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Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam

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Re: Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam

#161

> This transaction breaks a core promise using the internet: just because I visit a website doesn’t mean I consent to getting spam from it. No it doesn't. There is no core privacy premise of the internet, and certainly not one that everybody used it signed up for. I'm not condoning this behavior, but we're in territory that we don't have prior art for. It used to be totally fine for one shopkeeper to mention to anoth…

Why is there no downvote button on this and other comments in this thread? I have the ability to downvote and many other comments have it available. Why are some unable to be downvoted?

Re: Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam

#162

> This transaction breaks a core promise using the internet: just because I visit a website doesn’t mean I consent to getting spam from it. No it doesn't. There is no core privacy premise of the internet, and certainly not one that everybody used it signed up for. I'm not condoning this behavior, but we're in territory that we don't have prior art for. It used to be totally fine for one shopkeeper to mention to anoth…

Why is there no downvote button on this and other comments in this thread? I have the ability to downvote and many other comments have it available. Why are some unable to be downvoted?

The window of time for downvoting was reduced from 24 hours to 8 hours.

Re: Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam

#163
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if there's a way to turn this into an extension, sandbox all browsing into unique sessions until you press a button to pass it to a mixed session, with whitelisting for websites you trust... Wait a sec, wasn't that chrome's initial premise? Sandboxed tabs, what happened to that?

Blanket blocking of third party cookies and frames isn't necessarily a complete solution, but it breaks most of these and very little of value.

I have been blocking third party cookies for years with no ill effects.

Re: Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam

#165
>>> But until legislation catches up to regulating the negative consequences of retargeting, there may not be much you can do about this besides blocking cookies, ads, and opting out of Criteo’s entire system by submitting your email address here.

No no no. Handing over your email address to an online advertiser is a horrible idea. Do not engage them. Blacklist their content, their cookies, via whatever means you want (I use adblock) and be done with them.

An article that discusses tracking via online advertising but doesn’t discuss blocking is very suspicious. The most powerful tool against the problem isn't worth even a mention?

Re: Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam

#166

I am really beginning to hate browsing the web these days... Especially poop up dialogs asking for my email as soon as the mouse cursor leaves the active browser screen. With an average of 20 browser tabs open, while one is loading I often go to click on another to check on something, and this instantly triggers a flurry of popups begging me to stay/subscribe. Also the retargeted ads that follow me everywhere now. MO…

I assumed poop up was intentional and thought it was pretty clever. Glad you left it as-is!

Re: Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam

#167
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. Any vendor doing this to me goes on a perma-ban list. If they don't respect me before the sale, I'd have no reason to think they'd respect me after.

Why do you think the proactive customer outreach is "not respecting you"? I view it as providing high level of customer service, before and after sales, in B2B space. It is no different than Amazon displaying related products that you might be interested in or Netflix showing you a queue based on your past viewings, in consumer space. For example, if a visitor's company produces widgets and as a vendor we have previo…

It's disrespecting privacy. The examples you gave (Amazon and Netflix) know who you are. A better example might be looking at a product on the shelf at Best Buy, and an hour later the sales guy shows up at your house asking if you're still interested.

Browsing a website for the first time should never result in a phone call. I agree with the parent -- this behavior will result in a lifetime net of $0 from me to you.

Re: Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam

#168

Just because you write a blog post doesn't mean I have to do it. Spam is acceptable content, you've no right to tell anybody what they can or cannot create. If you don't like it, then don't look at it. If they shove it in your face, it's YOUR job to ignore it, not their job to somehow pre-determine who wants to see it and who doesn't. As a content creator, I'm not obligated to do a background check on each user and t…

> Spam is acceptable content

You have no right to be heard. If you try and force it, be prepared to get shunned by society. Just because it's legal to violate social norms does not mean that people will hate you any less for doing it.

See when I get mail from inconsiderate assholes, and it didn't get filtered, I look up the abuse contact of their provider. Then I forward the mail to them with a note that it was unsolicited. (In most cases I will CC their upstream abuse contact too because I'm nice like that.) With responsible senders, this works wonders. The irresponsible senders end up on blacklists and their asshole customers get terrible reach.

Re: Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam

#169
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is there no downvote button on this and other comments in this thread? I have the ability to downvote and many other comments have it available. Why are some unable to be downvoted?

The window of time for downvoting was reduced from 24 hours to 8 hours.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that.

Re: Browsing your website does not mean I want your spam

#170
post #4

So use an ad blocker. Your profile says you are a "former VP of data @ Kickstarter", I'm sure you know what an ad blocker is, what's your excuse?

We've banned this account for repeatedly posting uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments and ignoring our requests to stop.

If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com. We're happy to unban accounts when people give us reason to believe that they'll abide by the site guidelines in the future.

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