Blacklight – A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector • Hacker News Board

Re: Blacklight – A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector

#11

Post by fxtentacle » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 1:18 PM UTC

I feel like we should unify the copyright and privacy laws.

If I copy a Disney movie without their knowledge and then extract value from it, for example by watching the movie without paying, everyone agrees that this is theft. And punishment is generally strong to excessive.

If a website copies my private data without my knowledge or even after I decline permission by sending DNT headers, that is somehow considered completely fine.

But to me, the value of my private data is vastly higher than the value of watching a copied movie. And the potential for financial damages stemming from a stolen identity is also much highest than the real damages from someone downloading an mp4.

I suggest that we classify the secret collection of private data as theft.

Edit: With my wording, I was referring to this old pro-copyright ad: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU

Re: Blacklight – A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector

#12

Post by sbarre » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 1:18 PM UTC

I also appreciate that you get an archive download of the results if you want one (at the bottom). Can be useful for historical comparisons.

Re: Blacklight – A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector

#13

Post by tyingq » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 1:19 PM UTC

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #7

I entered a website that got 0 for all categories... it was not obvious that the scanner was done or that all zeros was a good thing. Hmmm

It does have some explanatory text, like:

0 Third-party cookies not found.

This is less than half the average of three that we found on popular sites.

Re: Blacklight – A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector

#14

Post by Semaphor » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 1:20 PM UTC

This does not work with GDPR compliant sites (the few that exist). I wonder if it would make sense to use something similar to [0] to auto-accept, note in the results that there is a consent gate and then list the trackers in the accepted state?

[0]: https://www.i-dont-care-about-cookies.eu/

Re: Blacklight – A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector

#15

Post by Semaphor » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 1:20 PM UTC

fxtentacle wrote: post #11

I feel like we should unify the copyright and privacy laws. If I copy a Disney movie without their knowledge and then extract value from it, for example by watching the movie without paying, everyone agrees that this is theft. And punishment is generally strong to excessive. If a website copies my private data without my knowledge or even after I decline permission by sending DNT headers, that is somehow considered c…

> everyone agrees that this is theft

No.

Re: Blacklight – A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector

#16

Post by BonoboIO » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 1:21 PM UTC

This is just like a highscore game ...

33 Trackers | 60 Third-Party Cookies https://themarkup.org/blacklight/?url=edition.cnn.com

32 Trackers | 53 Third-Party Cookies https://themarkup.org/blacklight/?url=wsj.com

The newspaper business is digging it's own grave.

"This website could be monitoring your keystrokes and mouse clicks."

Re: Blacklight – A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector

#17

Post by fxtentacle » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 1:24 PM UTC

Semaphor wrote: post #15

fxtentacle wrote: post #11

I feel like we should unify the copyright and privacy laws. If I copy a Disney movie without their knowledge and then extract value from it, for example by watching the movie without paying, everyone agrees that this is theft. And punishment is generally strong to excessive. If a website copies my private data without my knowledge or even after I decline permission by sending DNT headers, that is somehow considered c…

> everyone agrees that this is theft No.

I'm not aware of any court case where downloading and watching movies without the rights owner's permission was considered OK. Instead, the downloader always had to pay a fine.

Re: Blacklight – A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector

#18

Post by mhaberl » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 1:25 PM UTC

fxtentacle wrote: post #11

I feel like we should unify the copyright and privacy laws. If I copy a Disney movie without their knowledge and then extract value from it, for example by watching the movie without paying, everyone agrees that this is theft. And punishment is generally strong to excessive. If a website copies my private data without my knowledge or even after I decline permission by sending DNT headers, that is somehow considered c…

> If I copy a Disney movie without their knowledge and then extract value from it, for example by watching the movie without paying

What value would that be? Fun? If it is a bad movie and I have no fun what value did I extract from it then?

> everyone agrees that this is theft

Oh, how I wish I could download a car

Re: Blacklight – A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector

#19

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 1:25 PM UTC

Semaphor wrote: post #15

fxtentacle wrote: post #11

I feel like we should unify the copyright and privacy laws. If I copy a Disney movie without their knowledge and then extract value from it, for example by watching the movie without paying, everyone agrees that this is theft. And punishment is generally strong to excessive. If a website copies my private data without my knowledge or even after I decline permission by sending DNT headers, that is somehow considered c…

> everyone agrees that this is theft No.

If you scope "everyone" to "everyone who matters" - courts, legislators, law enforcement - it's a pretty accurate statement.

Re: Blacklight – A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector

#20

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 1:28 PM UTC

iruoy wrote: post #5

I tried some sites I thought might get a high score. Mostly news sites and webstores since they like to know a lot about you. Fox News [1] and Breitbart [2] got scarily high scores [1] https://themarkup.org/blacklight/?url=foxnews.com [2] https://themarkup.org/blacklight/?url=breitbart.com

Be sure to load the "This website loads trackers on your computer that are designed to evade third-party cookie blockers." section's details and see the fingerprinting images that are used. Crazy stuff.