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Show HN: Auto-identity-remove – Automated data broker opt-out runner for macOS

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Re: Show HN: Auto-identity-remove – Automated data broker opt-out runner for macOS

#31

Post by trollbridge »

IgorPartola wrote: post #14

Back in 2011 or so the Yellow Pages still delivered physical phone books to ever address in the state where we were. My city literally sent out an extra off cycle recycling truck the next day to pick them all up. Everyone threw them out. Well my coworkers and I realized that the opt out form just needed an address. We contemplated pulling all known addresses for the entire country and automating submitting them all o…

Around the same time frame, my brother rented some rooms in his house to people who had the occupation of actually delivering those phone books. (This was in a different country, but apparently the Yellow Pages existed everywhere.)

The delivery-people got overwhelmed and eventually just resorted to putting the stacks and stacks of phone books into piles and burning them. It took a long time until they got caught because nobody really misses a phone book.

Re: Show HN: Auto-identity-remove – Automated data broker opt-out runner for macOS

#32

Post by b40d-48b2-979e »

ramon156 wrote: post #13

The only thing that is tied to MacOS is launchd, seems like that's useful info to add to the docs. I don't know if you can just do a run from the CLI. Supporting Systemd should be easy. Not sure what windows uses.

sc.exe or tasksched

Re: Show HN: Auto-identity-remove – Automated data broker opt-out runner for macOS

#33

Post by hotsauceror »

dangus wrote: post #25
hotsauceror wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Any time I click an “Unsubscribe” link in an email, that takes me to a site where I have to provide my email or indeed, do anything more than click “confirm,” I leave. I assume it either resets some kind of consent trigger or sells my data to a new third-party vendor. The assumption of bad faith is now baked into my interaction with almost every corporate entity.

I think they’re doing it because of your exact behavior: one-click unsubscribe links are easy to do even if you’re on mobile and aren’t giving the process your full attention. Making you enter your email is a barrier. They already know your email, I don’t see why getting it again would sell it to a new vendor. Clicking an unsubscribe link already verifies you are a real person.

Very true, the act of unsubscribing itself signifies that the email is still live; more bad faith. As to why not sell it to a new vendor, because that would allow them to check a box that says “we offer a feature that allows users to opt out of data sharing agreement with the partners defined in the TOS and onboarding process.”

Re: Show HN: Auto-identity-remove – Automated data broker opt-out runner for macOS

#36

Post by baggachipz »

Saris wrote: post #18
hotsauceror wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Any time I click an “Unsubscribe” link in an email, that takes me to a site where I have to provide my email or indeed, do anything more than click “confirm,” I leave. I assume it either resets some kind of consent trigger or sells my data to a new third-party vendor. The assumption of bad faith is now baked into my interaction with almost every corporate entity.

Sometimes the people who set up the email service just forget or don't bother to add the receivers email to the URL parameter when you click unsubscribe, so it'll ask for your email again which is always an annoying step.

It's a dark pattern which adds friction to the process, in order to reduce the number of unsubscribes.

Re: Show HN: Auto-identity-remove – Automated data broker opt-out runner for macOS

#38

Post by lolpython »

stephenlthorn wrote: post #2

I got tired spam calls and text, so I built a script that automates the opt-out process across 500+ data brokers on a monthly schedule. Where I need help: The heuristic approach misses a lot. Many of the generic sites have unique flows the four generic strategies don't catch. I'm looking for people who want to: - Verify which generic sites are actually succeeding vs. silently failing - Add explicit broker definitions…

Does this current approach succeed for many sites? I see that this repo was clearly vibe coded or at least heavily used AI to write it. That can be fine, it just makes it more difficult to follow how much was done already and how much is left to get this properly working. As for email verification, a stopgap solution could be to just tell me to click confirm on the emails and which senders to look out for. Properly reading the actual inbox on record across providers could be difficult, it requires an actual email client. Also, forgive me if I'm off base on this one, but your comment appears to be AI generated. If so, that violates site guidelines.

> Don't post generated comments or AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#generated

Re: Show HN: Auto-identity-remove – Automated data broker opt-out runner for macOS

#39

Post by xnickb »

pards wrote: post #27

I tried this (as a Canadian): 1. It asks you to optionally sign up for a bunch of other services like Spokeo 2. It asks for access to your email via Apple's Mail app which I don't use 3. I got a lot of 404s anyway 4. Many sites require manual intervention to work Nice idea, but it needs a LOT of TLC to make it generally useful. I suspect that having a non-numeric "zip" code and a non-US address might be breaking a lo…

So you're saying the phrase "vibe-coded" should've been used somewhere in the title? :-)

Re: Show HN: Auto-identity-remove – Automated data broker opt-out runner for macOS

#40

Post by nixass »

pards wrote: post #27

I tried this (as a Canadian): 1. It asks you to optionally sign up for a bunch of other services like Spokeo 2. It asks for access to your email via Apple's Mail app which I don't use 3. I got a lot of 404s anyway 4. Many sites require manual intervention to work Nice idea, but it needs a LOT of TLC to make it generally useful. I suspect that having a non-numeric "zip" code and a non-US address might be breaking a lo…

> 2. It asks for access to your email via Apple's Mail app which I don't use

Assumption that people use Apple services by default is wild

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