data and infrastructure] - Karl Icoss ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260203233117/https://beepb00p.xyz/sad-infra.html Archived])</ref>

Some web browsers have a "Sync" feature that allows synchronizing tabs and bookmarks across devices, but it is cloud-based, meaning it depends on an online service that can cease to operate at any time.<ref>[https://karl-voit.at/cloud/ You Can't Control Your Data in the Cloud] - Karl Voit ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260202071758/https://karl-voit.at/cloud/ Archived])</ref><ref>[https://workona.com/pages/how-to-export-chrome-bookmarks/ How to Export Chrome Bookmarks for the Last Time] - Workona ([http://web.archive.org/web/20251126072849/https://workona.com/pages/how-to-export-chrome-bookmarks/ Archived])</ref>

===Text messages===
The built-in text messaging applications of both Android and iOS lack a built-in local export option.

On Android, the third-party app "SMS Backup+" can create exports, but they can not be directly stored locally, only uploaded to the middleman GMail, which requires Internet connection and a Google account, and can cease to function at any time due to Google API changes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250314125929/https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/974 Feature request: save to local file · Issue #974 · jberkel/sms-backup-plus · GitHub]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250313124817/https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/1110 SMS -Backup+ unable to log into my email to backup SMS messages · Issue #1110 · jberkel/sms-backup-plus · GitHub]</ref>

On iOS, exporting apps require payment, an external computer, and save as PDF, resulting in much larger files than plain text.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20251111204709/https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255416051?sortBy=rank Export iMessage conversation - Apple Community]</ref><ref>[https://megalodon.jp/2026-0228-1623-45/https://discussions.apple.com:443/thread/255674743?sortBy=rank I want to download my messages to an external drive (flash drive) - Apple Community]</ref>

Chat messages can be archived manually with screenshots and screen recordings, but this takes lots of time and manual work, and the resulting files can not be searched for text and will be much larger in size than a plain text-based export would be.

[[WhatsApp]] lets the user export messages to a text file, but this has to be done for each conversation individually, and starting with an April 2025 update, exporting can be remotely disabled by the other participant.<ref>[https://archive.today/2025.08.28-001731/https://faq.whatsapp.com/715385484388016/?cms_platform=web About advanced chat privacy | WhatsApp Help Center]</ref>

===Android data folder===
Since Android 11, apps can no longer browse the <code>Android/data</code> folder in the shared user storage (not to be confused with <code>/data</code>, which was locked in since the beginning).<ref>[https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage Storage updates in Android 11 | Android Developers]: If your app targets Android 11, it cannot access the files in any other app's data directory, even if the other app targets Android 8.1 (API level 27) or lower and has made the files in its data directory world-readable ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260130032658/https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage Archived]).</ref>

===Videos downloaded inside the YouTube app===
YouTube provides no official way for people to create permanent local copies of videos. This includes Creative Commons media.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 07:20</ref> The only exception is YouTube Studio allowing channel owners to download their own videos in up to 720p.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6UHS1-vDMM Changes to Unlisted Videos Uploaded Before 2017], 4:30 ([https://preservetube.com/watch?v=l6UHS1-vDMM Archived])</ref>

While the YouTube app lets paying YouTube Premium subscribers download videos for offline viewing, the videos are only accessible through the YouTube app, encoded in a proprietary format, and forcibly deleted after 29 days.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 06:41</ref><ref>[https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7381437 YouTube videos offline FAQs - YouTube Help] ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260207132551/https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7381437 Archived])</ref><ref>[https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3383/warning-youtube-premium-downloads-arent-mp4-files Warning: Youtube Premium "Downloads" aren't MP4 Files - Virtual Curiosities] ([http://web.archive.org/web/20251126100053/https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3383/warning-youtube-premium-downloads-arent-mp4-files Archived])</ref><ref>[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.html What's Wrong with YouTube - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20260216041246/https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.html Archived])</ref>

Permanent local copies are necessary to preserve Internet history when YouTube ceases to operate:
<blockquote>
Whenever I tell people that we need to plan for the day when YouTube goes offline, I mostly receive weird reactions. It seems to be the case that people can't think of YouTube being gone. Unfortunately, I'm convinced that most people will face the day when we lose this enormous library of videos.
</blockquote>
<ref>[https://karl-voit.at/cloud-dependencies/ My Dependencies on the Cloud] - Karl Voit ([https://web.archive.org/web/20260216041319/https://karl-voit.at/cloud-dependencies/ Archived])</ref>

===Telekom Entertain media receiver recordings===
The German Telekom, an Internet and Internet Television provider, sells landline Internet television receivers and recorders. A former product line were the "Entertain" Media Receiver 300, 301, 303, and 500. (The 100 and 102 were secondary devices with no internal hard drives. The others had hard drives between 160 and 500 GB.<ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-101349/https://www.telekom-profis.de/vermitteln/news/media-receiver-mr-102-wieder-erhaeltlich-60.html Media Receiver MR 102 wieder erhältlich! - Telekom Profis] (June 2011)</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/manualzilla-id-6725650 Media Receiver 100] (user manual)</ref><ref>[https://www.woogmedia.de:443/downloads/BDA_MR300.pdf Media Receiver 300 Bedienungsanleitung] (user manual) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260210175058/https://www.woogmedia.de/downloads/BDA_MR300.pdf Archived])</ref><ref name="MR300">[https://www.hifitest.de/test/stereoanlage-und-komplettanlage/deutsche-telekom-t-home-media-receiver-300-380 Deutsche Telekom T-Home Media Receiver 300] - hifitest.de (June 2009) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260208092154/https://www.hifitest.de/test/stereoanlage-und-komplettanlage/deutsche-telekom-t-home-media-receiver-300-380 Archived])</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-101343/https://www.golem.de/1101/80856.html Media Receiver 303: Neuer Festplattenrekorder für Telekom Entertain - Golem.de] (January 2011)</ref><ref name="MR500" />)

Their operating systems were designed in a way that they would not boot without connecting to Telekom servers, and the devices stored the television recordings on their internal hard drive in a proprietary format, and provided the user with no means of copying or moving recordings to external media such as an external flash drive or hard drive, meaning users were forced to delete recordings when running out of disk space. While the devices featured up to two USB ports, some even an eSATA port, they had no use other than supplying electrical power.<ref name="MR500">[https://www.hifitest.de/test/sat-receiver-mit-festplatte/deutsche-telekom-media-receiver-500-sat-6114 Deutsche Telekom Media Receiver 500 Sat] - hifitest.de (June 2012) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20250621145244/https://www.hifitest.de/test/sat-receiver-mit-festplatte/deutsche-telekom-media-receiver-500-sat-6114 Archived])</ref><ref name="MR300" /><ref>[https://telekom.tarife-angebote.de/magenta-zuhause/entertain/media-receiver-empfaenger/mr303-iptv-festplattenrekorder Telekom Media-Receiver 303 (MR303 Festplattenrekorder)] - telekom.tarife-angebote.de ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260127112814/https://telekom.tarife-angebote.de/magenta-zuhause/entertain/media-receiver-empfaenger/mr303-iptv-festplattenrekorder Archived])</ref>

In 2019, its users lost access to all recordings stored locally on the devices when the online service their operating system depended on was shut down. The devices were in service for eight years (since 2011), meaning users would lose access to up to eight years of television recordings.<ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-095619/https://web.archive.org/web/20190825100604/https://www.telekom.com/de/konzern/details/magentatv-loest-entertain-ab-558808 MagentaTV löst Entertain ab | Deutsche Telekom]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210412055921/https://www.onlinekosten.de/news/telekom-zieht-2019-beim-alten-entertain-den-stecker_214313.html Telekom zieht 2019 beim alten "Entertain" den Stecker]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Enshittification]]
*[[Right to own]]

==References==
<references />
[[Category:Common terms]]

Data lock-in

2026-02-28T07:37:52Z

SomebodyThatMayContribute: replaced cite to closest available (20250806 compared to 2025.10.10 on AT) on IA (as the original page doesn't exists - for any more recent capture)

'''Data lock-in''' limits how device owners can access and manage data stored on the device they own. For example, some mobile applications store user data in a way they can only be viewed from inside the app, with no possibility of creating backups or moving them to external storage to free space. Many social media platforms make it difficult to export data. '''Data portability''' is a more consumer friendly approach, where it is easy to move data from one application or platform to alternatives.

==Incidents==
===Saved pages in Samsung Internet===
The mobile web browser by Samsung stores saved pages in the <code>/data</code> directory. This is a locked-in directory where apps store data only accessible to themselves.

Users have requested Samsung developers to change its browser to store saved pages in a non-locked-in place that makes them accessible from other applications and makes it possible to create backups, or to let users export copies of saved pages, but Samsung refused to implement this change. Some users have stored thousands of web pages this way before realizing they are unable to create backups or move them to external storage.<ref>[https://archive.today/2024.10.12-140435/https://forum.developer.samsung.com/t/regarding-saved-webpages/5304/1 Regarding saved webpages - Samsung Internet - Samsung Developer Forums]</ref>

Rooting a device would make the <code>/data</code> folder accessible, but this requires an unlocked bootloader. The process of unlocking the bootloader involves a factory reset, which deletes all user-generated files from internal storage.

In comparison, Google Chrome on mobile stores web pages as MHTML files in the download folder where they are not locked in, and Firefox on mobile completely lacks a feature to save pages.

===Saved pages in Apple Safari on iPhone===
Apple refers to saved pages as the "reading list", a name that implies the feature is intended for storing pages only until they are read, not for archival. Like with Samsung, people have asked for an ability to export saved pages. Apple has not responded.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20250806152342/https://forum.developer.samsung.com/t/regarding-saved-webpages/5304/1 How do you EXPORT your Reading List from Safari - Apple Community]</ref>

===User data in mobile web browsers===
No major mobile web browser lets the user export their session (list of opened tabs) and browsing history and bookmarks to a local file. Exporting all tabs may be desirable to start with a fresh session without losing the existing session, and exporting the history makes it easier to search for pages a long time after visiting, beyond what the browser retains.<ref>[https://beepb00p.xyz/sad-infra.html The sad state of personal data and infrastructure] - Karl Icoss ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260203233117/https://beepb00p.xyz/sad-infra.html Archived])</ref>

Some web browsers have a "Sync" feature that allows synchronizing tabs and bookmarks across devices, but it is cloud-based, meaning it depends on an online service that can cease to operate at any time.<ref>[https://karl-voit.at/cloud/ You Can't Control Your Data in the Cloud] - Karl Voit ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260202071758/https://karl-voit.at/cloud/ Archived])</ref><ref>[https://workona.com/pages/how-to-export-chrome-bookmarks/ How to Export Chrome Bookmarks for the Last Time] - Workona ([http://web.archive.org/web/20251126072849/https://workona.com/pages/how-to-export-chrome-bookmarks/ Archived])</ref>

===Text messages===
The built-in text messaging applications of both Android and iOS lack a built-in local export option.

On Android, the third-party app "SMS Backup+" can create exports, but they can not be directly stored locally, only uploaded to the middleman GMail, which requires Internet connection and a Google account, and can cease to function at any time due to Google API changes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250314125929/https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/974 Feature request: save to local file · Issue #974 · jberkel/sms-backup-plus · GitHub]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250313124817/https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/1110 SMS -Backup+ unable to log into my email to backup SMS messages · Issue #1110 · jberkel/sms-backup-plus · GitHub]</ref>

On iOS, exporting apps require payment, an external computer, and save as PDF, resulting in much larger files than plain text.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20251111204709/https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255416051?sortBy=rank Export iMessage conversation - Apple Community]</ref><ref>[https://megalodon.jp/2026-0228-1623-45/https://discussions.apple.com:443/thread/255674743?sortBy=rank I want to download my messages to an external drive (flash drive) - Apple Community]</ref>

Chat messages can be archived manually with screenshots and screen recordings, but this takes lots of time and manual work, and the resulting files can not be searched for text and will be much larger in size than a plain text-based export would be.

