I travelled on CrossCountry yesterday and was having a read of their WiFi Policy whilst onboard... There was something that struck me as quite possibly rather ridiculous:
http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/customer-service/crosscountry-wifi/crosscountry-wifi-terms-and-conditionsFair usage policy
So that we can offer all users of our WiFi system a reliable, smooth service, we have in place a Fair Usage Policy. We reserve the right to restrict a user's connection speed, or terminate their session, if the level of use is deemed by us as excessive and therefore to detrimental to other users. While the vast majority of users will use far less, we determine that any usage of the service above 40Mb per hour is classed as excessive and subject to restriction or termination of session.
With the emphasis in bold... Can I facepalm the desk please?
Ok, lets do some explaining here.
40MB in an hour is equivilant to 667KB every minute. Looking at the bandwidth usage from my Laptop in the last 24 hours. I am using way in excess of that. Even for very light usage.
Lets go into this further. You are using a company laptop, that is managed by your IT Department. It has remote management tools, Antivirus Software, Windows Updates etc to all run in the background.
The likes of Kaspersky download their updates from the cloud servers every 15 minutes or so. Sensible if you have users who are prone to open dodgy attachments in emails. Windows updates also download in the background and these can be anything from a few MB to 1GB+ if it's a large service pack.
All the remote management tools will "phone home" which uses background data.
So to bring me back to the original issue of 40MB fair usage allowance. I opened my laptop, connected up and everything was looking good. Within 10 minutes I hit the 40MB allowance! What had I done in the mean time?
Opened and had a quick look at my Facebook, Twitter, read around 10 emails and answered a further 2. In the background my Laptop would almost certainly have tried to connect to the Cloud Servers via DirectAccess VPN and updated it's antivirus.
Fortunately I was the only passenger in First Class so I doubt I was upsetting anyone else using the connections. On the return journey I used my Unlimited Data Plan. For the 102 minutes I was on the train I used around 500MB.
The User undertakes:-
- Not to use the Hotspot for any unlawful purpose;
- That it shall not make any use of the Hotspot such that the whole or part of the Hotspot is interrupted, damaged, rendered less efficient, or the effectiveness or functionality of the Hotspot is in any way impaired;
Ok the first one there is self explanatory. But the second one is ridiculous. Maybe someone can explain to me?
You join the HotSpot being used already by 4 people. The moment you connect as user 5, 10 or 1 it makes no difference; you make the hotspot less effective and less efficient. As the hotspot now has to provide for 5 users. So you have impaired the existing users for you to be able to load Google. How selfish of you!
But you cannot possibly use the darn thing if you are to fully comply with the terms and conditions. You make it less efficient and impair usage for other users the moment you connect. Whether you log in and use it or not.
- Not to use the Hotspot for the transmission or posting of any computer viruses or any material which is defamatory, offensive or of an obscene or menacing character or in such a way as to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;
Computer Viruses. That is assuming you
KNOW you have one. That you know it's sending out thousands of spam emails every minute. Whilst ignorance is not a valid defence, I cannot possibly see how you can blame someone if they were unaware. Most are very clueless to their computers having viruses.
- Not to use the Hotspot in a manner which constitutes a violation or infringement of the rights of any person, firm or company (including rights of copyright or confidentiality);
Reasonably self explanatory that one. Although if I perhaps send a message to Ladyfriend trout via Facebook Messenger over WiFi to tell her that I think her friend is a moron. I've violated the rights of that person to not be called something horrible? Ok childish that one yes. But...
- That it shall not use the Hotspot to transmit any material for the purposes of publicity, promotion and/or advertising without the prior written consent of Crosscountry unless such transmission has been specifically requested by another User of the Hotspot;
I'm sat on the train with the Marketing Manager who has asked me to prepare and send a mass mailshot for a new product to our subscribers. As she is sat opposite me with a 10 minute reservation and connected to the hotspot I have asked for written authorisation to send the mailshot. I've just got her email.
- That CrossCountry may block access to certain websites by you on the Hotspot, including for example certain high bandwidth websites, in order to share bandwidth more amongst its User group.
Please do it properly then... Spotify is blocked on CrossCountry. Yet if you have the program installed on your laptop it actually works
The User will indemnify and defend CrossCountry against all claims, liability, damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees, arising out of a breach of these Terms and Conditions or any Use of the Hotspot by the User. The User acknowledges that CrossCountry has no control over the nature or content of information or programs transmitted or received by the User using the Hotspot and that CrossCountry does not examine in any way the use to which the User puts the Hotspot. The User agrees to fully indemnify CrossCountry against any claims or legal proceedings arising in connection with User's use of the Hotspot which are brought or threatened against CrossCountry by any other person.
If a party sued CrossCountry as a result of my actions. I would perhaps chose this route:
- Prove I was on or about the railway on the date and time of the alleged breach occured
- From the HotSpot that the complainant is suggesting I used, prove I was on the train that contains this hotspot occured via CCTV▸ or Witness Statements
- Assuming the above are true, prove it was any one of my devices connected to the HotSpot at the date and time the offence occured
If the above were true, then I might consider a claim against me if there was credible evidence of wrong doing. I received a speculative invoice for downloading copyright material of an Adult nature. I had done nothing of the sort. It turned out the only evidence they had was an IP Address and were just hoping I paid up for fear of the matter being taken further. At the time I was a new customer of that ISP and didn't hold that IP address until after the alleged offence was committed...
So reviewing everything here. Also reviewing a few other Wireless HotSpot Terms of Usage. They all have similar wording. So I think to be honest it is an invalid agreement as you breach it the moment you connect. Unless someone with a qualified legal hat on can tell me differently or explain it to me
