Hello, I am new here. 
Thought I’d share a little discovery I made in a subtle detail buried in legal terms. I realize everyone knows how bad terms can be but this is just one legal maneuver that’s hard to spot and has enormous implications.
A year or so ago I was scrolling through a grocery app on my phone. For whatever reason I decided to actually read the privacy policy & terms of use of my grocery store. You’d be surprised how invasive the humble grocery store can be…
Of course the first gotcha is… “by using this app you agree to … <500 billion pages of carefully-crafted legalese that nobody has time to read>”
So by merely opening the app you’ve already sold your soul to the grocery store, but we’re just getting started.
Then of course it went on to say they “collect your name and address, collect purchase history, collect information about your prescriptions, may use your location, may collect video, may collect audio” etc. The usual.
Then the real a-ha moment.
“We may share some of your information with our partners”.
.. may
.. some
.. our partners
Vague, vague and more vague.
You’ve just made a complex legal agreement with the company you intend to do business with, as well an unknown number of unnamed mystery partners with whom you have not been given terms. Or rather, you have given the unnamed mystery partners unrestricted usage to the data you authorized them to have.
The partners have legally received your data and you signed off on it. The partners have no obligation to you whatsoever.
Now that the partner has your data (legally), and are bound by no terms (legally), they can do with it as they please and share it with whomever they want (legally), including their own nameless mystery partners who now have at least three degrees of separation from you.
In the context of a grocery store, this data may potentially include: your private medical information, your spending habits, your dietary habits, your daily routine, your face & facial bone structure, your voice & vocal signature, your gait, people you’re with, and whatever other dystopian data surveillance you didn’t realize you agreed to.
Let’s recap…
By using your grocery store’s app…
You’ve agreed to share data with your grocery store.
You’ve agreed to share data with your grocery store’s partners (unrestricted)
Therefore, you’ve agreed to share your data with the partner’s partners.
..and the partner’s partner’s partners.
..and the partner’s partner’s partner’s partners.
..and the partner’s partner’s partner’s partner’s partners.
..and the partner’s partner’s partner’s partner’s partner’s partners.
..and the partner’s partner’s partner’s partner’s partner’s partner’s partners.
These needn’t be grocery-related partners. Somewhere down the chain this data can easily make its way to medical companies, insurance companies, research institutions, tech companies, domestic or even foreign governments.. once the data is out of the hands of the only party with an obligation to you, the sky is the limit.
All because you bought some bread on an app.
It doesn’t even have to be limited to “our partners”.. it could instead read “our subsidiaries” and you’ve just given unrestricted usage to whomever the subsidiaries are (and the subsidiary’s partners … )
That is all.