Nick Szabo  🔑

If a company as big as Petzl knew their gear was being misused, and people were getting hurt in large numbers, I'd expect them to at least put out some documentation explaining why it was a bad idea. That's a low standard to hold someone too, so reasonable.

Go read some Petzl instructional manuals: pretty much all of them have examples of what *not* to do. That's a product being misused, and a concrete attempt at discouraging that misuse. I don't see AT&T doing that with 2FA.

I suspect AT&T (and others) don't do that because it'd be bad marketing to say "Hey! You're phone #'s aren't secure!" Petzl seems to have gotten over that problem, and is quite happy to warn you how you can kill yourself with their products.

I think such agreements are bullshit. And legally speaking they often are: courts don't let you sign away all liability with a simple contract without a clear and informed discussion about the risks.

For example, a wilderness guide will likely have you sign a waiver. But the waiver is worthless by itself: the part that protects them is the information (often via a discussion) you'll get about what risks you'll be encountering on that trip. Good guides do that.

These wilderness guides are offering a wilderness guide service. AT&T is not offering an "identity" service. The guides at Yoesemite won't give you information about Chinese pandas, because that's well outside the scope of their service and they need know nothing about pandas.