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Rally, a novel privacy-first data sharing platform

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Rally, a novel privacy-first data sharing platform

#151

Post by mhalle »

I think this is an interesting idea, but I don't know how well it scales.i think it is a high bar for individuals to explicitly manage every single donation of personal data.

What I have thought might work is that individuals could donate their data to a non-profit entity that would have a legal responsibility to protect contributors' data. The non-profit would act as a data broker for researchers. It could sell aggregate data, but the sales would go to charitable causes. Contributors could opt out of specific research or specify specific charities.

The result is a little like a non-profit data brokerage. It would put experts in charge of data protection and confidentiality, and it explicitly acknowledges that data has value. The broker would have legal recourse and financial means to track down data abuse.

Re: Rally, a novel privacy-first data sharing platform

#154

Post by skybrian »

jonathanmayer wrote: post #94
skybrian wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you learn about it? By studying the code?

Our team looked closely at the Google, Microsoft, and Apple local differential privacy implementations when building Rally. It helped that we have friends who worked on RAPPOR.

Did you end up using differential privacy in Rally? What's the thinking behind this?

Re: Rally, a novel privacy-first data sharing platform

#155

Post by RileyJames »

Interesting. I spent the past two days building a prototype which solves this problem for a specific use case “sharing search results”. Going to Show HN in a few days.

This article is light on technical details, or even a high level how it works.

I wonder how they solve the authenticity / validity of the data.

Funnily enough the solution I’ve come up with isn’t compatible with Firefox due to api limitations.

Re: Rally, a novel privacy-first data sharing platform

#156

Post by mushufasa »

jonathanmayer wrote: post #24
thombles wrote: post #7

Whoever wrote this piece is way too close to... whatever it is Mozilla is doing here. There seems to be an assumption that users will be gleeful to throw their data at legitimate researchers from legitimate institutions doing legitimate work. What "data"? Browsing history? Identity? Something else? Why? What's in it for them? Since when was giving our data to third parties a good idea? There is literally no motivatio…

Princeton research collaborator here. Glad to answer questions about Rally. > What "data"? Browsing history? Identity? Something else? That depends on the Rally study, since research questions differ and studies are required to practice data minimization. Each study is opt in, with both short-form and long-form explanations. Academic studies also involve IRB-approved informed consent. Take a look at our launch study…

I think that the motivation of 'enabling citizen science' is not a very strong one. You will get very, very skewed results, moreso than typical WEIRD, if you conduct studies on the people for whom that is sufficient motivation.

A stronger motivation would be providing a product or service that tangibly adds value to someone's life.

After reading this, I have no idea how Rally would provide any tangible benefits to me.

Re: Rally, a novel privacy-first data sharing platform

#157

Post by caconym_ »

9wzYQbTYsAIc wrote: post #82
kevincox wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't even sound anonymous. It sounds like they just audit that the partner aggregates the data once delivered to them. Some sort of pinky-promise.

> Some sort of pinky-promise. Nope. > * research partners are contractually obligated to abide by these procedures and protect your data.* https://rally.mozilla.org/how-rally-works/faqs/

But, realistically, what recourse do users have if there's a breach?

A few years ago I got a letter from Washington State University saying that they'd obtained my personal health data (which I never directly consented to, nor had I interacted with WSU in any way prior to receiving this latter) and subsequently allowed it to be stolen by unknown malicious actors. In case you're curious, they kept the data on an unencrypted hard drive in a physical safe that was then physically stolen.

There was some class action pittance that meant nothing to me, and WSU does not seem to have been subject to any meaningful consequences. It seems to be viewed as a cost of doing business sort of thing. For all of us who had their data stolen, the horse has left the barn, and I see no real deterrent effect. This seems to be the norm when data breaches happen.

So while "pinky promise" might be a bit hyperbolic, there is a lot of truth to it in general and I don't know how this case is supposed to be any different. If there is some paradigm-breaking accountability mechanism built in, I'd love to hear more about it.

Re: Rally, a novel privacy-first data sharing platform

#158

Post by nonbirithm »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #44
thombles wrote: post #7

Whoever wrote this piece is way too close to... whatever it is Mozilla is doing here. There seems to be an assumption that users will be gleeful to throw their data at legitimate researchers from legitimate institutions doing legitimate work. What "data"? Browsing history? Identity? Something else? Why? What's in it for them? Since when was giving our data to third parties a good idea? There is literally no motivatio…

Mozilla strikes me as an organisation with too many resources for its own good. They keep pursuing these random side gigs with limited unifying theme other than an excuse to spend money.

It makes me wonder about their management style occasionally, like taking over two decades to fix the issue with the accidental quit shortcut on desktop. People were celebrating that it was done, but I was wondering why it hadn't been fixed earlier if it was that important (I had accidentally triggered that shortcut myself at least ten times before).

Also reminds me that their mobile division seems painfully understaffed.[1] After using Firefox Mobile for a year there still isn't even a way to search your history, along with a dozen other pain points I put up with daily. And the most painful issues I bring up are either closed or never get addressed for months, or ever. It makes Chromium-based browsers even more tempting to me, and in cases I've had no choice but to use them for things like caching bugs with stale development assets, but Chrome is really all there's left if we lose Firefox.

I really, really hope that they do not sink the current iteration of mobile Firefox. When I see resources being used on projects like these, I just wish the more pressing issues were prioritized. Firefox is the face of Mozilla.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26107676

Re: Rally, a novel privacy-first data sharing platform

#159

Post by elliekelly »

Nicksil wrote: post #131
elliekelly wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been interneting-while-woman for three decades now so of course my username isn't my real name. But (like most developers) my GitHub includes my real name, my photo, and my company, hence my hesitation. I have to wonder, though... are you as quick to chastise the "internet assholes" you see harassing women online as you were to chastise me for having the audacity to admit my gender online?

That wasn't chastising you. I don't know you so there was no way I could have known how long you've been on the internet nor your depth in experience in identity within it. I was attempting to point out some of the bigger factors feeding into your complaint, regarding the potential of people harassing you, with the intent of no more than to bring attention to something you may have overlooked, as humans tend to do so…

I don’t think it’s in any way “combative” to point out that I am indeed competent and capable of interacting with the online world safely without the assistance patronizing of strangers on the internet. And, whether your intention or not, that’s exactly what your comment was: patronizing. With undertones of “well what did you think would happen when you present yourself in such a way”. Whether you’re willing to admit it or not, comments like yours aren’t helpful — they’re part of the problem.

Re: Rally, a novel privacy-first data sharing platform

#160

Post by brynjolf »

So they are practising on collecting more data but with the motivation that it is somehow for the good of society? It is still doing the one thing I don't want Mozilla to do, embrace data collecting, no matte the banner or motivation.

Also universities through history have done numerous unethical studies, they don't automatically gain my trust or data because they pinky promise.

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