> To have a valid train ticket on your phone (for those without printer), you are also required to accept the google or apple terms of service and privacy policy. You can download a pdf ticket, but the data matrix on there is only valid if you print it out!

It seems that requirements to "consent" to TOS for things like major transport systems (government or not) or government health services (NHS services in the UK for example) just aren't consent in anything but some technical legal sense.

> Kinda bothers me that everyone is just going along with any terms for convenience. It's ripe for abuse and doesn't have to be this way.

I think it's not so much convenience as a change in the laws of the game? With TOS presented human-to-human, people in the past would have been more likely to react in a human way to the person offering them the TOS, businesses and governments would be constrained. Even if they got TOS in the post, there was a human in the loop to complain to and argue with. With TOS online, it's a fait accompli, which changes the costs to both parties.