[[WhatsApp]] lets the user export messages to a text file, but this has to be done for each conversation individually, and starting with an April 2025 update, exporting can be remotely disabled by the other participant.<ref>[https://archive.today/2025.08.28-001731/https://faq.whatsapp.com/715385484388016/?cms_platform=web About advanced chat privacy | WhatsApp Help Center]</ref>

===Android data folder===
Since Android 11, apps can no longer browse the <code>Android/data</code> folder in the shared user storage (not to be confused with <code>/data</code>, which was locked in since the beginning).<ref>[https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage Storage updates in Android 11 | Android Developers]: If your app targets Android 11, it cannot access the files in any other app's data directory, even if the other app targets Android 8.1 (API level 27) or lower and has made the files in its data directory world-readable ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260130032658/https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage Archived]).</ref>

===Videos downloaded inside the YouTube app===
YouTube provides no official way for people to create permanent local copies of videos. This includes Creative Commons media.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 07:20</ref> The only exception is YouTube Studio allowing channel owners to download their own videos in up to 720p.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6UHS1-vDMM Changes to Unlisted Videos Uploaded Before 2017], 4:30 ([https://preservetube.com/watch?v=l6UHS1-vDMM Archived])</ref>

While the YouTube app lets paying YouTube Premium subscribers download videos for offline viewing, the videos are only accessible through the YouTube app, encoded in a proprietary format, and forcibly deleted after 29 days.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 06:41</ref><ref>[https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7381437 YouTube videos offline FAQs - YouTube Help] ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260207132551/https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7381437 Archived])</ref><ref>[https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3383/warning-youtube-premium-downloads-arent-mp4-files Warning: Youtube Premium "Downloads" aren't MP4 Files - Virtual Curiosities] ([http://web.archive.org/web/20251126100053/https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3383/warning-youtube-premium-downloads-arent-mp4-files Archived])</ref><ref>[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.html What's Wrong with YouTube - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20260216041246/https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.html Archived])</ref>

Permanent local copies are necessary to preserve Internet history when YouTube ceases to operate:
<blockquote>
Whenever I tell people that we need to plan for the day when YouTube goes offline, I mostly receive weird reactions. It seems to be the case that people can't think of YouTube being gone. Unfortunately, I'm convinced that most people will face the day when we lose this enormous library of videos.
</blockquote>
<ref>[https://karl-voit.at/cloud-dependencies/ My Dependencies on the Cloud] - Karl Voit ([https://web.archive.org/web/20260216041319/https://karl-voit.at/cloud-dependencies/ Archived])</ref>

===Telekom Entertain media receiver recordings===
The German Telekom, an Internet and Internet Television provider, sells landline Internet television receivers and recorders. A former product line were the "Entertain" Media Receiver 300, 301, 303, and 500. (The 100 and 102 were secondary devices with no internal hard drives. The others had hard drives between 160 and 500 GB.<ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-101349/https://www.telekom-profis.de/vermitteln/news/media-receiver-mr-102-wieder-erhaeltlich-60.html Media Receiver MR 102 wieder erhältlich! - Telekom Profis] (June 2011)</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/manualzilla-id-6725650 Media Receiver 100] (user manual)</ref><ref>[https://www.woogmedia.de:443/downloads/BDA_MR300.pdf Media Receiver 300 Bedienungsanleitung] (user manual) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260210175058/https://www.woogmedia.de/downloads/BDA_MR300.pdf Archived])</ref><ref name="MR300">[https://www.hifitest.de/test/stereoanlage-und-komplettanlage/deutsche-telekom-t-home-media-receiver-300-380 Deutsche Telekom T-Home Media Receiver 300] - hifitest.de (June 2009) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260208092154/https://www.hifitest.de/test/stereoanlage-und-komplettanlage/deutsche-telekom-t-home-media-receiver-300-380 Archived])</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-101343/https://www.golem.de/1101/80856.html Media Receiver 303: Neuer Festplattenrekorder für Telekom Entertain - Golem.de] (January 2011)</ref><ref name="MR500" />)

Their operating systems were designed in a way that they would not boot without connecting to Telekom servers, and the devices stored the television recordings on their internal hard drive in a proprietary format, and provided the user with no means of copying or moving recordings to external media such as an external flash drive or hard drive, meaning users were forced to delete recordings when running out of disk space. While the devices featured up to two USB ports, some even an eSATA port, they had no use other than supplying electrical power.<ref name="MR500">[https://www.hifitest.de/test/sat-receiver-mit-festplatte/deutsche-telekom-media-receiver-500-sat-6114 Deutsche Telekom Media Receiver 500 Sat] - hifitest.de (June 2012) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20250621145244/https://www.hifitest.de/test/sat-receiver-mit-festplatte/deutsche-telekom-media-receiver-500-sat-6114 Archived])</ref><ref name="MR300" /><ref>[https://telekom.tarife-angebote.de/magenta-zuhause/entertain/media-receiver-empfaenger/mr303-iptv-festplattenrekorder Telekom Media-Receiver 303 (MR303 Festplattenrekorder)] - telekom.tarife-angebote.de ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260127112814/https://telekom.tarife-angebote.de/magenta-zuhause/entertain/media-receiver-empfaenger/mr303-iptv-festplattenrekorder Archived])</ref>

In 2019, its users lost access to all recordings stored locally on the devices when the online service their operating system depended on was shut down. The devices were in service for eight years (since 2011), meaning users would lose access to up to eight years of television recordings.<ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-095619/https://web.archive.org/web/20190825100604/https://www.telekom.com/de/konzern/details/magentatv-loest-entertain-ab-558808 MagentaTV löst Entertain ab | Deutsche Telekom]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210412055921/https://www.onlinekosten.de/news/telekom-zieht-2019-beim-alten-entertain-den-stecker_214313.html Telekom zieht 2019 beim alten "Entertain" den Stecker]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Enshittification]]
*[[Right to own]]

==References==
<references />
[[Category:Common terms]]

Persona

2026-02-28T07:33:30Z

SomebodyThatMayContribute: replaced redact.dev cite to ghostarchive (archived it today) as IA doesn't support/want it.

{{CompanyCargo
|Logo=Persona.png
|Type=Private
|Website=https://withpersona.com/
|Description=Identity Verification
|Industry=Software}}

Persona is an Identity Verification company, founded in 2018 by Rick Song and Charles Yeh. It is funded by Founders Fund<ref>{{Cite web |title=Persona |url=https://foundersfund.com/company/persona/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260228040423/https://foundersfund.com/company/persona/ |archive-date=2026-02-28 |website=Founders Fund}}</ref> which is an adventure capitalist firm c-founded by Peter Theil.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Peter Thiel |url=https://foundersfund.com/team/peter-thiel/ |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160528193728/http://foundersfund.com/team/peter-thiel/ |archive-date=2016-05-28 |website=Founders Fund}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Redacto |date=2026-02-16 |title=Discord Tested Age Verification Vendor Persona: What Users Should Know |url=https://redact.dev/blog/discord-persona-age-verification-experiment |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/PAWXp |archive-date=2026-02-26 |website=redact.dev}}</ref> 

From the 14th July 2025 they started working with [[Reddit]] to perform ID checks on it's UK site, as part of the UK's Online Safety Act.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2025-07-14 |title=Reddit starts verifying ages of users in the UK |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj4ep1znk4zo |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260225142635/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj4ep1znk4zo |archive-date=2026-02-25 |access-date=2026-02-20 |work=BBC News}}</ref>

In February 2026 [[Discord]] announced they would be experimenting with Persona to perform ID checks worldwide.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bubbles |date=2026-02-24 |title=How to Complete Age Assurance on Discord |url=https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/30326565624343-How-to-Complete-Age-Assurance-on-Discord |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260212201755/https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/30326565624343-How-to-Complete-Age-Assurance-on-Discord |archive-date=2026-02-12 |website=Discord}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2026-02-09 |title=Discord is rolling out facial scanning and ID checks globally in March for users who don't want to be locked into a 'teen-appropriate experience' |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/games/discord-is-rolling-out-facial-scanning-and-id-checks-in-march-for-everyone-who-doesnt-want-to-be-locked-into-a-teen-appropriate-experience/ |url-status=live |access-date=2026-02-20 |work=PC Gamer |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260214175605/https://www.pcgamer.com/games/discord-is-rolling-out-facial-scanning-and-id-checks-in-march-for-everyone-who-doesnt-want-to-be-locked-into-a-teen-appropriate-experience/ |archive-date=14 Feb 2026}}</ref>

==Consumer-impact summary==
===User Freedom===
Products and services with the services provided by Persona usually block functionalities and content (generally content or functionalities flagged as "adult" content) until the verification is complete or bypassed. If the user is verified as an adult, they'll be able to have total or most access to the content of that product or service.

Their Privacy Policy contains [[forced arbitration]] that applies to users belonging to the United States:<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |author=Persona |date=18 Nov 2025 |title=Privacy Policy |url=https://withpersona.com/legal/privacy-policy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260224203606/https://withpersona.com/legal/privacy-policy |archive-date=2026-02-24 |access-date=24 Feb 2026 |website=Persona}}</ref>
{{Quote| YOU (IF YOUR ARE A RESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES) AND PERSONA IDENTITIES, INC., INCLUDING ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, SUCCESSORS, AND ASSIGNS (“COMPANY”) AGREE THAT ANY PROCEEDINGS TO RESOLVE OR LITIGATE ANY DISPUTE WILL BE CONDUCTED SOLELY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS, AND THAT NEITHER YOU NOR COMPANY WILL SEEK TO HAVE ANY DISPUTE HEARD AS A CLASS ACTION, A REPRESENTATIVE ACTION, A COLLECTIVE ACTION, A PRIVATE ATTORNEY-GENERAL ACTION, OR IN ANY PROCEEDING IN WHICH YOU OR COMPANY ACTS OR PROPOSES TO ACT IN A REPRESENTATIVE CAPACITY. YOU AND COMPANY FURTHER AGREE THAT NO PROCEEDING WILL BE JOINED, CONSOLIDATED, OR COMBINED WITH ANOTHER PROCEEDING WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT OF YOU, COMPANY, AND ALL PARTIES TO ANY SUCH PROCEEDING. THIS CLASS ACTION WAIVER COVERS ALL DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND COMPANY AND ALSO INCLUDES ANY DISPUTE BETWEEN YOU AND ANY OFFICER, DIRECTOR, BOARD MEMBER, AGENT, EMPLOYEE, VENDOR, AFFILIATE, OR CLIENT OF COMPANY, IF COMPANY COULD BE LIABLE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, FOR SUCH DISPUTE.

THE TERM “DISPUTE” SHALL BE INTERPRETED AS BROADLY AS PERMITTED UNDER THE LAW AND SHALL APPLY TO ALL PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE LEGAL DISPUTES AND LEGAL CLAIMS BETWEEN YOU AND COMPANY THAT ARE NOW IN EXISTENCE OR THAT MAY ARISE IN THE FUTURE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO LEGAL DISPUTES OR LEGAL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING IN ANY WAY TO THESE TERMS, THE COLLECTION OF FACIAL SCANS OR BIOMETRIC INFORMATION, THE PRIVACY POLICY OR COMPANY’S SERVICES; YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH COMPANY; YOUR USE OF ANY COMPANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE; COMPANY’S CONDUCT; AND ANY FEDERAL, STATE, OR LOCAL STATUTE, LAW, RULE, REGULATION OR ORDINANCE APPLICABLE TO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND COMPANY AS TO WHICH A COURT WOULD BE AUTHORIZED BY LAW TO GRANT RELIEF IF THE CLAIM WERE SUCCESSFUL (“DISPUTE” OR “DISPUTES”).}}
===User Privacy===
Information submitted by users can be retained up to three years. This data might be used to track the user's identity or to train AI models.
Examples of data collected are:
*Name and contact information
*Demographic data
*Uploaded files
*Government documents, barcodes and identifiers
*Audio, videos and images
===Business Model===
Persona provides their services to products and services like social media or video games.
===Market Control===

==Privacy Concerns==
Persona has raised privacy concerns due to the extensive amount of data they collect and process to verify an user's identity. According to their Privacy Policy, this is the type of data they collect<ref name=":0" />:
{{Quote| You may directly provide:

*Name and contact information, including name, email address, address, and phone number;

*Demographic data, including birthdate and age;

*Files you upload, such as tax forms and utility bills;

*Government documents, barcodes, and identifiers, such as driver's license and Social Security Number; and

*Audio, Video, and Photos of you, namely from the selfie or video you provide and from your government identification document.}}

The Privacy Policy also mentions additional data that might be collected by third-parties<ref name=":0" />:
{{Quote| Our Services may also collect the following from you, our Customer, or third parties:

*Current and previous name and contact information, including name, email address, address, and phone number;

*Demographic data, including birthdate and age, gender, marital status, and similar demographic details;

*Government documents, barcodes, and identifiers, such as drivers license and Social Security Numbers;

*Device information, including IP address, device type, your device’s operating system, browser, cookie and device identifiers, and other software including type, version, language, settings, and configuration;

*Account information, such as details about your account with our Customer or other third parties;

*Publicly available data, including data from governmental public records, the public internet and social media;

*Geolocation data as we may infer your general geographic location (such as city, state, and country) based on your IP address;

*Biometric Data, only with your express consent, including a scan of your facial geometry based on the photos or video you provide. For more information about Biometric Data, see the Facial Scan and Biometrics Information section below.}}

==Incidents==

This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the [[:Category:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|{{PAGENAME}} category]].

===AI-Powered Ages Verification leads to inaccurate age verification on Roblox ''(Jan 2026)''===
Children were being identified as adults and vice versa on [[Roblox]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gilbert |first=David |date=2026-01-13 |title=Roblox’s AI-Powered Age Verification Is a Complete Mess |url=https://www.wired.com/story/robloxs-ai-powered-age-verification-is-a-complete-mess/ |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260226005411/https://www.wired.com/story/robloxs-ai-powered-age-verification-is-a-complete-mess/ |archive-date=2026-02-26 |access-date=2026-02-20 |website=Wired}}</ref> The age verification restricted who the users could talk to. This implementation was criticised as not helping to address safety concerns, and harming the user experience.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2026-01-09 |title=Age Check to Chat Update & Fast Follow Roadmap |url=https://devforum.roblox.com/t/age-check-to-chat-update-fast-follow-roadmap/4238626/5 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260203031742/https://devforum.roblox.com/t/age-check-to-chat-update-fast-follow-roadmap/4238626/5 |archive-date=3 Feb 2026 |access-date=2026-01-20 |website=devforum.roblox.com}}</ref>

===User tracking and ties with the US government===
On the 16th of February, 2026, a security researcher known as Celeste published an article showing that Persona was building profiles on users and sharing said profiles with the US government, even having a flagging system to flag users that seem suspicious. A code to track cypto-addresses has also been found.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Celeste |date=2026-02-16 |title=the watchers: how openai, the US government, and persona built an identity surveillance machine that files reports on you to the feds |url=https://vmfunc.re/blog/persona |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260221231714/https://vmfunc.re/blog/persona |archive-date=2026-02-21 |website=vmfunc.re}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Celeste |date=2026-02-24 |title=the watchers, pt. 2: the correspondence |url=https://vmfunc.re/blog/persona-2 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260225233304/https://vmfunc.re/blog/persona-2 |archive-date=2026-02-25 |access-date=2026-02-26 |website=vmfunc.re}}</ref> Alongside that, it was also discovered that 269 different checks were used for verification, which included things like phone carrier queries and death record matching. With their privacy policy hiding these checks under vague terms like "public government documents".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-12-04 |title=Privacy Policy |url=https://withpersona.com/legal/privacy-policy-roblox |url-status=live |archive-url= |website=Persona}}</ref> 

==Products==
*Identity Verification (2021)
*Age Verification (2025)

