This page is dedicated towards providing a communal list for users to submit potential articles to feature on the wiki, and to give editors inspiration on what pages they might want to add to the wiki. If you create an article based on an entry from this list, or see that someone else has done so, please make sure to delete the row from this page in order to prevent confusion.
Sources should be inserted within the 'refs' section of the table. If using the visual editor, take advantage of 'insert reference' via 'ctrl + shift + k' so that the sources are quick to add to future articles. If you are using the source editor, feel free to copy and paste the formatting from other correctly formatted references on the page. The more sources you include with an article idea, the more likely it is that others will pick the article idea up and run with it, so please attempt to include a good variety of descriptive sources!
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If you are an editor looking for further inspiration to write an article, you can also check out the Louis Rossmann video directory for a good collection of potential articles.
Example
Below is an example of what an entry should appear as:
| Company | Summary of Incident | Refs |
|---|---|---|
| Nintendo | In 2025, the company Nintendo stripped Switch 2 consoles that used the MIG switch cartridge of all online functionality | [1][2] |
List of incidents not yet covered
| Company | Summary of Incident | Refs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ABC Financial Services | Manages memberships and recurring service subscriptions for other companies. Prevents customers from being able to cancel a service by locking them into a never-ending cycle of auto renewals, and not allowing the customer to opt out of auto renewal. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Affinity / Canva | Canva purchases Serif; the owner of perpetual license design software Affinity Publisher, Designer, and Photo on March 26th 2024. Provides a pledge to assure users that Canva will not "ruin" the suite. In October 2025, Affinity users are locked out of the community forum for a new "Creative Freedom" announcement on October 30th 2025. Complete radio silence for a whole month while they tease long term users on Twitter and Discord. Finally on October 30th 2025, the new Affinity software is announced as "free". Instead, all creative professionals that used the original software are forced to create a new Canva account to access the new Affinity and thus agree to Canva's ToS[3]. Affinity redirects the pledge page to an announcement for the new software, effectively burying the original pledge[4]. Questions about Canva now being able to monetize the work of professionals to train their own AI models sold to Canva users are left unanswered. Free, but at what cost?
EDIT: Initial article has been written but needs more work, citation, and verification. See this article here. |
[3][4] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Amazon | Amazon renders Fire TV Blaster unusable, offers Amazon gift card to affected customers | [5] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apple | $17 000 Apple Watch 18 karat gold edition out of support only 8 years after its introduction (not end of sale!). This means no software support, and, crucially, no repair or replacement parts. If the battery dies, the watch is but a paperweight. | [6] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apple, Beats | No support for Powerbeats (4th generation) despite the headphones being under 5 years from when Apple last distributed the product for sale. The product is not listed as discontinued or vintage, and by Apple's own guidelines, should be eligible for replacement parts and repair. OEM replacement eartips cannot be purchased for any Beats earphones. | [7][8][9] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apple iWork/Creator Studio | The update that makes the iWork apps part of the new Apple Creator Studio subscription now adds tracking that is enabled by default and implemented as opt-out. The information about it is displayed in a first launch screen without any immediate way opt out, which qualifies as a dark pattern. Instead, the user has to go through a slightly convoluted path via the iPhone/iPad system settings app, and under the submenu "Apps" find each of the iWork apps and disable analytics there individually for each app. On Desktop, it is under a dedicated menu item under the "Pages"/"Numbers"/"Keynote" menu. | [10] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| archive.today | The website used JavaScript embedded into the website code to conduct a DDOS attack from users' devices against a blogger who has voiced criticism of the service in the past. This may make also cause legal issues for users.
NOTE: A similar technique has previously been used by Chinese search giant Baidu, so we might want to create a category or tag for this type of thing |
[11] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Arduino (/ɑːrˈdwiːnoʊ/) is an Italian open-source hardware and software company owned by Qualcomm | Arduino’s new terms of service worries hobbyists ahead of Qualcomm acquisition.
