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Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)

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Re: Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)

#881

Post by denton-scratch »

shadowgovt wrote: post #880
denton-scratch wrote: post #878

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> probably wise for even site administrators who aren't doing advertising-related data collection to pop the banner. I disagree. As far as I can see, GDPR enforcement is not heavy-handed. You get a warning before any attempt at enforcement; then you get a modest "warning" fine. Also, I'm not aware that the silly cookie banners provide any protection against GDPR enforcement; it's how you handle the data that matters,…

Handling data correctly may not be feasible, especially for smaller users on shared-hosting solutions. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30402052 ... and again, the problem is "correctly" is in the eye of a judge after an alleged violation has occurred.

The point is: the regulator simply can't prosecute every website, even if he wanted to. The regulator's goal is to achieve compliance. Accordingly, the regulator will first warn you that your site appears to be non-compliant. He will advise you on steps to be taken to come into compliance.

Regarding Apache logs, a default install of logrotate will probably bring you into compliance (not sure, haven't looked into it lately). Scrubbing IP addresses from Apache logs defeats the purpose of the logs; you need to know what IP addresses are attacking your server.

To reach the stage of a modest fine, you will have to ignore that warning and advice, effectively saying "So fine me, regulator!" And if your violation isn't egregious, you'll be a long way down the list of forthcoming legal actions.

Basically, making a reasonable effort to understand GDPR and come into compliance is probably both a protection against action, and a defence against conviction.

It's not hard to comply with the GDPR, unless you are running a business that depends on violating GDPR.

IANAL.

Re: Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)

#882

Post by MomoXenosaga »

tick_tock_tick wrote: post #852
welterde wrote: post #750

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quite - only everything US-based, since they fall under the purview of the cloud act, which is incompatible with the GDPR (on purpose.. this is an entirely self-inflicted wound by the US).

> Not quite - only everything US-based No anything with laws similar to the "cloud act", which is the norm rather then the exception, is illegal. It's quite rare for a country to allow companies inside it to say no to there government.

This is interesting to me. The US is basically doing the same thing as Russia and China yet the media never talks about it...

Re: Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)

#883

Post by denton-scratch »

shadowgovt wrote: post #836
denton-scratch wrote: post #830

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> completely predictable It's completely predictable that there are people who don't want to comply. Collecting personal information is a lucrative business. Re. Website logs: in fact it's perfectly clear that a website log retained for the purposes of site management is fine. It's on the face of the regulation.

> It's on the face of the regulation. Right, collection for the purpose of running the site and all that. But does that mean "I run my site without having ever configured apache's HTTP access logs off the default, but I never read the logs" is fine? Because that sounds like collecting more PII (in the form of stored IP addresses) than is strictly needed to run the site. https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/42438/d…

> But does that mean "I run my site without having ever configured apache's HTTP access logs off the default, but I never read the logs" is fine?

Frankly, I don't think someone with that attitude should administer a server that's connected to the internet.

Re: Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)

#884

Post by john567 »

So, where I work. I actually manage our Google Tag Manager infrastructure. Our marketing department make change requests that we review and implement. They do not get to do whatever they want. We actually consider it to be a backdoor.

It's a useful tool but it should be managed by the people building the product and we have to clean up and remove tracking code when it has served it's purpose.

Re: Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)

#885

Post by shadowgovt »

denton-scratch wrote: post #883
shadowgovt wrote: post #836

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's on the face of the regulation. Right, collection for the purpose of running the site and all that. But does that mean "I run my site without having ever configured apache's HTTP access logs off the default, but I never read the logs" is fine? Because that sounds like collecting more PII (in the form of stored IP addresses) than is strictly needed to run the site. https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/42438/d…

> But does that mean "I run my site without having ever configured apache's HTTP access logs off the default, but I never read the logs" is fine? Frankly, I don't think someone with that attitude should administer a server that's connected to the internet.

Fair, but I'd wager that's the average case for small blogs and personal sites... That most administrators of such sites don't read their access logs until there's a problem.

At least, every small blog and personal site that hasn't just given their content to one of the FAANGs already to do those jobs for them (which will, of course, "solve" these problems by throwing a cookie-consent banner and hooking the content up to their view-tracker of choice).

Re: Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)

#886

Post by tick_tock_tick »

MomoXenosaga wrote: post #882
tick_tock_tick wrote: post #852

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not quite - only everything US-based No anything with laws similar to the "cloud act", which is the norm rather then the exception, is illegal. It's quite rare for a country to allow companies inside it to say no to there government.

This is interesting to me. The US is basically doing the same thing as Russia and China yet the media never talks about it...

> The US is basically doing the same thing as Russia and China

I don't understand or really get what you're referencing.

The whole issue here is the USA claims global jurisdiction over US companies forcing them to obey the USA legal system even for data located in the EU. On the other hand EU law makes it illegal for anyone globally to turn over data for EU customers without a court order from the EU.

Re: Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)

#887

Post by NicoJuicy »

darebak wrote: post #657
martimarkov wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel this would be headline news if correct so do you want to elaborate or is it just a throw away comment with no backing?

Why would it be headline news? It doesn't benefit any big capital. Most significant incident was definitely in 2012 when Serbia had tight elections on all levels including parliamentary and presidential elections. The problematic part was that German PM at the time congratulated the new president even before the polls were officially closed. I'm not saying that Germany is the EU but various EU commissioners were not…

The EU is probably not at ease adding a lot of "recent democratic" countries.

As shown in Hungary for example, that democracy is still very fragile.

The goal of the EU is to remain a partner for now and see that democracy mature and stabilize. As can be seen that the main economic partners are from Europe.

But they are still very dependant on Russia ( more than average) for gas, for example.

Re: Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)

#888

Post by sharps1 »

gildas wrote: post #682
pixeldetracking wrote: post #453

I'm the author, good to see this on HN, raising awareness on the topic I don't know who made the translation and when it was made, but the original article in french ( https://pixeldetracking.com/fr/google-tag-manager-server-sid... ) contains more information on recent GTM "improvements"): mainly on how you can easily change JS library names and detailed instructions on how to host your container in other clouds or s…

> I don't know who made the translation and when it was made This page was saved with SingleFile (I'm the author of SingleFile). Therefore, I can tell you that this page was produced on Tue Dec 08 2020.

SingleFile and SingleFileZ are great!

It’s a shame with manifest v3 that it will hamstring the size of pages that can be saved (to 43mb if I remember on the SingleFileLite GitHub page).

Re: Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)

#889

Post by everdrive »

stiray wrote: post #762

Well, I am blocking google tag manager and everything else from google, also forever caching CDNs and disabling caching for everything, for more than a day. Also blocking every domain found on any blocklist including CNAME resolving. And injecting my scripts trough mitm proxy that effectively disable any fingerprinting for my whole home network and all the mobile devices (they are all configured to use the proxy trou…

Do you have an article somewhere which explains your set up? I would love to block Google tag manager as well, but don't quite know where to start.

Re: Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)

#890

Post by gildas »

sharps1 wrote: post #888
gildas wrote: post #682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know who made the translation and when it was made This page was saved with SingleFile (I'm the author of SingleFile). Therefore, I can tell you that this page was produced on Tue Dec 08 2020.

SingleFile and SingleFileZ are great! It’s a shame with manifest v3 that it will hamstring the size of pages that can be saved (to 43mb if I remember on the SingleFileLite GitHub page).

Thank you! Actually I did some tests recently with SingleFile Lite and was able to save a page weighting 120MB+ so the 43MB limit seems obsolete. There are still some annoying issues though.
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