==Clients==
Persona provides their service to these companies and products:{{CitationNeeded}}
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
|+
!'''Company/Product'''
!'''Used for'''
!Additional notes
|-
|Brex
|
|
|-
|Carahsoft
|
|
|-
|Coursera
|
|
|-
|[[Discord]]
|Age Verification
|Discord claimed they allegedly ceased partnership with Persona and that the usage of their service was for "experimental" purposes in the United Kingdom.
|-
|DoorDash
|
|
|-
|Eaze
|
|
|-
|[[Etsy]]
|
|
|-
|Fire & Flower Holdings
|
|
|-
|First Republic
|
|
|-
|Grailed
|
|
|-
|Mercury
|
|
|-
|[[LinkedIn]]
|Age Verification, User Verification
|
|-
|[[OpenAI]] ([[ChatGPT]])
|Age Verification
|Users verified as adults allow the models to generate explicit and sensitive content
|-
|[[Reddit]]
|Age Verifiaction
|Used by Reddit to comply with the UK Online Safety Act
|-
|[[Roblox]]
|Age Verification
|Verification sets players in a certain age brackets according to the estimations or provided data. Unverified players are unable to chat with others. Feature launched globally on Jan 7 2026
|-
|Serviap Global
|
|
|-
|Stifel Financial Corp
|
|
|-
|Swan Bitcoin
|
|
|-
|Wealthsimple
|
|
|-
|WeTravel
|
|
|}

==Third Parties==
These are third parties that can receive and use the data provided by Persona:<ref>{{Cite web |author=Unknown |date=16 Feb 2026 |title=I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Actually Handed Over. |url=https://thelocalstack.eu/posts/linkedin-identity-verification-privacy/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.is/4IUtj |archive-date=2026-02-23 |access-date=24 Feb 2026 |website=The Local Stack}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
|+
!'''Company'''
!What is data used for
!Additional notes
|-
|[[Anthropic]]
|Data Extraction and Analysis
|Data used to train AI models
|-
|OpenAI
|Data Extraction and Analysis
|Data used to train AI models
|-
|Groqcloud
|Data Extraction and Analysis
|Data used to train AI models
|-
|AWS
|Infrastructure, Image Processing
|
|-
|Google Cloud Platform
|Infrastructure as Service
|
|-
|Resistant AI
|Document Analysis
|
|-
|FingerprintJS
|Device Analysis
|
|-
|MongoDB
|Database Services
|
|-
|Snowflake
|Database Services
|
|-
|Elasticsearch
|Search and Analytics Engine
|
|-
|Confluent
|ETL Services
|
|-
|DBT
|ETL Services
|
|-
|Sigma Computing
|Data Analytics
|
|-
|Tableau
|Data Analytics
|
|-
|Stripe
|Credit Card Processing
|
|-
|Twilio
|Communication APIs (Phone, SMS)
|
|-
|Persona Identities Canada
|Customer Support & Development
|
|}
==See also==
*[[Online Safety Act]]
*[[Age Verification]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]

Data lock-in

2026-02-28T07:28:38Z

SomebodyThatMayContribute: replaced cite to megalodon as IA wasn't working on this

'''Data lock-in''' limits how device owners can access and manage data stored on the device they own. For example, some mobile applications store user data in a way they can only be viewed from inside the app, with no possibility of creating backups or moving them to external storage to free space. Many social media platforms make it difficult to export data. '''Data portability''' is a more consumer friendly approach, where it is easy to move data from one application or platform to alternatives.

==Incidents==
===Saved pages in Samsung Internet===
The mobile web browser by Samsung stores saved pages in the <code>/data</code> directory. This is a locked-in directory where apps store data only accessible to themselves.

Users have requested Samsung developers to change its browser to store saved pages in a non-locked-in place that makes them accessible from other applications and makes it possible to create backups, or to let users export copies of saved pages, but Samsung refused to implement this change. Some users have stored thousands of web pages this way before realizing they are unable to create backups or move them to external storage.<ref>[https://archive.today/2024.10.12-140435/https://forum.developer.samsung.com/t/regarding-saved-webpages/5304/1 Regarding saved webpages - Samsung Internet - Samsung Developer Forums]</ref>

Rooting a device would make the <code>/data</code> folder accessible, but this requires an unlocked bootloader. The process of unlocking the bootloader involves a factory reset, which deletes all user-generated files from internal storage.

In comparison, Google Chrome on mobile stores web pages as MHTML files in the download folder where they are not locked in, and Firefox on mobile completely lacks a feature to save pages.

===Saved pages in Apple Safari on iPhone===
Apple refers to saved pages as the "reading list", a name that implies the feature is intended for storing pages only until they are read, not for archival. Like with Samsung, people have asked for an ability to export saved pages. Apple has not responded.<ref>[https://archive.today/2025.10.10-130524/https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8293638?sortBy=rank How do you EXPORT your Reading List from Safari - Apple Community]</ref>

===User data in mobile web browsers===
No major mobile web browser lets the user export their session (list of opened tabs) and browsing history and bookmarks to a local file. Exporting all tabs may be desirable to start with a fresh session without losing the existing session, and exporting the history makes it easier to search for pages a long time after visiting, beyond what the browser retains.<ref>[https://beepb00p.xyz/sad-infra.html The sad state of personal data and infrastructure] - Karl Icoss ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260203233117/https://beepb00p.xyz/sad-infra.html Archived])</ref>

Some web browsers have a "Sync" feature that allows synchronizing tabs and bookmarks across devices, but it is cloud-based, meaning it depends on an online service that can cease to operate at any time.<ref>[https://karl-voit.at/cloud/ You Can't Control Your Data in the Cloud] - Karl Voit ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260202071758/https://karl-voit.at/cloud/ Archived])</ref><ref>[https://workona.com/pages/how-to-export-chrome-bookmarks/ How to Export Chrome Bookmarks for the Last Time] - Workona ([http://web.archive.org/web/20251126072849/https://workona.com/pages/how-to-export-chrome-bookmarks/ Archived])</ref>

===Text messages===
The built-in text messaging applications of both Android and iOS lack a built-in local export option.

On Android, the third-party app "SMS Backup+" can create exports, but they can not be directly stored locally, only uploaded to the middleman GMail, which requires Internet connection and a Google account, and can cease to function at any time due to Google API changes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250314125929/https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/974 Feature request: save to local file · Issue #974 · jberkel/sms-backup-plus · GitHub]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250313124817/https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/1110 SMS -Backup+ unable to log into my email to backup SMS messages · Issue #1110 · jberkel/sms-backup-plus · GitHub]</ref>

On iOS, exporting apps require payment, an external computer, and save as PDF, resulting in much larger files than plain text.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20251111204709/https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255416051?sortBy=rank Export iMessage conversation - Apple Community]</ref><ref>[https://megalodon.jp/2026-0228-1623-45/https://discussions.apple.com:443/thread/255674743?sortBy=rank I want to download my messages to an external drive (flash drive) - Apple Community]</ref>

Chat messages can be archived manually with screenshots and screen recordings, but this takes lots of time and manual work, and the resulting files can not be searched for text and will be much larger in size than a plain text-based export would be.

[[WhatsApp]] lets the user export messages to a text file, but this has to be done for each conversation individually, and starting with an April 2025 update, exporting can be remotely disabled by the other participant.<ref>[https://archive.today/2025.08.28-001731/https://faq.whatsapp.com/715385484388016/?cms_platform=web About advanced chat privacy | WhatsApp Help Center]</ref>

===Android data folder===
Since Android 11, apps can no longer browse the <code>Android/data</code> folder in the shared user storage (not to be confused with <code>/data</code>, which was locked in since the beginning).<ref>[https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage Storage updates in Android 11 | Android Developers]: If your app targets Android 11, it cannot access the files in any other app's data directory, even if the other app targets Android 8.1 (API level 27) or lower and has made the files in its data directory world-readable ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260130032658/https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage Archived]).</ref>

===Videos downloaded inside the YouTube app===
YouTube provides no official way for people to create permanent local copies of videos. This includes Creative Commons media.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 07:20</ref> The only exception is YouTube Studio allowing channel owners to download their own videos in up to 720p.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6UHS1-vDMM Changes to Unlisted Videos Uploaded Before 2017], 4:30 ([https://preservetube.com/watch?v=l6UHS1-vDMM Archived])</ref>

While the YouTube app lets paying YouTube Premium subscribers download videos for offline viewing, the videos are only accessible through the YouTube app, encoded in a proprietary format, and forcibly deleted after 29 days.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 06:41</ref><ref>[https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7381437 YouTube videos offline FAQs - YouTube Help] ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260207132551/https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7381437 Archived])</ref><ref>[https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3383/warning-youtube-premium-downloads-arent-mp4-files Warning: Youtube Premium "Downloads" aren't MP4 Files - Virtual Curiosities] ([http://web.archive.org/web/20251126100053/https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3383/warning-youtube-premium-downloads-arent-mp4-files Archived])</ref><ref>[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.html What's Wrong with YouTube - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20260216041246/https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.html Archived])</ref>

Permanent local copies are necessary to preserve Internet history when YouTube ceases to operate:
<blockquote>
Whenever I tell people that we need to plan for the day when YouTube goes offline, I mostly receive weird reactions. It seems to be the case that people can't think of YouTube being gone. Unfortunately, I'm convinced that most people will face the day when we lose this enormous library of videos.
</blockquote>
<ref>[https://karl-voit.at/cloud-dependencies/ My Dependencies on the Cloud] - Karl Voit ([https://web.archive.org/web/20260216041319/https://karl-voit.at/cloud-dependencies/ Archived])</ref>

===Telekom Entertain media receiver recordings===
The German Telekom, an Internet and Internet Television provider, sells landline Internet television receivers and recorders. A former product line were the "Entertain" Media Receiver 300, 301, 303, and 500. (The 100 and 102 were secondary devices with no internal hard drives. The others had hard drives between 160 and 500 GB.<ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-101349/https://www.telekom-profis.de/vermitteln/news/media-receiver-mr-102-wieder-erhaeltlich-60.html Media Receiver MR 102 wieder erhältlich! - Telekom Profis] (June 2011)</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/manualzilla-id-6725650 Media Receiver 100] (user manual)</ref><ref>[https://www.woogmedia.de:443/downloads/BDA_MR300.pdf Media Receiver 300 Bedienungsanleitung] (user manual) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260210175058/https://www.woogmedia.de/downloads/BDA_MR300.pdf Archived])</ref><ref name="MR300">[https://www.hifitest.de/test/stereoanlage-und-komplettanlage/deutsche-telekom-t-home-media-receiver-300-380 Deutsche Telekom T-Home Media Receiver 300] - hifitest.de (June 2009) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260208092154/https://www.hifitest.de/test/stereoanlage-und-komplettanlage/deutsche-telekom-t-home-media-receiver-300-380 Archived])</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-101343/https://www.golem.de/1101/80856.html Media Receiver 303: Neuer Festplattenrekorder für Telekom Entertain - Golem.de] (January 2011)</ref><ref name="MR500" />)

Their operating systems were designed in a way that they would not boot without connecting to Telekom servers, and the devices stored the television recordings on their internal hard drive in a proprietary format, and provided the user with no means of copying or moving recordings to external media such as an external flash drive or hard drive, meaning users were forced to delete recordings when running out of disk space. While the devices featured up to two USB ports, some even an eSATA port, they had no use other than supplying electrical power.<ref name="MR500">[https://www.hifitest.de/test/sat-receiver-mit-festplatte/deutsche-telekom-media-receiver-500-sat-6114 Deutsche Telekom Media Receiver 500 Sat] - hifitest.de (June 2012) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20250621145244/https://www.hifitest.de/test/sat-receiver-mit-festplatte/deutsche-telekom-media-receiver-500-sat-6114 Archived])</ref><ref name="MR300" /><ref>[https://telekom.tarife-angebote.de/magenta-zuhause/entertain/media-receiver-empfaenger/mr303-iptv-festplattenrekorder Telekom Media-Receiver 303 (MR303 Festplattenrekorder)] - telekom.tarife-angebote.de ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260127112814/https://telekom.tarife-angebote.de/magenta-zuhause/entertain/media-receiver-empfaenger/mr303-iptv-festplattenrekorder Archived])</ref>

In 2019, its users lost access to all recordings stored locally on the devices when the online service their operating system depended on was shut down. The devices were in service for eight years (since 2011), meaning users would lose access to up to eight years of television recordings.<ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-095619/https://web.archive.org/web/20190825100604/https://www.telekom.com/de/konzern/details/magentatv-loest-entertain-ab-558808 MagentaTV löst Entertain ab | Deutsche Telekom]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210412055921/https://www.onlinekosten.de/news/telekom-zieht-2019-beim-alten-entertain-den-stecker_214313.html Telekom zieht 2019 beim alten "Entertain" den Stecker]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Enshittification]]
*[[Right to own]]

==References==
<references />
[[Category:Common terms]]

Data lock-in

2026-02-28T07:21:46Z

SomebodyThatMayContribute:

'''Data lock-in''' limits how device owners can access and manage data stored on the device they own. For example, some mobile applications store user data in a way they can only be viewed from inside the app, with no possibility of creating backups or moving them to external storage to free space. Many social media platforms make it difficult to export data. '''Data portability''' is a more consumer friendly approach, where it is easy to move data from one application or platform to alternatives.

==Incidents==
===Saved pages in Samsung Internet===
The mobile web browser by Samsung stores saved pages in the <code>/data</code> directory. This is a locked-in directory where apps store data only accessible to themselves.

Users have requested Samsung developers to change its browser to store saved pages in a non-locked-in place that makes them accessible from other applications and makes it possible to create backups, or to let users export copies of saved pages, but Samsung refused to implement this change. Some users have stored thousands of web pages this way before realizing they are unable to create backups or move them to external storage.<ref>[https://archive.today/2024.10.12-140435/https://forum.developer.samsung.com/t/regarding-saved-webpages/5304/1 Regarding saved webpages - Samsung Internet - Samsung Developer Forums]</ref>

Rooting a device would make the <code>/data</code> folder accessible, but this requires an unlocked bootloader. The process of unlocking the bootloader involves a factory reset, which deletes all user-generated files from internal storage.