User shall not:
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| Atlassian | Users forced from on-premise to cloud only subscriptions
Edit: Page has been started here, more work, citation, and verification needs to be done. |
[12] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Axon | Tazers sold with lease agreement that makes purchase effectively a subscription. | [69] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bayer/Monsanto | WP:B/WP:M. They abuse farmers and are a risk to public health. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bluesky | Introduced ID check for Direct Messaging to comply with laws in certain states and abroad, despite both the company and community being against it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chat control | Wikipedia. Notice how the "official" name just specifies the "purpose" but not the what or the how | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cloudary Holdings Limited / Webnovel | Terms of service with binding Arbitration. | [13] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Devolo | Devolo switches off servers and removes their app from stores for their "Home Control" system, thus severely reducing the functionality of their devices (apparently Z-Wave-based). | [14] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dell and HP | HP and Dell have disabled HEVC (H.264/H.265) hardware encoding and decoding support built into their laptops’ CPUs using both Intel and AMD processors. | [15] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discord | Discord is pushing for Mandatory age verification, despite suffering a data breach that leaked 70,000+ users info a few months prior. | [16] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| E621 | Terms of service that require agreement to forced arbitration to use the website. | [17] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| EcoVac | Vacuum cleaner robots produced by company 'EcoVac' were found vulnerable to hacking over bluetooth allowing for remote control and access to camera feed. Security researcher Dennis Giese notified the company in December of 2023. In August of 2024, the issue was described by the company as "extremely rare in typical user environments and require specialized hacking tools and physical access to the device." | [18][19][20] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Elegoo | The Elegoo Centauri Carbon 3d printer has been proven to use open source Klipper software which requires them to publish their changes to the code. | [21] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Foxit Reader | Updater uses dark pattern to trick unsuspecting users into installing a trial version of their paid product. The checkbox is enabled again by default with each update in the hope that the user misses it by accident at some point. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google Chromecast | Chromecast has transitioned from a standalone product to one that requires the Google Home app for setup and control. This change prevents customers who either don't own a smartphone or prefer not to use the app from accessing their Chromecast devices. As a result, certain televisions—such as the Caixon EC43S1UA, which relied on built-in Chromecast functionality—can no longer be used as intended. This effectively removes a key feature from a product that was already purchased, diminishing its value or rendering it unusable altogether. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google TLS Changes | Google's new requirements to certificate authorities require separate authority/signing chains to be used to issue Server Authentication and Client Authentication certificates. Therefore, starting 11 February 2026, Let's Encrypt will no longer include the Client Authentication EKU on default certificates | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google apparently plans to reduce the interval of publishing source code of security patches they consider non-critical. This is another blow to the custom ROM community.
Right now we don't have these incidents organised chronologically, maybe we should have a table with a timeline of measures Google takes to enshittify and close down Android (more APIs moved to Play Services, Developer verification, withholding AOSP device trees for Pixel devices to mess with Graphene OS, now delayed source code disclosure). What's worst, they always cite safety as a reason. |
[22] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google, Mozilla, Apple, Microsoft, but largely Google-led | Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari are removing XSLT 1.0 support, which could break critical parts of government's websites worldwide[23]. There are valid security reasons for them to want to stop supporting this 1999-era standard, however they have had 26+ years to update to a newer standard (such as the 2017-era 3.1 standard, which is backwards compatible and would allow these sites to continue to work[24]). The single unpaid developer maintaining these libraries has more or less retired after getting flooded with impossible to satisfy security requests from these companies[25]. There is an existing project called XRUST to implement the 3.1 