Would you trade your first born for free Wi-Fi? These guys did
LatestHow many times have you signed a contract without reading the fine print? We’ve all done it before, hoping that there’s nothing in the six-font text that will come back to haunt us later. But six Londoners weren’t so lucky, and it almost cost them their children.
The security firm F-Secure decided to conduct a little experiment to see how many people would sign a contract for free Wi-Fi whose terms and conditions required them to surrender their first-born child, according to the Guardian.
The experiment, backed by the law enforcement agency Europol, consisted in Wi-Fi hotspot which terms and conditions included a “Herod clause” promising free Wi-Fi if the recipient agreed to give away their eldest child for eternity. Six people signed. Even more surprising, 27 people actually read the fine print and refused to sign.
F-Secure said they won’t seek to enforce the kid-grabbing clause (for now).
The goal of the experiment? To highlight public unawareness of serious security issues when signing terms and conditions clauses.
Born and raised in Spain, Lara is a digital producer and writer for Fusion — covering stories in culture and technology as well as in-depth environmental issues across the globe.