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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)

#161

Post by raxxorrax »

dgellow wrote: post #159
raxxorrax wrote: post #2

This reminds me of a story of a litte boy that just said: "I like seeing personalized ads."... while dragging everyone with him. It is incredible that this industry is allowed to operate like it does. If it vanished over night nothing would happen. The EU just had its strategy changed and pronounced that it is everyone's civic duty to share even more. Doubtful it would be able to handle advertisers. Although I don't…

> The EU just had its strategy changed and pronounced that it is everyone's civic duty to share even more. What do you mean? I don’t really understand what that would mean, or what you’re referencing. Was that part of the State of the Union, or is it another announcement? Edit: I found it. It’s an information based on EU strategy document from February. “The EU is launching a market for personal data” https://www.tec…

It wants to market private information of citizens. Justification is that big tech companies already do so. The difference is that not everyone is on facebook/instagram.

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

#162

Post by square_usual »

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're assuming it's developed in the west. They could've just outsourced that work, too. Here in India, I don't see too many developers who give a damn about user privacy. From privacy international's report on menstruation apps stealing data [1], two of the worst offenders (Maya and My Period Tracker) were from Indian companies.

1: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/3196/no-bodys-bus...

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

#163

Post by bryanrasmussen »

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?

I suppose someone could also structure the requirements for the task in such a way that it would have this result without explicitly saying it would have to have this result.

Given that the accept is our default just send off the accepted token = ok and don't wait for the response.

Send array of opting out info and then wait for all responses are ok so you can tell the user that it worked to opt out, the user must see opting out worked! response before going on to next step, because for GDPR reasons we need to tell the if there is a problem so they can try again!

- but that means we will be stuck at 98% for about a minute!

- sorry developer bro, GDPR says.

- (small voice) ok, manager.

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

#164

Post by bryanrasmussen »

endgame wrote: post #156
samatman wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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) The problem is that they're correct in a practical sense. The company they work for might get fined, but all the engineers see is the performance review. This system encourages engineers to think of compliance and morality as so…

> The company they work for might get fined, but all the engineers see is the performance review. This system encourages engineers to think of compliance and morality as someone else's problem because: it is. Didn't work so well for the VW guy: https://www.theregister.com/2017/08/25/vw_engineer_gets_3yrs... > "if I don't do it, someone else will" Maybe, but at the very least it raises the price for companies to buy u…

or lowers the cost because at least some ethics are the luxury of the well-off. (sure, worrying about feeding family might not lead you to kill someone but it might let you make it difficult for users to opt out of privacy invasion)

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

#165

Post by Semaphor »

Semaphor wrote: post #21
teekert wrote: post #3

This latest trend is so annoying: there is either "Accept" or: "See purpose". And the "Don't accept" stuff is hidden under "See purpose". Infuriating.

also absolutely meaningless. it's essentially then going that when fines get handed out, they just get a warning because they tried.

Wow, autocorrect mangled the 2nd sentence badly.

> It's essentially them hoping that when fines get handed out, they just get a warning because they tried.

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

#166

Post by chopin »

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.

I don't have an account with Quantcast. That's the whole point.

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

#167

Post by zeepzeep »

takeda wrote: post #154
corobo wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The default is disable everything (otherwise it's not GDPR compliant). That banner is to try to trick you into accepting the same old. You're better off finding a good cookie/GDPR banner blocker

ah I see, so basically the uBlock list that blocks from displaying these is all I need.

"EasyList Cookie" is the name of that list.

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

#168

Post by krageon »

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?

Not everyone has the luxury to say no to unethical work, especially during a time when job security isn't easy to find.

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

#169

Post by dalbasal »

nicbou wrote: post #79
dalbasal wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

IDK about that. I did say "somewhat common." It emerges in some circumstances.

GDPR is a decent example. The minimum level of privacy required by GDPR is now the standard required whenever standards are required. EG banks, regulators and such now expect you to have as little privacy as GDPR allows. Everything allowable under GDPR is now semi-mandatory for KYC.

Privacy/data related regs really have this kind of tendency. If you must destroy records after X years, this often develops into a mandate to keep records for x years.

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

#170

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

square_usual wrote: post #160
rkagerer wrote: post #158

I bought a NET10 international SIM card 7 years ago. Only used it for a couple weeks. Last month I asked them to delete my account. Spoke to 3 people and they weren't able to do it. One agent outright lied and said he did, but I was still able to log in after the fact. The best they managed was to change some of the profile details on the account (name, etc). I submitted a formal request under California's "Right to…

FWIW, the GDPR doesn't have too much teeth, either; most big players haven't received big fines. The biggest fine to date has been the French fine of EUR 50m on Google, and Facebook has gotten off almost entirely scot-free so far. That should tell you almost everything you need to know about how effective the GDPR has been. Of course, I don't mean to say the GDPR is useless. There's a lot of good work being done, and…

To be fair, it's pretty difficult to sue a megacorp and make it stick, so I suspect that we won't see either Google or FB be massively penalised till late 2021 or early 2022.

By which point FB will no longer exist in Europe (as they recently claimed that the Privacy Shield ruling would require them to do).

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