standard[26], which is 2/3rds of the way through supporting all the features of 1.0 - the XSLT part fully supports all the 1.0 features at this point. XSLT is part of the W3C Consortium's open web standards for formatting and presenting XML, and is also how RSS works, so RSS feeds would stop working as well, disrupting the livelihoods of podcasters[27]. This has led to questions of who owns the web - the public (including the government) who paid for and laid down the highways / web infrastructure - or a handful of large corporations? [28] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GoPro Hero 12 | GoPro Hero 12 requires the GoPro app to be installed before you can use the camera. Many currently used devices are not compatible with the app, therefore making use of the camera difficult to impossible for new owners or upon camera factory reset. There's also the question of what data the app collects and whether it requires login and or camera activation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hikvision | Chinese surveillance camera manufacturer complicit in Uighur genocide which used to advertise recognition of praying and ramadan fasting among its selling points. Similarly to Flock, they are in use world wide and likely feed directly into the Chinese government's surveillance infrastructure and could conceivably be used to find dissidents world-wide. Recently, the city of Hamburg has installed them (Google Translate Version in English). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Internet radios | I'd like a page where I can share information about internet radios "openness." Few allow you to enter a radio station's URL (which I would consider the least intrusive option). Most depend on third-party websites or apps; some of which have already bricked devices. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IPVideo Corporation (owned by Motorola) | Manufacturer of surveillance hardware. The notable example that brought them to my attention is the Halo 3C/3C-PC Smart Sensor, which is deployed in places such as school bathrooms and subsidized/social housing. This system has a variety of sensors on it, from air quality ones (for detecting smoking/vape usage) all the way to microphones (ostensibly for audio analysis to identify aggression and gunshots, without the capability to stream the audio elsewhere, but this not a limitation built into the hardware and could be changed by a firmware update). | [29][30] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| iRacing | iRacing is a racing game that's subscription-based, requiring payment just to play the actual game in either online or offline mode. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| itch.io, Night School Studios, Netflix | In September 2024, users who purchased the game Oxenfree on itch.io were warned that the game was going to be pulled from the platform on October 1st. Consumers would not be able to download the installers after this date, so they would lose access unless they had them backed up. Users speculated that Netflix, the parent company of the development studio, had ordered the move; however, no response from Netflix or the developers was ever published. This is particularly notable because it is against itch.io's terms of service: "Users shall retain a license to this content even after the content is removed from the Service." | [31] [32] [33] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Japan Times, The | The Japan Times uses the DMCA to take down an open source study resource for the Genki and Quartet workbooks. | [34][35][36] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| KOSA | KOSA claims to make kids safer, but it’s really a dangerous censorship bill that would give the U.S. government unprecedented control over the internet. This would put youth in danger by preventing them from accessing potentially life-saving resources. | [37][38] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LBRY Foundation, Odysee | Community first decentralization & Odysseys plan to enable censorship by switching away from the opensource LBRY network. | [39][40][41] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LG | LG discontinued its LG Bluetooth Remote app (including plugins such as "btc4") making it non-public on the Play Store and making Bluetooth controllable devices (like for example the CM2630B) half as useful, without even publishing neither the protocol used to control such devices nor the source code of the app. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lowe's | Lowe's uses flock cameras and other AI powered cameras to collect data and build a profile on "prospective, current, or former Lowe's customers". Their cameras point away from their stores. | [42][43] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| McDonald's/Taylor | McDonald's US mandates which ice cream machine has to be used by franchise licensees. The company that makes these machines uses deliberately obfuscated error codes to force restaurant owners to use their expensive tech service to fix them and reset the machines. The company makes more money from these "repairs" support than with actual sales. Not strictly end consumer, but the pattern warrants documenting imo.