In comparison, Google Chrome on mobile stores web pages as MHTML files in the download folder where they are not locked in, and Firefox on mobile completely lacks a feature to save pages.

===Saved pages in Apple Safari on iPhone===
Apple refers to saved pages as the "reading list", a name that implies the feature is intended for storing pages only until they are read, not for archival. Like with Samsung, people have asked for an ability to export saved pages. Apple has not responded.<ref>[https://archive.today/2025.10.10-130524/https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8293638?sortBy=rank How do you EXPORT your Reading List from Safari - Apple Community]</ref>

===User data in mobile web browsers===
No major mobile web browser lets the user export their session (list of opened tabs) and browsing history and bookmarks to a local file. Exporting all tabs may be desirable to start with a fresh session without losing the existing session, and exporting the history makes it easier to search for pages a long time after visiting, beyond what the browser retains.<ref>[https://beepb00p.xyz/sad-infra.html The sad state of personal data and infrastructure] - Karl Icoss ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260203233117/https://beepb00p.xyz/sad-infra.html Archived])</ref>

Some web browsers have a "Sync" feature that allows synchronizing tabs and bookmarks across devices, but it is cloud-based, meaning it depends on an online service that can cease to operate at any time.<ref>[https://karl-voit.at/cloud/ You Can't Control Your Data in the Cloud] - Karl Voit ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260202071758/https://karl-voit.at/cloud/ Archived])</ref><ref>[https://workona.com/pages/how-to-export-chrome-bookmarks/ How to Export Chrome Bookmarks for the Last Time] - Workona ([http://web.archive.org/web/20251126072849/https://workona.com/pages/how-to-export-chrome-bookmarks/ Archived])</ref>

===Text messages===
The built-in text messaging applications of both Android and iOS lack a built-in local export option.

On Android, the third-party app "SMS Backup+" can create exports, but they can not be directly stored locally, only uploaded to the middleman GMail, which requires Internet connection and a Google account, and can cease to function at any time due to Google API changes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250314125929/https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/974 Feature request: save to local file · Issue #974 · jberkel/sms-backup-plus · GitHub]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250313124817/https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/1110 SMS -Backup+ unable to log into my email to backup SMS messages · Issue #1110 · jberkel/sms-backup-plus · GitHub]</ref>

On iOS, exporting apps require payment, an external computer, and save as PDF, resulting in much larger files than plain text.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20251111204709/https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255416051?sortBy=rank Export iMessage conversation - Apple Community]</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/2025.10.16-053940/https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255674743?sortBy=rank I want to download my messages to an external drive (flash drive) - Apple Community]</ref>

Chat messages can be archived manually with screenshots and screen recordings, but this takes lots of time and manual work, and the resulting files can not be searched for text and will be much larger in size than a plain text-based export would be.

[[WhatsApp]] lets the user export messages to a text file, but this has to be done for each conversation individually, and starting with an April 2025 update, exporting can be remotely disabled by the other participant.<ref>[https://archive.today/2025.08.28-001731/https://faq.whatsapp.com/715385484388016/?cms_platform=web About advanced chat privacy | WhatsApp Help Center]</ref>

===Android data folder===
Since Android 11, apps can no longer browse the <code>Android/data</code> folder in the shared user storage (not to be confused with <code>/data</code>, which was locked in since the beginning).<ref>[https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage Storage updates in Android 11 | Android Developers]: If your app targets Android 11, it cannot access the files in any other app's data directory, even if the other app targets Android 8.1 (API level 27) or lower and has made the files in its data directory world-readable ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260130032658/https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage Archived]).</ref>

===Videos downloaded inside the YouTube app===
YouTube provides no official way for people to create permanent local copies of videos. This includes Creative Commons media.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 07:20</ref> The only exception is YouTube Studio allowing channel owners to download their own videos in up to 720p.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6UHS1-vDMM Changes to Unlisted Videos Uploaded Before 2017], 4:30 ([https://preservetube.com/watch?v=l6UHS1-vDMM Archived])</ref>

While the YouTube app lets paying YouTube Premium subscribers download videos for offline viewing, the videos are only accessible through the YouTube app, encoded in a proprietary format, and forcibly deleted after 29 days.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 06:41</ref><ref>[https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7381437 YouTube videos offline FAQs - YouTube Help] ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260207132551/https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7381437 Archived])</ref><ref>[https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3383/warning-youtube-premium-downloads-arent-mp4-files Warning: Youtube Premium "Downloads" aren't MP4 Files - Virtual Curiosities] ([http://web.archive.org/web/20251126100053/https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3383/warning-youtube-premium-downloads-arent-mp4-files Archived])</ref><ref>[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.html What's Wrong with YouTube - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20260216041246/https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.html Archived])</ref>

Permanent local copies are necessary to preserve Internet history when YouTube ceases to operate:
<blockquote>
Whenever I tell people that we need to plan for the day when YouTube goes offline, I mostly receive weird reactions. It seems to be the case that people can't think of YouTube being gone. Unfortunately, I'm convinced that most people will face the day when we lose this enormous library of videos.
</blockquote>
<ref>[https://karl-voit.at/cloud-dependencies/ My Dependencies on the Cloud] - Karl Voit ([https://web.archive.org/web/20260216041319/https://karl-voit.at/cloud-dependencies/ Archived])</ref>

===Telekom Entertain media receiver recordings===
The German Telekom, an Internet and Internet Television provider, sells landline Internet television receivers and recorders. A former product line were the "Entertain" Media Receiver 300, 301, 303, and 500. (The 100 and 102 were secondary devices with no internal hard drives. The others had hard drives between 160 and 500 GB.<ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-101349/https://www.telekom-profis.de/vermitteln/news/media-receiver-mr-102-wieder-erhaeltlich-60.html Media Receiver MR 102 wieder erhältlich! - Telekom Profis] (June 2011)</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/manualzilla-id-6725650 Media Receiver 100] (user manual)</ref><ref>[https://www.woogmedia.de:443/downloads/BDA_MR300.pdf Media Receiver 300 Bedienungsanleitung] (user manual) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260210175058/https://www.woogmedia.de/downloads/BDA_MR300.pdf Archived])</ref><ref name="MR300">[https://www.hifitest.de/test/stereoanlage-und-komplettanlage/deutsche-telekom-t-home-media-receiver-300-380 Deutsche Telekom T-Home Media Receiver 300] - hifitest.de (June 2009) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260208092154/https://www.hifitest.de/test/stereoanlage-und-komplettanlage/deutsche-telekom-t-home-media-receiver-300-380 Archived])</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-101343/https://www.golem.de/1101/80856.html Media Receiver 303: Neuer Festplattenrekorder für Telekom Entertain - Golem.de] (January 2011)</ref><ref name="MR500" />)

Their operating systems were designed in a way that they would not boot without connecting to Telekom servers, and the devices stored the television recordings on their internal hard drive in a proprietary format, and provided the user with no means of copying or moving recordings to external media such as an external flash drive or hard drive, meaning users were forced to delete recordings when running out of disk space. While the devices featured up to two USB ports, some even an eSATA port, they had no use other than supplying electrical power.<ref name="MR500">[https://www.hifitest.de/test/sat-receiver-mit-festplatte/deutsche-telekom-media-receiver-500-sat-6114 Deutsche Telekom Media Receiver 500 Sat] - hifitest.de (June 2012) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20250621145244/https://www.hifitest.de/test/sat-receiver-mit-festplatte/deutsche-telekom-media-receiver-500-sat-6114 Archived])</ref><ref name="MR300" /><ref>[https://telekom.tarife-angebote.de/magenta-zuhause/entertain/media-receiver-empfaenger/mr303-iptv-festplattenrekorder Telekom Media-Receiver 303 (MR303 Festplattenrekorder)] - telekom.tarife-angebote.de ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260127112814/https://telekom.tarife-angebote.de/magenta-zuhause/entertain/media-receiver-empfaenger/mr303-iptv-festplattenrekorder Archived])</ref>

In 2019, its users lost access to all recordings stored locally on the devices when the online service their operating system depended on was shut down. The devices were in service for eight years (since 2011), meaning users would lose access to up to eight years of television recordings.<ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-095619/https://web.archive.org/web/20190825100604/https://www.telekom.com/de/konzern/details/magentatv-loest-entertain-ab-558808 MagentaTV löst Entertain ab | Deutsche Telekom]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210412055921/https://www.onlinekosten.de/news/telekom-zieht-2019-beim-alten-entertain-den-stecker_214313.html Telekom zieht 2019 beim alten "Entertain" den Stecker]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Enshittification]]
*[[Right to own]]

==References==
<references />
[[Category:Common terms]]

Data lock-in

2026-02-28T07:02:11Z

SomebodyThatMayContribute: /* References */

'''Data lock-in''' limits how device owners can access and manage data stored on the device they own. For example, some mobile applications store user data in a way they can only be viewed from inside the app, with no possibility of creating backups or moving them to external storage to free space. Many social media platforms make it difficult to export data. '''Data portability''' is a more consumer friendly approach, where it is easy to move data from one application or platform to alternatives.

==Incidents==
===Saved pages in Samsung Internet===
The mobile web browser by Samsung stores saved pages in the <code>/data</code> directory. This is a locked-in directory where apps store data only accessible to themselves.

Users have requested Samsung developers to change its browser to store saved pages in a non-locked-in place that makes them accessible from other applications and makes it possible to create backups, or to let users export copies of saved pages, but Samsung refused to implement this change. Some users have stored thousands of web pages this way before realizing they are unable to create backups or move them to external storage.<ref>[https://archive.today/2024.10.12-140435/https://forum.developer.samsung.com/t/regarding-saved-webpages/5304/1 Regarding saved webpages - Samsung Internet - Samsung Developer Forums]</ref>

Rooting a device would make the <code>/data</code> folder accessible, but this requires an unlocked bootloader. The process of unlocking the bootloader involves a factory reset, which deletes all user-generated files from internal storage.

In comparison, Google Chrome on mobile stores web pages as MHTML files in the download folder where they are not locked in, and Firefox on mobile completely lacks a feature to save pages.

===Saved pages in Apple Safari on iPhone===
Apple refers to saved pages as the "reading list", a name that implies the feature is intended for storing pages only until they are read, not for archival. Like with Samsung, people have asked for an ability to export saved pages. Apple has not responded.<ref>[https://archive.today/2025.10.10-130524/https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8293638?sortBy=rank How do you EXPORT your Reading List from Safari - Apple Community]</ref>

===User data in mobile web browsers===
No major mobile web browser lets the user export their session (list of opened tabs) and browsing history and bookmarks to a local file. Exporting all tabs may be desirable to start with a fresh session without losing the existing session, and exporting the history makes it easier to search for pages a long time after visiting, beyond what the browser retains.<ref>[https://beepb00p.xyz/sad-infra.html The sad state of personal data and infrastructure] - Karl Icoss ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260203233117/https://beepb00p.xyz/sad-infra.html Archived])</ref>

Some web browsers have a "Sync" feature that allows synchronizing tabs and bookmarks across devices, but it is cloud-based, meaning it depends on an online service that can cease to operate at any time.<ref>[https://karl-voit.at/cloud/ You Can't Control Your Data in the Cloud] - Karl Voit ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260202071758/https://karl-voit.at/cloud/ Archived])</ref><ref>[https://workona.com/pages/how-to-export-chrome-bookmarks/ How to Export Chrome Bookmarks for the Last Time] - Workona ([http://web.archive.org/web/20251126072849/https://workona.com/pages/how-to-export-chrome-bookmarks/ Archived])</ref>

===Text messages===
The built-in text messaging applications of both Android and iOS lack a built-in local export option.

On Android, the third-party app "SMS Backup+" can create exports, but they can not be directly stored locally, only uploaded to the middleman GMail, which requires Internet connection and a Google account, and can cease to function at any time due to Google API changes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250314125929/https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/974 Feature request: save to local file · Issue #974 · jberkel/sms-backup-plus · GitHub]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250313124817/https://github.com/jberkel/sms-backup-plus/issues/1110 SMS -Backup+ unable to log into my email to backup SMS messages · Issue #1110 · jberkel/sms-backup-plus · GitHub]</ref>

On iOS, exporting apps require payment, an external computer, and save as PDF, resulting in much larger files than plain text.<ref>[https://archive.today/2025.10.16-053829/https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255416051?sortBy=rank Export iMessage conversation - Apple Community]</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/2025.10.16-053940/https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255674743?sortBy=rank I want to download my messages to an external drive (flash drive) - Apple Community]</ref>

Chat messages can be archived manually with screenshots and screen recordings, but this takes lots of time and manual work, and the resulting files can not be searched for text and will be much larger in size than a plain text-based export would be.

