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This is a bit f'd, Quora

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Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#11

Post by timmyd »

Indeed the problem - as with Facebook - is that these settings are constantly "opt-out". This is perhaps as bad as the Beacon program in that as the author correctly originally notes - some personal items might be "viewed" which subsequently detail their actions to other users which they never intended to be public.

Classic examples of mistakes in the past are like "How to propose?" or "What's a good engagement ring size?" and so on. All these problems were exposed with Facebook Beacon and purchasing decisions and after much revolt they shut it.

I honestly can't understand why Quora would implemented "User X viewed User Y" - I think that's taking the privacy perspective to a whole new level. Indeed, even on Facebook if they started listing things like "User A viewed your profile 55 times today" - it would essentially kill the service in it's tracks as would "User B viewed this photo 33 times" and so on. People have always used Facebook to stalk their friends - but that doesn't mean it should be detailed publicly for all the world to see.

This should be "opt-in" if not removed all together in my mind. As part of internal metric tracking - it's obvious that this occurs - but it shouldn't be public or should be entirely opt-in.

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#13

Post by heyitsnick »

I see the author's point, and users should be aware Quora does this and have the facility to disable this but ... is this not an over reaction? Viewing a question titled “Should I come out to my parents?” or “What is the best way to hide an affair?” doesn't in any way imply you are gay or hiding an affair... just that you showed some interesting the question and possible answers. I'd be interesting in both those topics just to see the variety of responses. I don't think i would need to hide the fact that i viewed those threads.

If they were providing complete Quora browsing history of a user, which you could see a general trend towards topics a person reads over time, I would see a serious breach of privacy. But a single one off "so and so just read this" is hardly damning.

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#14

Post by blhack »

manaskarekar wrote: post #9
blhack wrote: post #4

The new "social" web is really creepy . Browsing in an incognito browser and logged into nothing has sortof become my default. I don't want google chrome saving my search history, or to accidentally read an article on some news website that then broadcasts that fact to all of my facebook friends.

Unfortunately with supercookies, IP address-based identification (maybe even machine signature based id-ing?) and such, I think incognito mode is practically a placebo.

You'd be wrong. Try this from incognito: https://panopticlick.eff.org/

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#16

Post by dotmanish »

I personally agree - I would be annoyed if I discovered this (I haven't logged on to Quora in a long long time). They seem to have most recently updated their Privacy Policy (http://www.quora.com/about/privacy/) on August 1. Quoting "Specifically, you consent to Quora's disclosure of information related to the ways in which you interact with the Service, such as: landing pages, pages viewed".

On the counter-side, I would have been okay if they sent a mass-mailer saying "We have introduced a new feature on Quora - now you know how your peers are doing with Quora!" - making it sound marketing-like, but in reality, percolating the information to their users in the most seemingly-harmless way possible. This could have won them actual fans for this feature.

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#17

Post by pygy_ »

vladd wrote: post #7
blhack wrote: post #4

The new "social" web is really creepy . Browsing in an incognito browser and logged into nothing has sortof become my default. I don't want google chrome saving my search history, or to accidentally read an article on some news website that then broadcasts that fact to all of my facebook friends.

You can no longer browse Quora while being logged out: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4332978

There's a Chrome extension that allows to read without logging in (not sure how long it will work, though).

https://github.com/benvinegar/Spectacles/blob/master/README....

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#19

Post by thebooktocome »

blhack wrote: post #14
manaskarekar wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately with supercookies, IP address-based identification (maybe even machine signature based id-ing?) and such, I think incognito mode is practically a placebo.

You'd be wrong. Try this from incognito: https://panopticlick.eff.org/

I did... unique among their database...

Re: This is a bit f'd, Quora

#20

Post by DodgyEggplant »

vladd wrote: post #7
blhack wrote: post #4

The new "social" web is really creepy . Browsing in an incognito browser and logged into nothing has sortof become my default. I don't want google chrome saving my search history, or to accidentally read an article on some news website that then broadcasts that fact to all of my facebook friends.

You can no longer browse Quora while being logged out: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4332978

direct links work. try http://www.quora.com/Conversion-Optimization
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