A similar problem exists with Doremi (Dolby) cinema projectors where their DRM leads to a ridiculous number of actions breaking the so-called "marriage" (projector-media block unity), requiring a costly technician to reset it. This one needs sources researched, though, as I don't have one on hand. |
[44] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Meta/Facebook, Yandex | Automatic opt-in of user-generated content being used for the purposes of training AI. | [45][46] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Meta/Instagram/Facebook | If a user is detected to having suspicious activity, their account will be locked until they send selfie verification. This is said to be done in order to detect robots, minors, or accounts no longer controlled by its original owner. During selfie verification, the user will be instructed to slowly turn their head for the camera. The data may be sent to a third party to estimate the users age, scanned for the liveliness and biometrics, or compared to the users profile picture depending on the suspected issue. The data will be deleted once examined, which may take around a minute. Users have raised concerns on the privacy, safety, and honesty of the cooperations actions. | [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Meta/WhatsApp | In a new lawsuit, an ex-engineer alleges that 1500 engineers had unrestricted access to WhatsApp user data and that the company "failed to remedy the hacking and takeover of more than 100,000 accounts each day, ignoring his pleas and proposed fixes and choosing instead to prioritize user growth". (ongoing) | [5] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Meta/WhatsApp | Lawsuite citing whistleblower alledges that Meta can read WhatsApp conversation despite claiming otherwise, response from Meta only states communication is end-to-end encrypted, but this does not explicitly exclude the possibility of Meta exfiltrating conversations at the endpoints and sending copies to Meta or anyone else. | [47] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Meta | A Reuters article revealed that Meta deliberately avoided cracking down on fraudulent ads, even going as far as disbanding the relevant team, because they make a substantial amount of money from said ads (10.1% of its revenue). | [6] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft | Microsoft uses software engineers based in China to work on US Defense Department systems with laughably ineffective precautions. I think this is relevant in the context of Microsoft's attitude towards cloud security. In the past, master keys have been stolen by Chinese hackers and from my understanding, it's not even clear to what extent those groups still have access to Microsoft's internal systems, and by extension, Microsoft customers'. This needs more research though. | [48] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft Windows 11 | The Windows 11 Bing Wallpaper app, which offers regularly changing desktop wallpapers, opens bing.com at every single click onto the desktop and tries to make bing.com the default search engine during launch. This is the latest step in a series of invasive actions to get Windows users to use Bing and Edge. | [49] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mitsubishi Motors | Mitsubishi Motors has a rich history of consumer protection, compliance issues and privacy breaches. These include concealing safety defects, falsifying fuel economy data, and being fined for false advertising. Following the trend of subscription services for the automotive industry, Mitsubishi paywalls built-in features including remote start, SOS, collision detection, and car tracking through its app Mitsubishi Connect subscription service. | [7] [8] [9] [10][11] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Multiple | Several legal cases involving forced arbitration in some manner; many of these relate to other anticonsumer practices, such as when Wells Fargo illegally opened up ~3.5M fake checking and credit accounts in customers' names. Highly advised to deeply scrub for supplementary sources. | [50] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Navdy, Harman International | Device discontinued and no updates, device can be used offline for 1 year until it stops working. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Netgear (internet networking equipment) | Almost every Netgear internet router requires the creation of a new account to function as a router, where the TOS includes an agreement to binding arbitration. Most if not all devices are locked into proprietary firmware with no option to change. Some automatic updates have reportedly cause loss of performance with option to revert to a previous version, "bricking" the device in some cases.
Engages in anti-consumer practices, requiring a subscription for basic WiFi-router features such as parental controls. According to a blogpost by a senior employee, grew from "45% in 2016 to over 60% in 2019" of the US consumer router market. In 2025, Netgear is "being sued by TP-Link for a 'Smear Campaign' to Advance US Router Ban [of it's competitor TP-Link]. |
[62] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nothing | Nothing brings home-screen ads (can be disabled manually) and bloatware to its lower end models despite previously boasting about being bloatware free | [51] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| OICA (European automotive lobby organisation) | The OICA recently pushed for the right to emit sounds from quiet electric cars to make them as loud as conventional cars with combustion engine and against stricter noise regulation in cities. The fake engine noises in question are specifically not for safety purposes, but for emotional effect for the driver. However, instead of playing the noises only inside for just the driver to hear, the noise is to be played on speakers on the exterior, thus affecting the general public. Noise pollution has long been known to have adverse health effects. [NOTE: Similar to environmental aspects, greenwashing etc., we will have to find a good angle for how this fits the wiki. I would say it does match the general theme of manufacturers deliberately making their products worse for minor financial gain and lobbies pushing against things that are in public interest.] | [52] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Skystone Games | Boundary, a multiplayer online-only first-person shooter, got shut down just a year after its release by Skystone games, and its publishing rights relinquished, citing "ongoing delays and a lack of updates from the developer". Studio Surgical Scalpels (the developer) stated that the publisher decissions were "extremely sudden and unreasonable", and attempted to "regain the rights to boundary". The game has been offline for more than a year at the time of writing, and no refunds or communications to the userbase has been made by Skystone Games. | [53][54] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Slack | Slack threatened to deactivate the Slack workspace and delete all message history of a nonprofit unless they agreed to a price hike of $200k yearly and also pay an extra $50k within a week. There were no prior warnings from Slack. A few years prior to this incident, they had agreed to migrate from the free nonprofit plan to a $5k per year plan. | [55] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sony, Sony Online Entertainment/Daybreak Game Company | Selling off SOE to the investment firm Columbus Nova, all games published by SOE were delisted without prior notice to consumers or developers, and licenses were revoked as well. | [56][57] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Superbox | Android TV box manufacturer Superbox remotely locks consumers' devices if they were sold below the manufacturer's minimum specified prices and asks consumers to contact the retailer when they complain.