[[WhatsApp]] lets the user export messages to a text file, but this has to be done for each conversation individually, and starting with an April 2025 update, exporting can be remotely disabled by the other participant.<ref>[https://archive.today/2025.08.28-001731/https://faq.whatsapp.com/715385484388016/?cms_platform=web About advanced chat privacy | WhatsApp Help Center]</ref>

===Android data folder===
Since Android 11, apps can no longer browse the <code>Android/data</code> folder in the shared user storage (not to be confused with <code>/data</code>, which was locked in since the beginning).<ref>[https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage Storage updates in Android 11 | Android Developers]: If your app targets Android 11, it cannot access the files in any other app's data directory, even if the other app targets Android 8.1 (API level 27) or lower and has made the files in its data directory world-readable ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260130032658/https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage Archived]).</ref>

===Videos downloaded inside the YouTube app===
YouTube provides no official way for people to create permanent local copies of videos. This includes Creative Commons media.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 07:20</ref> The only exception is YouTube Studio allowing channel owners to download their own videos in up to 720p.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6UHS1-vDMM Changes to Unlisted Videos Uploaded Before 2017], 4:30 ([https://preservetube.com/watch?v=l6UHS1-vDMM Archived])</ref>

While the YouTube app lets paying YouTube Premium subscribers download videos for offline viewing, the videos are only accessible through the YouTube app, encoded in a proprietary format, and forcibly deleted after 29 days.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 06:41</ref><ref>[https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7381437 YouTube videos offline FAQs - YouTube Help] ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260207132551/https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7381437 Archived])</ref><ref>[https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3383/warning-youtube-premium-downloads-arent-mp4-files Warning: Youtube Premium "Downloads" aren't MP4 Files - Virtual Curiosities] ([http://web.archive.org/web/20251126100053/https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3383/warning-youtube-premium-downloads-arent-mp4-files Archived])</ref><ref>[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.html What's Wrong with YouTube - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20260216041246/https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.html Archived])</ref>

Permanent local copies are necessary to preserve Internet history when YouTube ceases to operate:
<blockquote>
Whenever I tell people that we need to plan for the day when YouTube goes offline, I mostly receive weird reactions. It seems to be the case that people can't think of YouTube being gone. Unfortunately, I'm convinced that most people will face the day when we lose this enormous library of videos.
</blockquote>
<ref>[https://karl-voit.at/cloud-dependencies/ My Dependencies on the Cloud] - Karl Voit ([https://web.archive.org/web/20260216041319/https://karl-voit.at/cloud-dependencies/ Archived])</ref>

===Telekom Entertain media receiver recordings===
The German Telekom, an Internet and Internet Television provider, sells landline Internet television receivers and recorders. A former product line were the "Entertain" Media Receiver 300, 301, 303, and 500. (The 100 and 102 were secondary devices with no internal hard drives. The others had hard drives between 160 and 500 GB.<ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-101349/https://www.telekom-profis.de/vermitteln/news/media-receiver-mr-102-wieder-erhaeltlich-60.html Media Receiver MR 102 wieder erhältlich! - Telekom Profis] (June 2011)</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/manualzilla-id-6725650 Media Receiver 100] (user manual)</ref><ref>[https://www.woogmedia.de:443/downloads/BDA_MR300.pdf Media Receiver 300 Bedienungsanleitung] (user manual) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260210175058/https://www.woogmedia.de/downloads/BDA_MR300.pdf Archived])</ref><ref name="MR300">[https://www.hifitest.de/test/stereoanlage-und-komplettanlage/deutsche-telekom-t-home-media-receiver-300-380 Deutsche Telekom T-Home Media Receiver 300] - hifitest.de (June 2009) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260208092154/https://www.hifitest.de/test/stereoanlage-und-komplettanlage/deutsche-telekom-t-home-media-receiver-300-380 Archived])</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-101343/https://www.golem.de/1101/80856.html Media Receiver 303: Neuer Festplattenrekorder für Telekom Entertain - Golem.de] (January 2011)</ref><ref name="MR500" />)

Their operating systems were designed in a way that they would not boot without connecting to Telekom servers, and the devices stored the television recordings on their internal hard drive in a proprietary format, and provided the user with no means of copying or moving recordings to external media such as an external flash drive or hard drive, meaning users were forced to delete recordings when running out of disk space. While the devices featured up to two USB ports, some even an eSATA port, they had no use other than supplying electrical power.<ref name="MR500">[https://www.hifitest.de/test/sat-receiver-mit-festplatte/deutsche-telekom-media-receiver-500-sat-6114 Deutsche Telekom Media Receiver 500 Sat] - hifitest.de (June 2012) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20250621145244/https://www.hifitest.de/test/sat-receiver-mit-festplatte/deutsche-telekom-media-receiver-500-sat-6114 Archived])</ref><ref name="MR300" /><ref>[https://telekom.tarife-angebote.de/magenta-zuhause/entertain/media-receiver-empfaenger/mr303-iptv-festplattenrekorder Telekom Media-Receiver 303 (MR303 Festplattenrekorder)] - telekom.tarife-angebote.de ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260127112814/https://telekom.tarife-angebote.de/magenta-zuhause/entertain/media-receiver-empfaenger/mr303-iptv-festplattenrekorder Archived])</ref>

In 2019, its users lost access to all recordings stored locally on the devices when the online service their operating system depended on was shut down. The devices were in service for eight years (since 2011), meaning users would lose access to up to eight years of television recordings.<ref>[https://archive.today/2026.01.27-095619/https://web.archive.org/web/20190825100604/https://www.telekom.com/de/konzern/details/magentatv-loest-entertain-ab-558808 MagentaTV löst Entertain ab | Deutsche Telekom]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210412055921/https://www.onlinekosten.de/news/telekom-zieht-2019-beim-alten-entertain-den-stecker_214313.html Telekom zieht 2019 beim alten "Entertain" den Stecker]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Enshittification]]
*[[Right to own]]

==References==
<references />
[[Category:Common terms]]

ChatGPT

2026-02-24T15:02:09Z

SomebodyThatMayContribute: Update archive dates to match actual archived dates (present on URLs by Internet Archive)

{{ProductCargo
|Company=OpenAI
|ProductLine=
|ReleaseYear=2022
|InProduction=Yes
|ArticleType=Product
|Category=Software, Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, Large Language Models
|Website=https://chat.openai.com/
|Description=ChatGPT data has been mishandled in the past, and is worsening with court-ordered data retention and integrated advertising.
|Logo=OpenAI logo (symbol).svg
}}
'''ChatGPT''' (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a generative artificial intelligence application developed and marketed by [[OpenAI]]. It was released on November 30th, 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-11-30 |title=Introducing ChatGPT |url=https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260219054935/https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/ |archive-date=19 Feb 2026|access-date=2026-01-26 |website=OpenAI}}</ref> It is a large language model (LLM) specialized in dialog that can perform human-like conversations. Various iterations of ChatGPT include GPT-3, GPT-4, GPT-4o, and previews of OpenAI-o1, OpenAI-o1 mini and GPT-5.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-07-09 |title=ChatGPT version history: Evolution timeline |url=https://nexos.ai/blog/chatgpt-version-history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260217071448/https://nexos.ai/blog/chatgpt-version-history/ |archive-date=17 Feb 2026|access-date=2026-01-26 |website=nexos.ai}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hayat |first=Usman |date=2025-08-22 |title=ChatGPT Version History List, Changelog & Latest Releases |url=https://wpexperts.io/blog/chatgpt-version-history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251023153623/https://wpexperts.io/blog/chatgpt-version-history/ |archive-date=23 Oct 2025|access-date=2026-01-26 |website=WPExperts.io}}</ref>

==Consumer-impact summary==

====Misleading advertising====
ChatGPT terms of service say it should not be used to make decisions about people.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Terms of Use {{!}} OpenAI |url=https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260123055141/https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use/ |archive-date=2026-01-23 |access-date=2026-01-27}}</ref> However, their advertising claims it is "PhD level" and makes other claims that seem to imply it is reliable. Many people use ChatGPT as if its output were meaningful, reliable, or a substitute for interaction with a person, with some cases involving "relationships" with the AI. [[ChatGPT-4o]] was one of their models known for inducing a lot of vulnerable users into AI psychosis.

====Billing and moderation====
Credits (money) expire automatically with no notification, and the credit balance interface makes this process confusing. You must maintain a positive account balance, and you are auto-billed a fixed amount if it goes negative. Accounts can be banned and credits confiscated for typing the wrong things in chat, with no recourse.{{Citation needed}}

====Privacy====
A mobile phone number in a friendly country is required to better track your identity.{{Citation needed}}

====User freedom====
Users who are not logged in can use ChatGPT, but their access is limited (for example, they can only have one conversation at a time and cannot save chat history).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The ChatGPT home page |url=https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9125172-the-chatgpt-home-page |url-status=live |access-date=2026-02-19 |website=OpenAI Help Center |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260214024602/https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9125172-the-chatgpt-home-page |archive-date=14 Feb 2026}}</ref> After GPT-5’s release, manual model selection is not available to all users: OpenAI limits the ChatGPT “model picker” to paid tiers, while other users may be routed automatically (e.g., via “Auto,” which can switch between model variants).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Model Release Notes |url=https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9624314-model-release-notes |website=OpenAI Help Center |access-date=2026-02-19 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251230143058/https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9624314-model-release-notes |archive-date=30 Dec 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu - Models & Limits |url=https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11165333-chatgpt-enterprise-and-edu-models-limits |website=OpenAI Help Center |access-date=2026-02-19 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251211113140/https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11165333-chatgpt-enterprise-and-edu-models-limits |archive-date=11 Dec 2025}}</ref>

====Data policy====
From OpenAI's data usage policy:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Data Usage for Consumer Services FAQ {{!}} OpenAI Help Center |url=https://help.openai.com/en/articles/7039943-data-usage-for-consumer-services-faq |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260210234712/https://help.openai.com/en/articles/7039943-data-usage-for-consumer-services-faq |archive-date=2026-02-10 |access-date=2026-01-27}}</ref>
{{Quote|We share content with a select group of trusted service providers that help us provide our services. We share the minimum amount of content we need in order to accomplish this purpose and our service providers are subject to strict confidentiality and security obligations. We do not use or share user content for marketing or advertising purposes.}}
The wording does not detail the extent of conversations shared with OpenAI's trusted service providers.

==Incidents==
===Security breach (2023)===
On March 20, 2023 a bug allowed some users to see other users' conversation titles. Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, stated users couldn't view other users' conversation content. After the bug was fixed, users reported they were unable to view their conversation history. Later reports showed this issue was much bigger than it was thought at first, with OpenAI reporting there were leaks of the users' name, last name, e-mail address, payment address, and partial credit card information.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simo |first=Fidgi |date=20 March 2023 |title=March 20 ChatGPT outage: Here’s what happened |url=https://openai.com/index/march-20-chatgpt-outage/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260210072430/https://openai.com/index/march-20-chatgpt-outage/ |archive-date=10 Feb 2026|access-date=26 Jan 2026 |website=OpenAI}}</ref>

===ChatGPT-4o (2024-2026)===
{{Main|ChatGPT-4o}}
On may 13, 2024, OpenAI announced and released the model ChatGPT-4o.<ref>{{Cite web |author=OpenAI |date=13 May 2024 |title=Hello, GPT-4o |url=https://openai.com/es-ES/index/hello-gpt-4o/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251216045649/https://openai.com/es-ES/index/hello-gpt-4o/ |archive-date=16 Dec 2025|access-date=2026-02-17 |website=OpenAI}}</ref> The model was temporarily retired from the public in April 2025 due to an update that caused the model to have excessive sycophancy. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Franzen |first=Carl |date=30 Apr 2025 |title=OpenAI rolls back ChatGPT's sycophancy and explains what went wrong |url=https://venturebeat.com/ai/openai-rolls-back-chatgpts-sycophancy-and-explains-what-went-wrong |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250815154215/https://venturebeat.com/ai/openai-rolls-back-chatgpts-sycophancy-and-explains-what-went-wrong/ |archive-date=15 Aug 2025|access-date=15 Feb 2026 |website=VentureBeat}}</ref>It also had several controversies because of users developing [[wikipedia:Chatbot_psychosis|AI psychosis]], with some severe cases ending with users committing suicide. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Hill |first=Kashmir |date=13 Jun 2025 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/technology/chatgpt-ai-chatbots-conspiracies.html|title=They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling. |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260117185232/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/technology/chatgpt-ai-chatbots-conspiracies.html |archive-date=17 Jan 2026|access-date=2025-02-15 |website=The New York Times}}</ref>
With the launch of GPT-5 in August 2025, OpenAI removed legacy models from non-API users, such as GPT-4o. This decision caused an outrage, with users complaining about the removal of the models along with the complaints about GPT-5. OpenAI's response was to end paywalling these older models, making them available only for Plus users.
In 2026, OpenAI announced they will be removing definitely GPT-4o and other models, such as GPT-5 and GPT-4.1. On February 13, 2026, 4o and other legacy models were removed for non-API users, causing again controversies in social media. These legacy models will be removed for API-users on April 2026. {{Citation needed}}

===Users' data retention by court mandate (May 2025 - October 2025)===
On May 13, 2025, New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. A court in New York mandated OpenAI to preserve users' conversation logs, including data from deleted conversations and temporary conversations. This affected Free, Plus, Pro and Team subscription tiers and also non Zero-Data-Retention API users. Edu, Enterprise tiers and Zero-Data-Retention API users were exempt from this.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bradbury |first=Danny |date=6 Jun 2025 |title=OpenAI forced to preserve ChatGPT chats |url=https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/06/openai-forced-to-preserve-chatgpt-chats |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251114012548/https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/06/openai-forced-to-preserve-chatgpt-chats |archive-date=14 Nov 2025|access-date=26 Jan 2026 |website=Malwarebytes}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=R |first=Sudha |date=15 Jul 2025 |title=ChatGPT To Retain Conversations Indefinitely |url=https://medium.com/aimonks/court-orders-openai-to-retain-chatgpt-conversations-indefinitely-what-you-need-to-know-1530f24501a6 |url-status=live |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=26 Jan 2026 |website=Medium}}</ref>  On September 26, 2025, the preservation order was revoked. However, some deleted and temporary chats will still be monitored for being flagged.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Belanger |first=Ashley |date=10 Oct 2025 |title=OpenAI will stop saving most ChatGPT users’ deleted chats |url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/openai-no-longer-forced-to-save-deleted-chats-but-some-users-still-affected/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260101145932/https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/openai-no-longer-forced-to-save-deleted-chats-but-some-users-still-affected/ |archive-date=1 Jan 2026|access-date=26 Jan 2026 |website=Ars Technica}}</ref>

