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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

#321

Post by mixmastamyk »

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.

Firefox has a setting to dump cookies on exit, which I use.

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

#322

Post by johnisgood »

cm2012 wrote: post #309
layman51 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, because there’s always a chunk of advertising that seems to be all about targeting low-income or people who aren’t financially savvy and I don’t think it’s ethical for an apparatus to take advantage of them.

I think if a product is harmful, advertising it should be banned. Alcohol, drugs, gambling ads should be banned.

That is a pretty simplistic, prohibitionist worldview.

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

#324

Post by dwighttk »

cm2012 wrote: post #282
gmerc wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m glad you mention this. From today https://www.404media.co/cbp-tapped-into-the-online-advertisi...

This shows a really fascinating dynamic. In theory, the government doesn't need the ad exchanges which have very lossy information. They have access to the ISPs and cell service providers, etc, with a warrant. Dictatorships like China and Russia don't need ad network data to be police states, they just use the core phone, internet and computer data. But in this case, the US gov are using the insecure private data as…

They don’t need a warrant for the ad exchanges

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

#325

Post by bahno »

richardubright wrote: post #283
1shooner wrote: post #212

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…

I hear what you're saying, and instinctually I feel gross about it. But, if enabling advertising allows the website I'm visiting to stay in business, I think that might be a trade-off worth making.

[dead]

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

#326

Post by pocksuppet »

cortesoft wrote: post #310
1shooner wrote: post #212

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…

Sadly, this still doesn't do anything to show me that I should opt out. I, as an individual, am not going to have any effect on a business if I opt out or not. No business decision is going to be made because I opt out. You might argue that it will matter if enough of us do it. Sure, that is true... but again, it won't matter if I do it or not. If N number of people opting out is enough to ruin the business model, th…

Sadly, there will be no signals at all, until it's too late. ICE has used online advertisement tracking to find their targets. They won't tell you anything about this, until they're already at your door with handcuffs. https://www.404media.co/cbp-tapped-into-the-online-advertisi...

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

#327

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

dexterdog wrote: post #300
jen20 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both iPhone and iPad have an app named "Files" too.

But it gives you access to almost none of your actual files

So exactly which of “your actual files” do you need access to?

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

#328

Post by pocksuppet »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #321
xXSLAYERXx wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Firefox has a setting to dump cookies on exit, which I use.

And there's Firefox Klar on Android. It forgets everything on exit. Some people call it a porn browser, but I've gotten used to it for general use when I don't need to log in somewhere.

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

#329

Post by bitwize »

shadowgovt wrote: post #67

The most relevant question to answer for your jurisdiction is "What is the penalty for lying?" If none, you were born on March 5, 1957. (Note on evaluating this: there are some circumstances where the penalty changes later. I know one person who's Global Access paperwork was delayed because they lied to their airline's frequent flyer program about their age. But that was the whole consequence: a need to update their…

Whenever Steam's web site asked me for my date of birth before allowing me to view a game trailer, I would punch in January 1, over 10 years after my actual date of birth (still well within grown-ass man territory because I'm geriatric in gamer years). Because they don't fucking need to know exactly when I was born. Only that I'm old enough.

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

#330

Post by pocksuppet »

cortesoft wrote: post #278
autoexec wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> I'd be willing to bet the data being collected by tracking your browsing history has already been screwing you over in various aspects of your life, online and offline, but you won't be told when it happens or why. Ok, can you give me a plausible example of what that harm could be? This seems in line with the exact thing I said in my comment; every time I ask how it could harm me, I am given vague statements about…

A plausible example: Your insurance company knows how much money you make, and how fast you drive, and takes this into account when setting your insurance bill. Even if you never thought you gave them this information.
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