They are not the first to do something like this. Deye locked down inverters in the US that they suspected might be gray imports. |
[58] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UP3 By Jawbone | Approximately 2011, Pioneering startup company from San Francisco, had revolutionary fitness trackers. In 2017 with no notice to customers they stole personal data and shut down app which in turn, bricked devices. Highly likely went bankrupt and sold to sister company to manipulate customer services and rights. Now owned by Aliph brands. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vive | In 2022, Vive discontinued the original Vive Facial Tracker module a year after the original release, then released an updated model with proprietary firmware that blocked use on other 3rd party VR headset, while only allowing the new model to work with their new locked-down headset. The 2021 version of the face tracker's long term support was seemingly cut overnight without any software updates since 2021. | [59][60] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| WHMCS | Discontinuation of support and updates for WHMCS legacy “Owned” licenses, forcing users who want ongoing updates or technical support to switch to subscription licensing and pay recurring fees rather than continue with the original owned model. This change affects all holders of legacy owned licenses and alters the long-term terms under which those licenses were originally sold | [61][62] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wheatstone Corporation | Wheatstone Corporation are a manufacturer of professional broadcast equipment, mainly audio consoles and interfaces that utilise their proprietary Wheatnet audio over IP protocol.
Wheatstone restricts access to firmware updates, software configuration tools and software. You must open a support ticked in order for them to send you a download link to these software tools, they make it very difficult to access software required to make their hardware audio interfaces work, even stating they want proof of purchase (not just a licence key) before they will even give you the download link. Managing licences is also non-existent and you will need to contact support, and as such a fee is imposed. |
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| Wireless Power Consortium | After monopolizing wireless charging market Qi turned from an open standard into a proprietary.
Version 1.3 introduced "secure authentication between the transmitter and the receiver", i.e. in order to operate every charger must include an expensive proprietary chip licensed only to certified members. This results in increased development and manufacturing costs directly passed onto consumer. Version 2.2, unlike previous versions, "is available for WPC Members only". |
[63] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wolfgang Puck Bread Makers | Some of the bread makers have anti repair screws in them to prevent people from repairing them themselves. Needs more citations. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Orb | World Network (Sam Altman/Open AI) scheme to collect biometric data on all people. Tied to cryptocurrency, AI schemes. Supposedly way for people to show they are human (run by the people who are trying to make a profit from AI). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Xcode support dropped for older MacBooks | Apple has discontinued support for up to date versions of Xcode iOS development on older MacBook devices (discovered on my MacBook Pro 2017, but I’m sure it applies to other old devices as well), resulting in not being able to use a perfectly capable machine for iOS app development without having to go through countless loopholes. 1) you cannot commit new updates without utilizing a third-party medium, 2) the warning and error compiler is out of date due to not being able to update to the latest version, which of course supports the latest iOS release, so you have to figure it out on your own like it’s the 80’s 3) you must commit and release a new TestFlight build (through [1] loophole) to do any testing instead of being able to simulate on your Mac or even a connected device 4) this all really stems from the fact that the new Xcode updates require the new MacOS version which is also discontinued for older MacBooks. This means 8 year old device is basically just useless for such applications. |
List of themes not yet coveredConsumer Rights Wiki is not an encyclopedia.
List of companies doing the right thingIt would be helpful to include examples of companies doing the right thing, even if they aren't, strictly speaking, consumer products.
See AlsoReference List
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