Live data from Hacker News

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

neilzone.co.uk

251–260 of 645 posts

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

#251

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…

I'm worried about my browsing to be tracked across the entire internet for the purposes of marketers to "enrich" my profile... just to sell me more and to sell that data to third-parties who can make all sorts of decisions based on a made up story about who I am, my preferences, my values and whatnot. there's a reason I don't walk around naked either. it wouldn't hurt me, but I don't need that kind of exposure for no…

> third-parties who can make all sorts of decisions based on a made up story about who I am, my preferences, my values and whatnot

You're going to be presented with ads and preyed on by marketing no matter what. The "made up story about who you are" is just even more imaginary the less they know about you. You'll simply be presented with less-targeted ads.

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

#252
post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 i…

The effect of that data is serving you better ads. Its not a big deal. Dystopian governments have way better sources of citizen data than anonymized ad exchanges. It basically just powers product discovery in a giant global marketplace.

This might’ve been true in 2012 but definitely is not the case today

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it”

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

#253
post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 i…

The effect of that data is serving you better ads. Its not a big deal. Dystopian governments have way better sources of citizen data than anonymized ad exchanges. It basically just powers product discovery in a giant global marketplace.

Would you write your name down the side of your car?

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

#254
post #228

I completely agree. The only services for which I will verify my age (and the entire rest of my ID) are bank accounts and other services involving a real legal requirement for real ID. The notion that you should upload a passport to random sites for age verification is unbelievably dangerous. That's a recipe for identity theft. And face scanning is also an invasion of privacy, not to mention very unreliable (my 16 ye…

That very much isn't the only right way, and it is far to close to government tracking activities online. For one it effectively allows governments to disallow someone from accessing the internet.

All this to let you do stuff you were allowed to do anyway.

The problem is handing kids admin level access on a device with full unfiltered access to several communication networks. You do not fix that by demoting everyone's access.

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

#256
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 use chrome as “burn” browser (i only use it for non important things) and I have a dummy email that I use for signing up in everything non important as well. Perhaps this young adult was doing the same?

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

#257
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…

Breaches will inevitably happen. And each time one does, it'll erode people's trust in this new world of zero-anonymity-allowed. Give it time.

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

#258
post #232
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 exfilt…

That just seems like a lazy capitalism models. We had both 10 years ago without crazy tracking and accept all cookies why do we have for the worst lowest common denominator ?

I agree; the web ecosystem is enshittified garbage.

However, I'm just suggesting a modest improvement to browser extension security (that doesn't completely break ad blockers like Chrome's approach).

In practice, I run an ad blocker, and just trust that it won't exfiltrate bank passwords and stuff. Imagine the blast radius for a successful and undetected UBlock Origin supply chain attack!

My "pick one" approach (ad blockers would pick the middle option) would mean that comparable supply chain attacks would also need to include a sandbox zero day in the web browser.

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

#259

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…

> 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. the effort and cost to download an ad-blocker that automatically removes the prompt to accept/deny entirely is practically zero and the amount of clicks you'd save yourself would quickly exceed the clicks it took to install the blocker. > I just don’t think it is something that is worth st…

There’s a burden in ad blocker plugins: you never know when they will get compromised. Im comparison to that, simply ignoring the cookie baner is less effort imho

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

#260
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 prefer to have a rule in ublock that blocks all cookies notices
Post reply on HN