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I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

neilzone.co.uk

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Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#211

Post by hedora »

jazzypants wrote: post #205
bmacho wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just cookies, it's explicit consent to track you, and sell your browsing history to ~1500 spy companies around the world. To the sibling comments: don't "accept the cookies" and then delete them. - - - I'm super angry at what the web has become, especially at the OS browser community. There is 0 browser (that I know of) that can access the web safely and conveniently. Atm I use Firefox with uBlock which bloc…

How would an extension work if it didn't have access to the website you're browsing?

Pick one:

- Read-only access to cross-tab web site content

- Ability to modify web site content

- Ability to access the network

They can always "access the network" in that the extension developer can push static updates for things like ad block lists or security updates.

It might be possible to have "read only" cross-tab access include automation APIs like keyboard + mouse, with user prompting to prevent data exfiltration.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#212

Post by 1shooner »

cortesoft wrote: post #163
bArray wrote: post #6

I was sitting in a room the other day with a young adult, we were searching for additional algorithm learning materials. They searched in Google, and accept the cookies. They clicked on a website, and accepted those cookies too. They then started entering their email address to access another service. I was completely taken aback. I'm the sort of person that either rejects the cookies, or will use another site entire…

I am in my mid forties, been working as a professional software developer for over 20 years. I click “accept the cookies” almost every time. I just personally don’t feel it’s worth the effort and cost to try to avoid it. What “dark pattern cookie trick” are you worried about? I just can’t come up with a scenario where it will actually harm me in any way. All the examples I have heard are either completely implausible…

First of all, if you don't practice any tracking limitation, you're almost certainly giving additional parties (directly or otherwise) access to your personal information. This is marketing data brokerage, this is the whole ballgame.

To your point about the actual harm, I've come to see it as a kind of ecological problem. Wasting energy and sending more trash to a landfill doesn't harm me individually, at least not immediately. But it does harm in aggregate, and it is probably directly related to other general harms, like overall health outcomes, efficiency, energy costs, etc.

No, accepting cookies by itself may not do much to me, but the broader surveillance and attention economy that relies on such apathy certainly has.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#213

Post by Lio »

SiempreViernes wrote: post #38
malfist wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I buy liquor (well, I don't drink anymore, so THC seltzers), the liquor company isn't saving my ID to my profile and then following me around everywhere I go for the rest of my life shouting "This is MALFIST, he's 42! He buys alcohol! He also visited X Y and Z last week and had interests in A, B and C. He's annual income is six figures and buys expensive bourbon."

Not yet anyway. But there's nothing much stopping Google to offer a "verification" service to "help combat fake IDs" using a web connected camera at the till.

And Google then selling a service to insurance companies, employers or law enforcement letting them know you occasionally buy alcohol.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#214

Post by Vohlenzer »

NGRhodes wrote: post #170

One thing people underestimate is how brittle digital identity actually is in the UK. There isnt a single identity. Theres a loose federation of databases (banks, CRAs, telecoms, electoral roll, etc.). There are multiple operational definitions of "name": legal name, common name, known-as name, card name, account display name. None is universally canonical. Theres no statutory hierarchy that forces institutions to ag…

Splink is a notable endeavor in this regard from the MoJ.

https://github.com/moj-analytical-services/splink.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#215

Post by mijoharas »

cortesoft wrote: post #163
bArray wrote: post #6

I was sitting in a room the other day with a young adult, we were searching for additional algorithm learning materials. They searched in Google, and accept the cookies. They clicked on a website, and accepted those cookies too. They then started entering their email address to access another service. I was completely taken aback. I'm the sort of person that either rejects the cookies, or will use another site entire…

I am in my mid forties, been working as a professional software developer for over 20 years. I click “accept the cookies” almost every time. I just personally don’t feel it’s worth the effort and cost to try to avoid it. What “dark pattern cookie trick” are you worried about? I just can’t come up with a scenario where it will actually harm me in any way. All the examples I have heard are either completely implausible…

I'm the same, (well, mid thirties, and over a decade) but I always click accept for cookies.

The only times I've stopped, or tried to deny it is with the recent thing I've seen from some sites that say "accept cookies or pay money". I think that is scummy, and against what these regulations require, so I'll usually just close the site in that case.

Oh and to address the point from the main article, I think I'm unfortunately beholden to more companies, but would strongly prefer to not verify my identity, because I have little to no trust in the companies to safeguard my actual personal data. (rather than inferred cookie tracking data, which they can have imo).

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#216

Post by devin »

xXSLAYERXx wrote: post #183
cortesoft wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in my mid forties, been working as a professional software developer for over 20 years. I click “accept the cookies” almost every time. I just personally don’t feel it’s worth the effort and cost to try to avoid it. What “dark pattern cookie trick” are you worried about? I just can’t come up with a scenario where it will actually harm me in any way. All the examples I have heard are either completely implausible…

Feel similarly. And to be honest, even when I do select decline all, I have little confidence that the function does what it says it does.

Yes, I do not have a lot of faith that "essential" cookies are always "essential" for example.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#219

Post by bpt3 »

jen20 wrote: post #197
bpt3 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, the "Karen" drove onto your private road to interrogate your kid? These things don't happen on a liberal/conservative axis in my experience. I've lived all over the place, though not as much with kids, and have had none of these issues (including having mixed race kids who look much more like their other parent than me). You really need to look at why you're living where you do.

A "private road" typically means one not maintained by the city. I live on one, but so do two other households, who have equal right to drive on it.

Yeah, except the now redacted comments didn't indicate that was the case which is why I was asking more questions.

It really was an extraordinary story without any extraordinary evidence.

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