Signing Up For Square Is An Eternal Binding Covenant

Zack was interested in the Square mobile credit card reader, which has a wonderfully simple and easy signup process. Much less wonderful is the company’s user agreement, which he didn’t read closely until he had already begun the process of registering for an account. While Square has brought easy credit card payments to the masses, it has also brought a long list of rules that your average craft show vendor or flute teacher isn’t really used to. Uninterested in allowing the company the right to come inspect his business at any time, Zack decided that Square isn’t for him. That’s when he learned about another provision of the user agreement: Square will close your account, but won’t delete it.

He writes:

I began signing up for Squareup (they have a mobile payments device).

Then I read their truly insane fine print, which insists they can come and inspect my “place of business” any old time. I asked them to delete the info I gave them.

They repeatedly refused.

[redacted] in “support” says “Your information is fully encrypted and stored securely in our servers. Again, as our User Agreement states, we are not obligated to delete any information associated with your Square account.”

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Square Mobile Credit Card Payment App Is Awesome Yet Freaky

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