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I asked an online tracking company for all of my data (2018)

privacyinternational.org

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Re: I asked an online tracking company for all of my data (2018)

#71

Post by avs733 »

HumblyTossed wrote: post #18
newswasboring wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are sites (like wwe.com) where after you have successfully located the preference to opt out from everything it shows a "processing" screen which is stuck at 98% for about a minute. But accept is "processed" in an instant. Another dark pattern is showing you have opted out but some sites cannot receive opt out requests through https which is written in small fonts. By doing this they have successfully targeted…

> There are sites (like wwe.com) where after you have successfully located the preference to opt out from everything it shows a "processing" screen which is stuck at 98% for about a minute. But accept is "processed" in an instant. How desperate does one have to be to work as a developer on projects like this?

you assume the people doing this see a problem with it. They could easily...

* just be a nihilist and not give a damn

* Think its fine because they are encouraging people to do something they see as good.

* Think its fine because 'its just ads'

* Think it's someone else's responsibility to make decisions about ethics (as an engineering prof, I see this all the time...students who say engineers' jobs are technology not ethics/morals)

Re: I asked an online tracking company for all of my data (2018)

#72

Post by nerevarthelame »

wasmitnetzen wrote: post #43
chopin wrote: post #9

It'd be useful if the author revealed how she managed to obtain her data. I am pretty sure that a request with just your real name wouldn't reveal much. I assume that most data is collected under some identifier which isn't matched to your real name in order to thwart this kind of request.

There is a form[1] linked in their privacy policy[2], which doesn't work and tells me I'm not inside the EU or California, which I am. [1]: https://www.quantcast.com/privacy/data-subject-rights/ [2]: https://www.quantcast.com/privacy/

Send an email to the address specified (privacy@quantcast.com) with your information and what you're trying to accomplish (typically either a disclosure of what personal information they have on you, or erasure of any said information).

They will almost certainly satisfy your request (even if you don't truly live in California or the EU) because there are significant regulatory repercussions for not responding to legitimate requests. Or at least that's how it works at the big company I work for.

Re: I asked an online tracking company for all of my data (2018)

#73

Post by Aerroon »

secondcoming wrote: post #51
upcoming-sesame wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tracking banners frenzy gdpr started is unbearable. It has decreased the usability of the web significantly. Everyone is obsessed with improving page loading time but what does worth that the page loads instantly if I have to navigate a maze of banner consent screens before I can see the content behind it Why can't everyone at least agree on the same banner format / ui or have it delegated to the browser behind s…

Good question. The downvotes are undeserved. The reason is that if it's done in the browser then a person's preferences will apply to every website they use with that browser. Publishers will not want that as they hope that users will give them more consent than other web sites (I certainly do give some websites full permissions if I like them, others are a 'reject all' and 'object all') Also, your consent preference…

Perhaps this is where the regulation should've been aimed at in the first place? Cookie options have been present for a long time, but they don't have the necessary granularity. This would've been a great push to update the system.

Re: I asked an online tracking company for all of my data (2018)

#74

Post by ratww »

motohagiography wrote: post #38

It occurred to me that if you want to see fewer ads and be generally left alone by marketers, get your IP and online data footprint associated with pariah topics like fringe news sites, weird subcultures, edgy politics, drug use, and privacy. Basically like being a hacker in the 1980s and 90s, or even part of early rave culture, where the sort of people who work in marketing would be afraid or uncomfortable with bein…

Another option is to make the choice to not support companies affiliated with the ad-tech industry and just use an ad-blocker. They will even block most black-pattern ridden GDPR popups.

Re: I asked an online tracking company for all of my data (2018)

#75

Post by newswasboring »

ratww wrote: post #66
smhg wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it shows a "processing" screen which is stuck at 98% for about a minute Proximus [0], the partially state-owned and largest telecom provider in Belgium, uses this pattern too. Additionally, on mobile, scrolling through the cookie-usage options automatically selects the maximum invasive option. The 'scroll-touch' is registered as a regular touch selecting the option. It's hard to believe this is by accident. [0] htt…

This is also Truste/TrustArc [1] that GP mentioned, and they do it on every website they're installed. Looking at their Javascript code and Timeline in the inspector it is 100% fake. It is all implemented using setTimeout and there's no communication with the server in the meantime. [1] https://trustarc.com/cookie-consent-manager/

Thanks for this analysis. I knew something like that might be happening but didn't know enough about js to confirm.

Re: I asked an online tracking company for all of my data (2018)

#76

Post by nicbou »

motohagiography wrote: post #38

It occurred to me that if you want to see fewer ads and be generally left alone by marketers, get your IP and online data footprint associated with pariah topics like fringe news sites, weird subcultures, edgy politics, drug use, and privacy. Basically like being a hacker in the 1980s and 90s, or even part of early rave culture, where the sort of people who work in marketing would be afraid or uncomfortable with bein…

Where you see fringe, weird or edgy, someone might see a target demographic for something.

Re: I asked an online tracking company for all of my data (2018)

#78

Post by dexterdog »

s_dev wrote: post #31
chopin wrote: post #9

It'd be useful if the author revealed how she managed to obtain her data. I am pretty sure that a request with just your real name wouldn't reveal much. I assume that most data is collected under some identifier which isn't matched to your real name in order to thwart this kind of request.

>I am pretty sure that a request with just your real name wouldn't reveal much. It's enough to email from the address thats associated with the account. Generally speaking.

One more reason to make sure your email account is not compromised in any way. I have many emails associated with my 'profile'. If one of those is compromised somebody could potentially request all of my data.

Requests for information should only be fulfilled with a notarized identification verification. The potential for security breaches here is massive.

Re: I asked an online tracking company for all of my data (2018)

#79

Post by nicbou »

dalbasal wrote: post #32
mjirv wrote: post #30

These kinds of articles always make me think about how big a privacy risk the laws that make these possible are. We're worried about user privacy, so we mandate that companies build a way to connect PII to otherwise-pseudonymous browsing data in case the user asks for it. What if someone else asks for it? Huge security risk. That's not to say these laws are bad, just that the giant additional privacy risk they pose i…

It's a somewhat common pattern that regulation intended to stop the encroachment of some bad thing also effectively causes a standard to form around the (now) worst thing you can do and still be legal.

Is that really the case? I'm thinking about minimum wage. If it wasn't there, would people get paid less, or more?

Re: I asked an online tracking company for all of my data (2018)

#80

Post by ttsda »

motohagiography wrote: post #38

It occurred to me that if you want to see fewer ads and be generally left alone by marketers, get your IP and online data footprint associated with pariah topics like fringe news sites, weird subcultures, edgy politics, drug use, and privacy. Basically like being a hacker in the 1980s and 90s, or even part of early rave culture, where the sort of people who work in marketing would be afraid or uncomfortable with bein…

Do you guys see any ads online? I have ublock origin on my laptop and mobile browsers, modded youtube and instagram with no ads on android. I pretty much never see any ad.

I also add the Annoyances lists to uBlock and I have the "I don't care about cookies" extension to ignore cookie popups.

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