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Trackers

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Trackers

#131

Post by mrweasel »

ssharp wrote: post #102
davb wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it interesting that a lot of content producers have feel entitled to users' participation in analytics at all. Sure, it may be frustrating when a user blocks tracking tools (especially self hosted ones) but that's the their choice. We got by for decades without analysing user habits (even in a local only context, without correlation with third party data). There are so few examples of cases where analysing use…

To be fair, you're not entitled to free content free of tracking either.

True, but we aren't really given much choice either. Even if I buy for a service or buy a product from a company, I'm not going to be excluded from tracking.

Amazon isn't going to not data-mine the shit out of my purchases, even though I paid for a product.

I do question the value of all that data collection though. Sure it's interesting, but I don't really believe that data collection and analysis at the current scale translate directly to more sales. Honestly what's the value of tracking me around the net, how is knowing what sites I visit going to translate to a sale of some product?

Re: Trackers

#132

Post by wtbob »

ssharp wrote: post #102
davb wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it interesting that a lot of content producers have feel entitled to users' participation in analytics at all. Sure, it may be frustrating when a user blocks tracking tools (especially self hosted ones) but that's the their choice. We got by for decades without analysing user habits (even in a local only context, without correlation with third party data). There are so few examples of cases where analysing use…

To be fair, you're not entitled to free content free of tracking either.

You're completely right. But you know what? I kind of preferred the Internet back when most of the 'content' was being produced by people who loved it, for the fun of it and not for money. It's the difference between an amateur and a professional, and I was fine with that.

Re: Trackers

#133

Post by terryf »

I find it interesting that for most people the problem with ads is the tracking part. For me it's the ads themselves - I don't like seeing them, because I don't really want to buy stuff and think that a large part of the first world's problems (obesity, depression) are caused in part by ads.

In the world of ads, I'm constantly reminded that I don't have the perfect body and that my blender does not look as good as the latest model - I really don't want that, because my blender works fine and looks ok.

So yeah, I block ads and I don't really see why I should feel bad about that, the non-tracking feature is a nice bonus.

So the web will go back to sites that either require payment to enter or are run by people who post stuff out of enthusiasm. Sounds like a nice place to me.

Re: Trackers

#134

Post by Borating »

jacquesm wrote: post #75
hoopsho wrote: post #69

I got tired of seeing a drill show up on a bunch of sites after I just searched for it on Home Depot... I block ads on my workstation, but with tablets I just could not find an easy way to block trackers for my whole family. So Metiix Blockade was born out of this frustration... Now I have "bouncers" protecting my whole network for every one of my devices. I hate when a web page decides what ads and trackers it wants…

Added a link at the end of the article, it looks like your project is free and clean as far as I can see.

Also consider pi-hole [1], notrack [2], uMatrix [3], dnsgate [4] and hostsblock [5]

[1] https://pi-hole.net/ [2] https://github.com/quidsup/notrack [3] https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix [4] https://github.com/jakeogh/dnsgate [5] https://gaenserich.github.io/hostsblock/

Re: Trackers

#135

Post by Borating »

wouterinho wrote: post #37

It is funny how things change when you use the physical world metaphor. There was a campaign recently by the Dutch regulatory agency that made people aware of the implications of allowing permissions in "free" apps. They made an (anecdotal) video by promising a free cup of coffee in exchange for your contact list on your phone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYXM56YJWSo (Dutch unfortunately)

Check the Mozilla campain "The Hidden Business of the Internet" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LcUOEP7Brc

Re: Trackers

#136

Post by superuser2 »

In small towns and pre-industrialization, stores had a tracking regime that puts Silicon Valley to shame: the shopkeepers knew you.

They didn't need credit cards or scores because they could identify your store credit account by your face, and your creditworthiness by your family's reputation.

If you were buying something out of the ordinary, you better believe your parents/spouse/church/friends/entire town would hear about it from the shopkeeper, who knew them all as well as he knew you.

A juicy conversation on a party line telephone shared with neighbors, interesting metadata on the postal mail also handled by people who know you and your business, a sighting in public with someone not your spouse, a visitor at an odd time of night, a strange car in your driveway - all these things could quickly become a public affair.

Technology is not bringing us a particularly new invasion, but it is helping at least that side of the "tight-knit communities" of old scale to modern population size and density. I think this is a horrific development, and it's certainly quantitatively unprecedented, but not qualitatively.

Re: Trackers

#137

Post by Borating »

jacquesm wrote: post #60
wouterinho wrote: post #37

It is funny how things change when you use the physical world metaphor. There was a campaign recently by the Dutch regulatory agency that made people aware of the implications of allowing permissions in "free" apps. They made an (anecdotal) video by promising a free cup of coffee in exchange for your contact list on your phone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYXM56YJWSo (Dutch unfortunately)

That video is brilliant. Thank you. 'Please plug in your phone here, we need to get some data from it' 'Huh?'

See this one [1] from mozilla

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LcUOEP7Brc

Re: Trackers

#138

Post by helper »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #15

Believe it or not, some stores sympathise with you. They might actually be run by people like you, people who read your story. They still want to know how you proceed round the store, because that helps them optimise shelf layout, identify hard-to-find items, and so on. So yes, they might use the standard in-store CCTV to observe your journeys, and when they figure that you and people like you always have difficulty…

If you want to read a good book on studying in-store shopper behavior, you should checkout "Why We Buy" by Paco Underhill. He runs a firm that studies shoppers by secretly following people around in a store and writing down everything they do.

Re: Trackers

#139

Post by jacquesm »

superuser2 wrote: post #136

In small towns and pre-industrialization, stores had a tracking regime that puts Silicon Valley to shame: the shopkeepers knew you. They didn't need credit cards or scores because they could identify your store credit account by your face, and your creditworthiness by your family's reputation. If you were buying something out of the ordinary, you better believe your parents/spouse/church/friends/entire town would hea…

A large enough degree of quantity difference has it's own qualitative difference. This has been observed many times in other fields.

Re: Trackers

#140

Post by elorant »

Once upon a time I used to work for a multinational company that did retail audit. They had developed a program which adjusted the ads a selected group of people were watching on their TVs. Then they provided them with special debit cards and monitored the relevance between viewed ads and purchases of goods in super markets. All that around 1999. And that was just once of a multitude of technologies they used. They also had a technology where a camera was tracing face movement to identify which items on the shelves attracted more attention by gender and age. I can’t even fathom what they’ll be using these days. Profiling is the holy grail of the marketing world. At least online we have the option of ad blocking. Offline we’re helpless.
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