The Not-So Magic Jack

Last night I was watching TV when an ad came on. The ad was designed to be like a sales pitch on some shopping network. The sales pitch was for the Magic Jack; a USB device that turns your PC into a phone and allows you to make "free" phone calls. After listening to this 5 minute commercial I decided to look it up. Hey, there wasn't anything else to do that late at night.

When I made it to the Magic Jack web-site I was less than excited. 100% Risk Free, 30 day free trial, free calls only to USA and Canada; all examples that threw up red flags for me. Further research revealed that you have to get a new number and it may not be in your home area code.

The whole time I was on their web-site there was a number indicating the number of people taking advantage of the free trial offer. More about this number later.

Enough of the Magic Jack web-site. I decide to do more looking around. So I checked Boing Boing Gadgets to see what they had to say. Boing Boing reports that the Magic Jack EULA (End User License Agreement) states: "You also understand and agree that use of the magicJack device and Software will include advertisements and that these advertisements are necessary for the magicJack device to work ... Our computers may analyze the phone numbers you call in order to improve the relevance of the ads". Hmmm! Now about the number I mentioned earlier. You know, the one that is supposed to indicate the number of people taking advantage of the free trial. This is what Boing Boing has to say about that number:

Even the "look how many people came for a free trial" counter on the homepage is a fake, a javascript applet that increments itself automatically:

// the interval (ms) between new visitors
var interval = Math.round(86400000/perday);

As if targeted advertising, systematic privacy invasion and the signing away of your legal rights wasn't evil enough!

Thanks Boing Boing. Now let's go to Ooine.com and see what they have to say. Oh my! It's not good either. It seems that the Magic Jack uninstall program does not exist. Don't worry. Ooine.com has the help you need at "How To Uninstall Magic Jack from your PC". I guess I'll just keep my cell phone.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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