===GPT-5 release (August 2025)===
On August 7, 2025, OpenAI released their newest model, GPT-5. The next day, several users complained in social media about the performance of the model, claiming it was underwhelming and was "dumber" than the previous model. Users also realised OpenAI's platform was most of the time setting the lowest-performance GPT-5 models and discovered they can make the platform to set the better-performance models by adding "think harder" in prompts. Sam Altman claimed that a "malfunction" of the autoswitcher was the reason behind GPT-5 performance.
<ref>{{Cite web |last=Edwards |first=Benj |date=11 Aug 2025 |title=The GPT-5 rollout has been a big mess |url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2025/08/the-gpt-5-rollout-has-been-a-big-mess/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260109001515/https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2025/08/the-gpt-5-rollout-has-been-a-big-mess/ |archive-date=9 Jan 2026|access-date=5 Feb 2026 |website=Ars Technica}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite web |last=Franzen |first=Carl |date=8 Aug 2025 |title=OpenAI returns old models to ChatGPT as Sam Altman admits ‘bumpy’ GPT-5 rollout |url=https://venturebeat.com/business/openai-returns-old-models-to-chatgpt-as-sam-altman-admits-bumpy-gpt-5-rollout |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.is/hunUK |archive-date=2026-02-05 |access-date=5 Feb 2026 |website=VentureBeat}}</ref>

===Age verification (2026)===
With a justification to "help teens have an age-appropriate experience on ChatGPT", the platform will be implementing globally an age verification system to detect if a user is over 18 to allow them to access to mature content. OpenAI will scan and analyze the user's account, their conversations and their behavior - including the times of a day they use ChatGPT - to estimate their age. If this system detects a user as underage, it will use third-party tools provided by [[Persona]] to estimate their age, asking the user to upload a selfie or their government ID. If the user refuses to send a selfie or their ID, the platform will limit ChatGPT's generated content.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 Jan 2026 |title=Age prediction in ChatGPT |url=https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12652064-age-prediction-in-chatgpt |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260119032400/https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12652064-age-prediction-in-chatgpt |archive-date=19 Jan 2026|access-date=26 Jan 2026 |website=OpenAI}}</ref>

===Integrated ads (February 2026)===
On January 16, 2026, OpenAI announced that they will be implementing ads for "testing purposes". Users reacted to this announcement mostly negatively. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Simo |first=Fidgi |date=16 Jan 2026 |title=Our approach to advertising and expanding access to ChatGPT |url=https://openai.com/index/our-approach-to-advertising-and-expanding-access/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260118192220/https://openai.com/index/our-approach-to-advertising-and-expanding-access/ |archive-date=18 Jan 2026|access-date=25 Jan 2026 |website=OpenAI}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Cirello |first=Rafaelle F |last2=Backholer |first2=Kathryn |date=23 Jan 2026 |title=OpenAI will put ads in ChatGPT. This opens a new door for dangerous influence |url=https://theconversation.com/openai-will-put-ads-in-chatgpt-this-opens-a-new-door-for-dangerous-influence-273806 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260125175609/https://theconversation.com/openai-will-put-ads-in-chatgpt-this-opens-a-new-door-for-dangerous-influence-273806 |archive-date=25 Jan 2026|access-date=26 Jan 2026}}</ref> On February 9, 2026, ads rolled out and are currently affecting users from the US that are over 18 and belong to Free and Go tiers. Pro, Business and Enterprise tiers are exempt from this. They appear at the bottom of ChatGPT's messages. OpenAI stated the ads that appear are based on current conversations, ads that user has engaged with, and past chats and ChatGPT's memories. OpenAI also claims the data provided to show ads "it's not shared with advertisers". It is possible to opt-out for getting personalized ads and delete ads data.  <ref>https://x.com/OpenAI/status/2020936703763153010 </ref> <ref> {{Cite web |author=OpenAI |date=9 Feb 2026 |title=Testing ads in ChatGPT |url=https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260218012302/https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/ |archive-date=18 Feb 2026|access-date=13 Feb 2026 |website=OpenAI}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[OpenAI]]
*[[Artificial intelligence]]
*[[Claude]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:OpenAI]]
[[Category:Artificial intelligence]]

Amazon

2026-02-14T13:54:24Z

SomebodyThatMayContribute: /* References */

{{CompanyCargo
| Founded = 1994
| Industry = Technology
| Logo = Amazon.svg
| ParentCompany =
| Type = Public
| Website = https://amazon.com/
| Description = Major e-commerce platform which has allowed fraudulent listings, removed functionality and purchased products from Kindle devices, and more.
}}

[[wikipedia:Amazon_(company)|'''Amazon.com, Inc.''']] is a global leader in e-commerce, cloud computing, and digital streaming founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. Originally launched as an online bookstore, Amazon quickly expanded into a marketplace offering a wide range of products, including - but not limited to - electronics, clothing, household goods, and groceries. Today, it is one of the largest companies in the world, with a dominant presence in retail, technology, and logistics.

In addition to its e-commerce platform, Amazon is a major player in cloud computing through Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides cloud infrastructure and services to businesses globally. The company also offers a variety of digital services, such as Amazon Prime - which provides streaming video and music - and Alexa; its voice-activated virtual assistant. Amazon has also developed consumer products like the Kindle e-reader, Fire tablets, and Echo smart speakers.

Amazon has faced significant scrutiny and criticism, particularly concerning its treatment of workers, marketplace practices, data privacy issues, and its impact on small businesses. It has been involved in various regulatory and legal challenges related to anti-competitive behavior, safety, and consumer protection, with calls for increased oversight on its business operations.

==Consumer impact summary==
{{Placeholder box|Overview of concerns that arise from the company's conduct regarding (if applicable):
* User Freedom
* User Privacy
* Business Model
* Market Control}}

====Business Model====
Amazon gets a majority of its revenue from seller fees and Amazon Prime memberships. In addition, Amazon has a "subscribe and save" option for some products. With this, the page to manage these subscriptions is obfuscated for the user, intentional or not.

<gallery>
File:Amazon Subscribe and Save Example.jpg|No "subscribe and save" option available
File:Amazon Subscribe and Save Example (1).jpg|The option appears in the "buy again" section.
</gallery>

==Incidents==
This is a list of all consumer protection incidents related to this company. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the [[:Category:Amazon|Amazon category]].
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+
!Controversy
!Year
!Background info
!Aftermath
!Related article
!Related video(s)
|-
|Amazon removing kindle books from old devices.
|2025
|As of May 26, 2025 Kindle for Android app versions released prior to March 2022 (v8.51 or earlier) no longer support Kindle content downloads.
|Old android devices (such as Galaxy Tab 4) that are not compatible with Android OS v.9.0+ are no longer able to download Kindle ebooks. Furthermore, Amazon 'forcibly' removed any ebooks downloaded to the kindle app on those devices the next time they connected to the internet, without warning that this would occur.
|https://www.androidauthority.com/kindle-app-drm-loophole-3554844/
|
|-
|Amazon removing ability to download Kindle books
|2025
|Starting on February 26, 2025, Amazon removed a feature from its website allowing users to download purchased books to a computer and then copy them manually to a Kindle over USB.
|Starting February 26, 2025, the ‘Download & Transfer via USB’ option will no longer be available.
|[[Amazon Kindle removes download feature of purchased books]]
|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMoCzeGnIss '''Amazon are changing the way you own your Kindle books - you have 10 days to react''']
<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=18 Feb 2025 |title=Amazon revokes the concept of owning books, can edit books you already bought; PIRACY IS THE ANSWER! |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=XfcoUdWCB9M |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon sells lethal litterboxes
|2024
|Amazon sold knockoffs of Whisker brand "Litter-Robot" litterboxes that were designed in a unsafe way that led to the deaths of multiple cats, and posed a danger to young children.
|The responsible knockoff product was delisted, yet many other variants of the same product exist on the site.
|
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=10 Sep 2024 |title=Amazon litterbox fatally harms cat; this is the sad end result of what I've talked about all year :( |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=p6Y19nSPvC4 |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon adds ads to premium subscription
|2023 – Present
|Amazon added advertisements to previously ad free subscriptions for Prime Video and Echo Show frames.
|Continues to occur.
|
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=26 Aug 2024 |title=Amazon charges extra to avoid ads, says "lol jk" & adds them anyway |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=RSi6g5-xUaY |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=2 May 2024 |title=Amazon Hikes Profits by Forcing Ads on PAID Prime Subscribers |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=ua_QL9YysHQ |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=28 Dec 2023 |title=Ads on Amazon Prime Video: Paying More for Less? 😒 |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=VLFpU9aqtXc |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon allows fraudulent listings
|2014 – Present
|
|Fraudulent listings continue to be added, some removed.
|[[Amazon allows fraudulent product page after manual review]]
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=5 Aug 2024 |title=Amazon allows fraudulent product page after manual review! Deep dive on Amazon's support of scams |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=qZCMislL6_I |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=14 Jan 2024 |title=Amazon's Reckless Bet: Hazardous Items Unfazed by Viral Scare |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=7trdHLtsFKM |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=30 Dec 2023 |title=Amazon Sells Fake Electrical Fuses |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=B90_SNNbcoU |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=21 Dec 2023 |title=Amazon's Illusion of Quality: How Dangerous Products Get Top Ratings! |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=DiKflg8Uko4 |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=16 Dec 2023 |title=Amazon Sells Dangerous Electrical Crimps |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=y83BS_mK9GE |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=5 Aug 2023 |title=Amazon sells EOL devices as new after banning independents for quality control 🤣 |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rhb0ID9z4aE |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=24 Feb 2022 |title=Amazon has a credibility problem brewing |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=XZNn2mO3dNQ |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=24 Apr 2014 |title=Group Vertical eBay/Amazon Macbook screens are garbage; see for yourself! |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=C0YNLWdj9sQ |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon allows sellers to bribe customers for better ratings
|2016 – Present
|Amazon sellers give customers gift cards in exchange for positive product reviews; Amazon does nothing to stop this.
|Continues to occur.
|[[Amazon's history of seller bribery]]
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=16 Jul 2024 |title=Amazon sellers bribe customers for good reviews; Amazon does nothing |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=eS698R-bxuc |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon has bad marketplace algorithms
|2023 – Present
|
|Algorithms still seem to be nonbeneficial.
|
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=4 Jan 2024 |title=Beyond Algorithms: Why Amazon's Automated Systems Fail Sellers & Customers |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=tAaSXz8CBMc |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon trashes refurbished market
|2022 – 2023
|
|Unknown
|
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=18 Jul 2023 |title=Apple & Amazon pay a fine for trashing the refurbished market |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=h3qgbvq2SWs |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=8 Sep 2022 |title=eBay follows amazon's lead, consolidating & destroying the refurbished marketplace |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=qzUXmeaZsIQ |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon cancels associate account after recent negative media coverage, with a different reason
|2023
|
|Unknown
|
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=22 Jun 2023 |title=Amazon cancelled my account after exposing their wrongful lockout of a paying customer |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=Kcohq313q00 |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon wrongfully suspends account of home owner
|2023
|A home owner was locked out of their Amazon account for nearly a week, after a delivery driver from Amazon misheard an automated message from their Eufy doorbell.
|Account reinstated.
|[[Amazon locks home owner out of Amazon account over allegation by Amazon delivery driver|Amazon locks home owner out of amazon account over allegation by amazon delivery driver]]
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=18 Jun 2023 |title=Man locked out of amazon account over his doorbell gets account back, but no apology |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=SyEgD-5GK9c |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=12 Jun 2023 |title=Amazon accuses customer of racism & shuts down their smart home - enough cloud junk |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=NfiIXooD77s |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon engages in anticompetitive behavior
|2021 – 2022
|
|Unknown
|
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=18 Sep 2022 |title=Amazon forces sellers to keep prices high on other platforms |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=YBJoSGWdP0Y |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=26 Oct 2021 |title=Amazon copying products/rigging search results |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=XCLx4mVJ4gk |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon sells fake electrical fuses
|2023 – Present
|Fuses are being sold that do not blow when supplied more power than it is intended to handle, which is a major safety risk.
|These fuses are still being sold to this day.
|[[Amazon allows fraudulent product page after manual review! Deep dive on Amazons support of scams]]
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=30 Dec 2023 |title=Amazon Sells Fake Electrical Fuses |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=B90_SNNbcoU |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon PhotosPlus discontinuation
|2024
|
|Since September 2024, it is no longer possible to use the Amazon Echo Show 8 as a digital frame without advertisements.
|[[Amazon PhotosPlus Discontinuation]]
|
|-
|Amazon uses [[dark patterns]] for its premium subscription
|2023 – Present
|Systematically designing the cancelling steps to be complicated and long; using tricks to enroll users into the subscription.<ref>{{cite web |date=2023-06-21 |title=FTC Takes Action Against Amazon for Enrolling Consumers in Amazon Prime Without Consent and Sabotaging Their Attempts to Cancel |url=https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/06/ftc-takes-action-against-amazon-enrolling-consumers-amazon-prime-without-consent-sabotaging-their |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250129015417/https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/06/ftc-takes-action-against-amazon-enrolling-consumers-amazon-prime-without-consent-sabotaging-their |archive-date=2025-01-29 |website=Federal Trade Commission |url-status=live}}</ref> See "Project Illiad".
|Continues to occur.
|
|
|-
|Amazon removes option to lend Kindle e-books
|2022
|E-books marked with "lending enabled" could be lent to other Kindle users for a period of time during which the title is unavailable to the sender.
|Since August 2022, it is not possible to borrow Kindle books.
|
|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAvFmnuZZMI '''Amazon Discontinues Lending Kindle e-Books''']
|-
|Amazon removes option not to send voice recordings from Echo devices
|2025
|In March 2025, Echo customers with the option "Do Not Send Voice Recordings" enabled received an e-mail that local processing will no longer be supported on their device.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-03-18 |title=TechLinked – Microsoft’s Big Oopsie – Echo voice recordings, Gemini watermarks |url=https://youtu.be/DhXH83O6pXc?t=268 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://preservetube.com/watch?v=DhXH83O6pXc |archive-date=2025-03-18 |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=YouTube – TechLinked}}</ref>
|
|[[Amazon Echo changes terms of voice usage]]
|
|-
|Amazon discontinues Appstore for Android devices
|2025
|On August 20, 2025, Amazon will remove Android devices' access to the Amazon Appstore.
|Android apps downloaded through the Amazon Appstore will cease to function.
|[[Amazon revokes access to their Appstore on non-Amazon devices|Amazon pulls the plug on its Android app store that you never used anyway]]
|
|-
|Amazon removes kindle books from user libraries.
|2009
|In 2009, Amazon removed 2 illegally published books, Animal Farm and 1984, from sale and user libraries, along with any notes and annotations made by the reader. Others have also reported missing books from their libraries.
|Those affected have been given refunds and there haven't been any further documented cases of books being removed from readers' libraries, although user reports are still prevalent.<ref>{{Cite web |last=A |first=Georgie |date=13 Nov 2022 |title=Bought books removed by Amazon. |url=https://www.amazonforum.com/s/question/0D56Q0000ALx14HSQR/bought-books-removed-by-amazon |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.ph/Z2ov3 |archive-date=7 Jan 2026 |access-date=12 Aug 2025 |website=Amazon}}</ref>
|[https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle]
|
|-
|Amazon purposely delays assisting customers with lost packages
|2025
|Amazon has been found delaying assistance to customers who contact customer service to report issues with a order (i.e., a missing package). Amazon states they are unable to take any action until a certain date, delaying the resolution process further in hopes the customer will not contact them again to request a refund.
|Unknown
|
|
|-
|Amazon adds ads on the lockscreen's of Amazon Fire Tablets & Amazon Kindle
|2012 - Present
|Amazon shows ads on both the Kindle & Fire Tablets lockscreen's to get money out of your purchases makes you pay a fee to remove them. This only applies to the cheaper models.
|This practice still occurs, but is very easy to remove through a quick search.
|[https://xdaforums.com/t/windows-linux-tool-fire-toolbox-v42-1.3889604/ Fire Toolbox]
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=T70xcAGUDQ4cR5PwPR Learn More About Ads On Kindle Fire and Fire Tablet - Amazon]
|
|}

==Products==

===Amazon Kindle (2007–Present)===
Amazon has progressively removed options for products purchased through the Kindle, effectively changing the meaning of purchases and ownership. It first removed the ability of users to lend e-books to one another, and later removed the ability to download purchased e-books to a computer.

