TWIFcomp

My dear mafia friends -- Having read through various reports about Zynga, the company behind Mafia Wars, I've decided to yank the game from my facebook account. Their CEO went on at some length a week ago, gloating about distasteful things the company did to gain market share. I have no problem with companies that offer free services in exchange for some advertsing or access to information, but some of these reports suggest that Zynga has crossed the line into deceptive business practices.

 
A number of companies (e.g., by report, Fandango, Orbitz, Buy.com, and I'm sure others) engage in web loyalty programs. These usually take the form of a pop-up add that offers some service. By interacting with that form, you authorize the company to begin charging you for some service that you might never appreciate. They already have your credit card information, so the transaction is all but invisible to you. Somewhere buried in the fine print of the offer or perhaps in some EULA that you've previously seen, they have likely mentioned the details, but there is little connection between the pop-up that you see and the result that occurs. Many people don't even know that they're being dinged for $12/month or so until some time later when they happen to notice it while reviewing bank or credit card options.

I held off for quite a while on joining Facebook until their ToS became a little more reasonable, and the utility of FB seemed to outweigh privacy concerns. I'm not all that happy with FB tolerating scummy practices by its partners.

Mafiawar was very effective braincrack-ware, and I happily spent a lot of time on it, but I think I'm better off without it.