Following is a letter I sent to Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller:
Mr. Attorney General:
This letter is in regard to the business practices of the company Facebook. As we have previously discussed, Facebook allows 13-year-olds to have accounts with their company.
The problem with that should be obvious. In order to get a Facebook account, one must click on a box saying that they have read and agreed to the terms and conditions of Facebook.
I have read the terms and conditions of Facebook. If the terms and conditions of Facebook do not constitute a contract, then what do they constitute? Having read hundreds of contracts, I find it unimaginable anyone would attempt to argue that Facebook’s terms and conditions are not a contract.
The terms and conditions contain the kind of language that is standard for a contract, as well as the conditional clauses, mutual assent and consideration one would find in any other contract.
If Facebook is entering into contractual relationships with minors, then those contracts would be void.
Facebook must be aware of this; nevertheless, they allow 13-year-olds to engage in these contracts for the profit and gain of Facebook.
If Facebook has a business plan that includes knowingly entering into void contracts with minors for the purpose of the enrichment of Facebook, does that not constitute wholesale fraud?
Facebook just had an initial public offering that valued its net worth at over $100 billion. How much of that value is based on its illicit activities?
Facebook not only enriches itself from selling information about children to advertisers, it also maintains that information indefinitely to create future profits. The random thoughts of children should be largely biodegradable, not the property of a corporation that has knowingly ensnared children in the most exploitative manner imaginable.
Even if the child voids the contract, the information Facebook received from the child remains the property of Facebook and its advertising partners. Hence, Facebook doesn’t allow the minor to truly void the unlawful contract. Facebook may only use the gathered data as part of an aggregate, but aggregated data helps Facebook make money in many ways, including helping it create baselines of data and compare changes that take place.
One may argue that the illegal activities of Facebook are a matter for the United States Attorney General’s office. Unfortunately, the founder and majority voting shareowner of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is a key advisor to the sitting president, and the conflict of interest this creates makes it virtually impossible that the United States Attorney General, Eric Holder, would provide any meaningful investigation into this matter.
Furthermore, if a business is defrauding the residents of Indiana, even if that business commits these same legal abuses in all 50 states, it would still seem to be in the purvey of the Indiana State Attorney General’s Office to investigate.
It is for these reasons I request that you investigate these practices by Facebook and initiate the appropriate actions to protect our children.
Thank you for your consideration.