===Amazon PhotosPlus (2023–2024)===
Amazon sold physical devices that could displaying photos stored in its Amazon Photos cloud storage through its PhotosPlus service. Less than one year later, it cancelled the service, which [[Retroactively amended purchase|changed the functionality]] of the devices, including showing advertisements every few hours.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Roth |first=Emma |date=21 Aug 2024 |title=Amazon cancels the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition’s main feature — focusing on photos |url=https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24225149/amazon-end-photosplus-subscription-echo-show-8-photos-edition |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.ph/Ked4V |archive-date=7 Jan 2026 |access-date=4 Apr 2025 |website=The Verge}}</ref>

===Amazon Prime (2005–Present)===
Amazon uses [[dark patterns]] for its subscription services, including tricking users into subscribing and making it very complicated to cancel. Moreover, some features of the service, such as free deliveries, are region locked to where you initially subscribed, forcing you to buy another subscription to be able to use the service.{{CitationNeeded}}

Prime video further only allows for HD streaming on Windows and MacOS, despite streaming services such as Netflix allowing HD streaming on Linux <ref>{{Cite web |title=Prime Video System Requirements for Computers |url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=atv_unsupported_systems_bannerlink?nodeId=GUVGB3QMQRYRERYW |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260214133717/https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GUVGB3QMQRYRERYW |archive-date=2026-02-14}}</ref>.

===Amazon Appstore (2011–Present)===
Amazon Appstore is the primary app store for Amazon's Fire devices, and is also available on other Android devices. On August 20, 2025, Amazon has removed access to the app store for all non-Fire devices. Apps installed on non-Fire devices from the Amazon Appstore have ceased to function but Fire devices are still to be able to access the Amazon Appstore.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Doffman |first=Zak |date=17 Aug 2025 |title=Amazon’s App Store Deadline—Stop Using Your Apps In 48 Hours |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/08/17/amazons-app-store-decision-48-hours-to-delete-your-apps/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.ph/CRmel |archive-date=18 Aug 2025 |access-date=30 Nov 2025 |website=Forbes}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ravi |first=Nandika |date=20 Feb 2025 |title=Amazon will suspend support for its Appstore on Android |url=https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/amazon-will-suspend-support-for-its-appstore-on-android |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.ph/1sEqt |archive-date=20 Feb 2025 |access-date=30 Nov 2025 |website=Android Central}}</ref> There was no restitution for non-Fire users who may have purchased paid apps through the Amazon Appstore.{{Citation needed|date=30 Nov 2025}}

===Amazon Echo (2014–Present)===

===Amazon Alexa (2013–Present)===
On July 1st 2024, Amazon removed 3rd party list support from the Alexa service, resulting in only lists hosted by Amazon being supported<ref>{{Cite web |access-date=2025-09-16 |title=Deprecated Features |website=Amazon Developer Documentation |url=https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/ask-overviews/deprecated-features.html#shopping-lists |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250522134122/https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/ask-overviews/deprecated-features.html#shopping-lists |archive-date=2025-05-22 }}</ref>. While it is still possible to manage lists via Alexa skills, these now require the skill activation phrase to be used (e.g. "Alexa, ask AnyList to add XYZ to my shopping list"). This followed from a [[Google#Google Assistant 3rd Party List Support|similar move by Google]] in 2023.

===All Louis Rossmann videos covering Amazon===
<references group="Video References" />

==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Amazon]]
[[Category:Articles in need of additional work]]

Amazon

2026-02-14T13:51:11Z

SomebodyThatMayContribute: /* References */

{{CompanyCargo
| Founded = 1994
| Industry = Technology
| Logo = Amazon.svg
| ParentCompany =
| Type = Public
| Website = https://amazon.com/
| Description = Major e-commerce platform which has allowed fraudulent listings, removed functionality and purchased products from Kindle devices, and more.
}}

[[wikipedia:Amazon_(company)|'''Amazon.com, Inc.''']] is a global leader in e-commerce, cloud computing, and digital streaming founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. Originally launched as an online bookstore, Amazon quickly expanded into a marketplace offering a wide range of products, including - but not limited to - electronics, clothing, household goods, and groceries. Today, it is one of the largest companies in the world, with a dominant presence in retail, technology, and logistics.

In addition to its e-commerce platform, Amazon is a major player in cloud computing through Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides cloud infrastructure and services to businesses globally. The company also offers a variety of digital services, such as Amazon Prime - which provides streaming video and music - and Alexa; its voice-activated virtual assistant. Amazon has also developed consumer products like the Kindle e-reader, Fire tablets, and Echo smart speakers.

Amazon has faced significant scrutiny and criticism, particularly concerning its treatment of workers, marketplace practices, data privacy issues, and its impact on small businesses. It has been involved in various regulatory and legal challenges related to anti-competitive behavior, safety, and consumer protection, with calls for increased oversight on its business operations.

==Consumer impact summary==
{{Placeholder box|Overview of concerns that arise from the company's conduct regarding (if applicable):
* User Freedom
* User Privacy
* Business Model
* Market Control}}

====Business Model====
Amazon gets a majority of its revenue from seller fees and Amazon Prime memberships. In addition, Amazon has a "subscribe and save" option for some products. With this, the page to manage these subscriptions is obfuscated for the user, intentional or not.

<gallery>
File:Amazon Subscribe and Save Example.jpg|No "subscribe and save" option available
File:Amazon Subscribe and Save Example (1).jpg|The option appears in the "buy again" section.
</gallery>

==Incidents==
This is a list of all consumer protection incidents related to this company. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the [[:Category:Amazon|Amazon category]].
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+
!Controversy
!Year
!Background info
!Aftermath
!Related article
!Related video(s)
|-
|Amazon removing kindle books from old devices.
|2025
|As of May 26, 2025 Kindle for Android app versions released prior to March 2022 (v8.51 or earlier) no longer support Kindle content downloads.
|Old android devices (such as Galaxy Tab 4) that are not compatible with Android OS v.9.0+ are no longer able to download Kindle ebooks. Furthermore, Amazon 'forcibly' removed any ebooks downloaded to the kindle app on those devices the next time they connected to the internet, without warning that this would occur.
|https://www.androidauthority.com/kindle-app-drm-loophole-3554844/
|
|-
|Amazon removing ability to download Kindle books
|2025
|Starting on February 26, 2025, Amazon removed a feature from its website allowing users to download purchased books to a computer and then copy them manually to a Kindle over USB.
|Starting February 26, 2025, the ‘Download & Transfer via USB’ option will no longer be available.
|[[Amazon Kindle removes download feature of purchased books]]
|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMoCzeGnIss '''Amazon are changing the way you own your Kindle books - you have 10 days to react''']
<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=18 Feb 2025 |title=Amazon revokes the concept of owning books, can edit books you already bought; PIRACY IS THE ANSWER! |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=XfcoUdWCB9M |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon sells lethal litterboxes
|2024
|Amazon sold knockoffs of Whisker brand "Litter-Robot" litterboxes that were designed in a unsafe way that led to the deaths of multiple cats, and posed a danger to young children.
|The responsible knockoff product was delisted, yet many other variants of the same product exist on the site.
|
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=10 Sep 2024 |title=Amazon litterbox fatally harms cat; this is the sad end result of what I've talked about all year :( |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=p6Y19nSPvC4 |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon adds ads to premium subscription
|2023 – Present
|Amazon added advertisements to previously ad free subscriptions for Prime Video and Echo Show frames.
|Continues to occur.
|
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=26 Aug 2024 |title=Amazon charges extra to avoid ads, says "lol jk" & adds them anyway |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=RSi6g5-xUaY |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=2 May 2024 |title=Amazon Hikes Profits by Forcing Ads on PAID Prime Subscribers |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=ua_QL9YysHQ |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=28 Dec 2023 |title=Ads on Amazon Prime Video: Paying More for Less? 😒 |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=VLFpU9aqtXc |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon allows fraudulent listings
|2014 – Present
|
|Fraudulent listings continue to be added, some removed.
|[[Amazon allows fraudulent product page after manual review]]
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=5 Aug 2024 |title=Amazon allows fraudulent product page after manual review! Deep dive on Amazon's support of scams |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=qZCMislL6_I |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=14 Jan 2024 |title=Amazon's Reckless Bet: Hazardous Items Unfazed by Viral Scare |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=7trdHLtsFKM |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=30 Dec 2023 |title=Amazon Sells Fake Electrical Fuses |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=B90_SNNbcoU |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=21 Dec 2023 |title=Amazon's Illusion of Quality: How Dangerous Products Get Top Ratings! |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=DiKflg8Uko4 |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=16 Dec 2023 |title=Amazon Sells Dangerous Electrical Crimps |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=y83BS_mK9GE |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=5 Aug 2023 |title=Amazon sells EOL devices as new after banning independents for quality control 🤣 |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rhb0ID9z4aE |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=24 Feb 2022 |title=Amazon has a credibility problem brewing |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=XZNn2mO3dNQ |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=24 Apr 2014 |title=Group Vertical eBay/Amazon Macbook screens are garbage; see for yourself! |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=C0YNLWdj9sQ |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon allows sellers to bribe customers for better ratings
|2016 – Present
|Amazon sellers give customers gift cards in exchange for positive product reviews; Amazon does nothing to stop this.
|Continues to occur.
|[[Amazon's history of seller bribery]]
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=16 Jul 2024 |title=Amazon sellers bribe customers for good reviews; Amazon does nothing |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=eS698R-bxuc |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon has bad marketplace algorithms
|2023 – Present
|
|Algorithms still seem to be nonbeneficial.
|
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=4 Jan 2024 |title=Beyond Algorithms: Why Amazon's Automated Systems Fail Sellers & Customers |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=tAaSXz8CBMc |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon trashes refurbished market
|2022 – 2023
|
|Unknown
|
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=18 Jul 2023 |title=Apple & Amazon pay a fine for trashing the refurbished market |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=h3qgbvq2SWs |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=8 Sep 2022 |title=eBay follows amazon's lead, consolidating & destroying the refurbished marketplace |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=qzUXmeaZsIQ |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon cancels associate account after recent negative media coverage, with a different reason
|2023
|
|Unknown
|
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=22 Jun 2023 |title=Amazon cancelled my account after exposing their wrongful lockout of a paying customer |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=Kcohq313q00 |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon wrongfully suspends account of home owner
|2023
|A home owner was locked out of their Amazon account for nearly a week, after a delivery driver from Amazon misheard an automated message from their Eufy doorbell.
|Account reinstated.
|[[Amazon locks home owner out of Amazon account over allegation by Amazon delivery driver|Amazon locks home owner out of amazon account over allegation by amazon delivery driver]]
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=18 Jun 2023 |title=Man locked out of amazon account over his doorbell gets account back, but no apology |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=SyEgD-5GK9c |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=12 Jun 2023 |title=Amazon accuses customer of racism & shuts down their smart home - enough cloud junk |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=NfiIXooD77s |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon engages in anticompetitive behavior
|2021 – 2022
|
|Unknown
|
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=18 Sep 2022 |title=Amazon forces sellers to keep prices high on other platforms |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=YBJoSGWdP0Y |website=Youtube}}</ref> <ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=26 Oct 2021 |title=Amazon copying products/rigging search results |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=XCLx4mVJ4gk |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon sells fake electrical fuses
|2023 – Present
|Fuses are being sold that do not blow when supplied more power than it is intended to handle, which is a major safety risk.
|These fuses are still being sold to this day.
|[[Amazon allows fraudulent product page after manual review! Deep dive on Amazons support of scams]]
|<ref group="Video References">{{Cite web |last=Rossmann |first=Louis |date=30 Dec 2023 |title=Amazon Sells Fake Electrical Fuses |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=B90_SNNbcoU |url-status=live |website=Youtube}}</ref>
|-
|Amazon PhotosPlus discontinuation
|2024
|
|Since September 2024, it is no longer possible to use the Amazon Echo Show 8 as a digital frame without advertisements.
|[[Amazon PhotosPlus Discontinuation]]
|
|-
|Amazon uses [[dark patterns]] for its premium subscription
|2023 – Present
|Systematically designing the cancelling steps to be complicated and long; using tricks to enroll users into the subscription.<ref>{{cite web |date=2023-06-21 |title=FTC Takes Action Against Amazon for Enrolling Consumers in Amazon Prime Without Consent and Sabotaging Their Attempts to Cancel |url=https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/06/ftc-takes-action-against-amazon-enrolling-consumers-amazon-prime-without-consent-sabotaging-their |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250129015417/https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/06/ftc-takes-action-against-amazon-enrolling-consumers-amazon-prime-without-consent-sabotaging-their |archive-date=2025-01-29 |website=Federal Trade Commission |url-status=live}}</ref> See "Project Illiad".
|Continues to occur.
|
|
|-
|Amazon removes option to lend Kindle e-books
|2022
|E-books marked with "lending enabled" could be lent to other Kindle users for a period of time during which the title is unavailable to the sender.
|Since August 2022, it is not possible to borrow Kindle books.
|
|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAvFmnuZZMI '''Amazon Discontinues Lending Kindle e-Books''']
|-
|Amazon removes option not to send voice recordings from Echo devices
|2025
|In March 2025, Echo customers with the option "Do Not Send Voice Recordings" enabled received an e-mail that local processing will no longer be supported on their device.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-03-18 |title=TechLinked – Microsoft’s Big Oopsie – Echo voice recordings, Gemini watermarks |url=https://youtu.be/DhXH83O6pXc?t=268 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://preservetube.com/watch?v=DhXH83O6pXc |archive-date=2025-03-18 |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=YouTube – TechLinked}}</ref>
|
|[[Amazon Echo changes terms of voice usage]]
|
|-
|Amazon discontinues Appstore for Android devices
|2025
|On August 20, 2025, Amazon will remove Android devices' access to the Amazon Appstore.
|Android apps downloaded through the Amazon Appstore will cease to function.
|[[Amazon revokes access to their Appstore on non-Amazon devices|Amazon pulls the plug on its Android app store that you never used anyway]]
|
|-
|Amazon removes kindle books from user libraries.
|2009
|In 2009, Amazon removed 2 illegally published books, Animal Farm and 1984, from sale and user libraries, along with any notes and annotations made by the reader. Others have also reported missing books from their libraries.
|Those affected have been given refunds and there haven't been any further documented cases of books being removed from readers' libraries, although user reports are still prevalent.<ref>{{Cite web |last=A |first=Georgie |date=13 Nov 2022 |title=Bought books removed by Amazon. |url=https://www.amazonforum.com/s/question/0D56Q0000ALx14HSQR/bought-books-removed-by-amazon |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.ph/Z2ov3 |archive-date=7 Jan 2026 |access-date=12 Aug 2025 |website=Amazon}}</ref>
|[https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle]
|
|-
|Amazon purposely delays assisting customers with lost packages
|2025
|Amazon has been found delaying assistance to customers who contact customer service to report issues with a order (i.e., a missing package). Amazon states they are unable to take any action until a certain date, delaying the resolution process further in hopes the customer will not contact them again to request a refund.
|Unknown
|
|
|-
|Amazon adds ads on the lockscreen's of Amazon Fire Tablets & Amazon Kindle
|2012 - Present
|Amazon shows ads on both the Kindle & Fire Tablets lockscreen's to get money out of your purchases makes you pay a fee to remove them. This only applies to the cheaper models.
|This practice still occurs, but is very easy to remove through a quick search.
|[https://xdaforums.com/t/windows-linux-tool-fire-toolbox-v42-1.3889604/ Fire Toolbox]
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=T70xcAGUDQ4cR5PwPR Learn More About Ads On Kindle Fire and Fire Tablet - Amazon]
|
|}

