Most companies have some fairly bizzare terms and conditions preventing users from doing things that they would never have even dreamed of. Most of these terms and conditions are drawn up by teams of lawyers desperate to cover every possible eventuality.
While reading the terms and conditions of Google Product Search I found that Google won’t allow people to sell body parts or human remains using the system.
Body parts
Posting is not permitted for the promotion of body parts or human remains.
If these terms didn’t exist would we see results like the one below?
Google isn’t the only Internet company concerned about the sale of human remains & body parts. eBay has similar T&C’s and goes into much more detail in their Human Remains and Body Parts Policy.
Human Remains and Body Parts Policy
Humans, the human body, or any human body parts are not permitted on eBay. Items that contain human hair (such as lockets) as well as skulls and skeletons that are used for medical purposes may be listed on eBay. eBay does not permit the sale of Native American skulls, bones or other Native American grave-related items, as the sale of such items may violate federal law.
Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:
- Listing cancellation
- Limits on account privileges
- Account suspension
- Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
- Loss of PowerSeller status
Examples of prohibited items include, but are not limited to:
- organs
- bone
- blood
- waste
- sperm
- eggs
Sellers may not include such items as a gift, prize, or giveaway in connection with an item listed on eBay.
My question is would people really start using Google Product Search and eBay to sell human body parts if these rules didn’t exist?
Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Leeds based digital & SEO agency Branded3. Patrick also runs Blogstorm.You can get our blog posts delivered for free by email every day - simply add your email address to the box below or alternatively grab the RSS feed.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
The answer to that question is yes. I have seen a human fetus in a jar on sale on eBay. Needless the say the listing was promptly pulled, but apparently people will sell anything.
And no, I wasn’t looking for anything like this. It was under Seller’s Other Items.
There are a lot of people who would gag at the thought of someone selling human body parts; but they would never think a thing about going to a museum – just to see the same. In the United States, a Federal ACT called NAGPRA (Native American Grave Protection Repatriation Act)has had to be established and then each State has instituted their own add-on to that Act. Years ago, I remember seeing a baby bootie – beaded on teh bottom – with a bone sticking from it for sale online. It took a lot of people to start chasing those things down.
Lots of people would go wandering near the deserts in this country, and will find pottery chards, arrow heads, old beads – all in the same locale – pick them up and say, “Oh Kewl!” without ever giving a thought to those old movies which shows the Indian hoisted into the air on platform after passing. Those items are called “Funerary” as they were “buried” with that person.
While you may consider it strange and bizarre, you prolly would not give a second thought into walking into a Museum that has gone in some non-Christian grave some where and placed those bones on display.
Thanks for the post.
Pretty interesting that you read through their terms of service. Those things are usually pretty hard to read. You hear of folks trying sell kids on eBay, so I guess there are people out there who would try to sell human remains I guess.
Yawn, leave it to Google and Ebay to take the fun out of everything! LOL
JT
Ultimate Anonymity
They have, that’s why the rules exist in the first place. People used to use eBay as a black market for kidney sales. This is to thwart people profiting off patients on a wait list that happen to have an excess of money available. It may seem strange, but it’s definitely a necessary addendum to the ToS.
That’s t. Patrick, you always stand out of the blogger crowd with different research posts. Keep’em up!
I would love to sell my bodyparts on ebay or google, I could have some fun with the money first, and then at a set date, say 4 weeks later off myself, and everyone gets their body parts.. It is win win.
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