==Products==

===Amazon Kindle (2007–Present)===
Amazon has progressively removed options for products purchased through the Kindle, effectively changing the meaning of purchases and ownership. It first removed the ability of users to lend e-books to one another, and later removed the ability to download purchased e-books to a computer.

===Amazon PhotosPlus (2023–2024)===
Amazon sold physical devices that could displaying photos stored in its Amazon Photos cloud storage through its PhotosPlus service. Less than one year later, it cancelled the service, which [[Retroactively amended purchase|changed the functionality]] of the devices, including showing advertisements every few hours.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Roth |first=Emma |date=21 Aug 2024 |title=Amazon cancels the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition’s main feature — focusing on photos |url=https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24225149/amazon-end-photosplus-subscription-echo-show-8-photos-edition |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.ph/Ked4V |archive-date=7 Jan 2026 |access-date=4 Apr 2025 |website=The Verge}}</ref>

===Amazon Prime (2005–Present)===
Amazon uses [[dark patterns]] for its subscription services, including tricking users into subscribing and making it very complicated to cancel. Moreover, some features of the service, such as free deliveries, are region locked to where you initially subscribed, forcing you to buy another subscription to be able to use the service.{{CitationNeeded}}

Prime video further only allows for HD streaming on Windows and MacOS, despite streaming services such as Netflix allowing HD streaming on Linux <ref>{{Cite web |title=Prime Video System Requirements for Computers |url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=atv_unsupported_systems_bannerlink?nodeId=GUVGB3QMQRYRERYW |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260214133717/https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GUVGB3QMQRYRERYW |archive-date=2026-02-14 |access-date=}}</ref>.

===Amazon Appstore (2011–Present)===
Amazon Appstore is the primary app store for Amazon's Fire devices, and is also available on other Android devices. On August 20, 2025, Amazon has removed access to the app store for all non-Fire devices. Apps installed on non-Fire devices from the Amazon Appstore have ceased to function but Fire devices are still to be able to access the Amazon Appstore.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Doffman |first=Zak |date=17 Aug 2025 |title=Amazon’s App Store Deadline—Stop Using Your Apps In 48 Hours |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/08/17/amazons-app-store-decision-48-hours-to-delete-your-apps/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.ph/CRmel |archive-date=18 Aug 2025 |access-date=30 Nov 2025 |website=Forbes}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ravi |first=Nandika |date=20 Feb 2025 |title=Amazon will suspend support for its Appstore on Android |url=https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/amazon-will-suspend-support-for-its-appstore-on-android |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.ph/1sEqt |archive-date=20 Feb 2025 |access-date=30 Nov 2025 |website=Android Central}}</ref> There was no restitution for non-Fire users who may have purchased paid apps through the Amazon Appstore.{{Citation needed|date=30 Nov 2025}}

===Amazon Echo (2014–Present)===

===Amazon Alexa (2013–Present)===
On July 1st 2024, Amazon removed 3rd party list support from the Alexa service, resulting in only lists hosted by Amazon being supported<ref>{{Cite web |access-date=2025-09-16 |title=Deprecated Features |website=Amazon Developer Documentation |url=https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/ask-overviews/deprecated-features.html#shopping-lists |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250522134122/https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/ask-overviews/deprecated-features.html#shopping-lists |archive-date=2025-05-22 }}</ref>. While it is still possible to manage lists via Alexa skills, these now require the skill activation phrase to be used (e.g. "Alexa, ask AnyList to add XYZ to my shopping list"). This followed from a [[Google#Google Assistant 3rd Party List Support|similar move by Google]] in 2023.

===All Louis Rossmann videos covering Amazon===
<references group="Video References" />

==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Amazon]]
[[Category:Articles in need of additional work]]

ChatGPT

2026-01-27T07:31:19Z

SomebodyThatMayContribute: Adds TOS Citation to Consumer-impact summary Section 1, First sentence.

{{StubNotice}}{{ProductCargo
|Company=OpenAI
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|ReleaseYear=2022
|InProduction=Yes
|ArticleType=Product
|Category=Software, Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, Large Language Models
|Website=https://chat.openai.com/
|Description=ChatGPT data has been mishandled in the past, and is worsening with court-ordered data retention and integrated advertising.
|Logo=OpenAI logo (symbol).svg
}}
'''ChatGPT''' (Chat Generative Pre-Trained) is a generative artificial intelligence application developed and marketed by [[OpenAI]]. It was released on November 30th, 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-11-30 |title=Introducing ChatGPT |url=https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.is/IguN2 |archive-date=2025-09-01 |access-date=2026-01-26 |website=OpenAI}}</ref> It is a large language model (LLM) specialized in dialog that can perform human-like conversations. Various iterations of ChatGPT include GPT-3, GPT-4, GPT-4o, and previews of OpenAI-o1, OpenAI-o1 mini and GPT-5.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-07-09 |title=ChatGPT version history: Evolution timeline |url=https://nexos.ai/blog/chatgpt-version-history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.is/oFJHa |archive-date=2026-01-26 |access-date=2026-01-26 |website=nexos.ai}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hayat |first=Usman |date=2025-08-22 |title=ChatGPT Version History List, Changelog & Latest Releases |url=https://wpexperts.io/blog/chatgpt-version-history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.ph/h5g5y |archive-date=2026-01-26 |access-date=2026-01-26 |website=WPExperts.io}}</ref>

==Consumer-impact summary==

====Misleading advertising====
ChatGPT terms of service say it should not be used to make decisions about people.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Terms of Use {{!}} OpenAI |url=https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.is/Hu4Wo |archive-date=2026-01-27 |access-date=2026-01-27}}</ref> However, their advertising claims it is "PhD level" and makes other claims that seem to imply it is reliable. Many people use ChatGPT as if its output were meaningful, reliable, or a substitute for interaction with a person.

====Billing and moderation====
Credits (money) expire automatically with no notification, and the credit balance interface makes this process confusing. You must maintain a positive account balance, and you are auto-billed a fixed amount if it goes negative. Accounts can be banned and credits confiscated for typing the wrong things in chat, with no recourse.{{Citation needed}}

====Privacy====
A mobile phone number in a friendly country is required to better track your identity.{{Citation needed}}

====Data policy====
From OpenAI's data usage policy:{{Citation needed}}
{{Quote|We share content with a select group of trusted service providers that help us provide our services. We share the minimum amount of content we need in order to accomplish this purpose and our service providers are subject to strict confidentiality and security obligations. We do not use or share user content for marketing or advertising purposes.}}
The wording does not detail the extent of conversations shared with OpenAI's trusted service providers.

==Incidents==
{{Incomplete section}}
===Security breach (2023)===
On March 20, 2023 a bug allowed some users to see other users' conversation titles. Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, stated users couldn't view other users' conversation content. After the bug was fixed, users reported they were unable to view their conversation history. Later reports showed this issue was much bigger than it was thought at first, with OpenAI reporting there were leaks of the users' name, last name, e-mail address, payment address, and partial credit card information.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simo |first=Fidgi |date=20 March 2023 |title=March 20 ChatGPT outage: Here’s what happened |url=https://openai.com/index/march-20-chatgpt-outage/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.is/HFapg |archive-date=2025-08-24 |access-date=26 Jan 2026 |website=OpenAI}}</ref>

===Users' data retention by court mandate (May 2025 - October 2025)===
On May 13, 2025, New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. A court in New York mandated OpenAI to preserve users' conversation logs, including data from deleted conversations and temporary conversations. This affected Free, Plus, Pro and Team subscription tiers and also non Zero-Data-Retention API users. Edu, Enterprise tiers and Zero-Data-Retention API users were exempt from this.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bradbury |first=Danny |date=6 Jun 2025 |title=OpenAI forced to preserve ChatGPT chats |url=https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/06/openai-forced-to-preserve-chatgpt-chats |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.is/gGl4j |archive-date=2026-01-26 |access-date=26 Jan 2026 |website=Malwarebytes}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=R |first=Sudha |date=15 Jul 2025 |title=ChatGPT To Retain Conversations Indefinitely |url=https://medium.com/aimonks/court-orders-openai-to-retain-chatgpt-conversations-indefinitely-what-you-need-to-know-1530f24501a6 |url-status=live |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=26 Jan 2026 |website=Medium}}</ref>  On September 26, 2025, the preservation order was revoked. However, some deleted and temporary chats will still be monitored for being flagged.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Belanger |first=Ashley |date=10 Oct 2025 |title=OpenAI will stop saving most ChatGPT users’ deleted chats |url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/openai-no-longer-forced-to-save-deleted-chats-but-some-users-still-affected/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.is/fuvb9 |archive-date=2025-10-13 |access-date=26 Jan 2026 |website=Ars Technica}}</ref>

===Age verification (2026)===
With a justification to "help teens have an age-appropriate experience on ChatGPT", the platform will be implementing globally an age verification system to detect if a user is over 18 to allow them to access to mature content. OpenAI will scan and analyze the user's account, their conversations and their behavior - including the times of a day they use ChatGPT - to estimate their age. If this system detects a user as underage, it will use third-party tools provided by [[Persona]] to estimate their age, asking the user to upload a selfie or their government ID. If the user refuses to send a selfie or their ID, the platform will limit ChatGPT's generated content.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 Jan 2026 |title=Age prediction in ChatGPT |url=https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12652064-age-prediction-in-chatgpt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.is/9sFQT |archive-date=2026-01-26 |access-date=26 Jan 2026 |website=OpenAI}}</ref>

===Integrated ads (2026)===
On January 16, 2026, OpenAI announced that they will be implementing in the US ads for users over 18 that belong to Free and Go tiers. Pro, Business and Enterprise tiers will be exempt from this. These ads will be based on the conversation topic and will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT's messages.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simo |first=Fidgi |date=16 Jan 2026 |title=Our approach to advertising and expanding access to ChatGPT |url=https://openai.com/index/our-approach-to-advertising-and-expanding-access/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.is/dsJzC |archive-date=2026-01-16 |access-date=25 Jan 2026 |website=OpenAI}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Cirello |first=Rafaelle F |last2=Backholer |first2=Kathryn |date=23 Jan 2026 |title=OpenAI will put ads in ChatGPT. This opens a new door for dangerous influence |url=https://theconversation.com/openai-will-put-ads-in-chatgpt-this-opens-a-new-door-for-dangerous-influence-273806 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.is/VH3X3 |archive-date=2026-10-26 |access-date=26 Jan 2026}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[OpenAI]]
*[[Artificial intelligence]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:OpenAI]]
[[Category:Artificial intelligence]]