Dutch suicide prevention website shares data with tech companies without consent

Post by edwinjm » Wed, May 13, 2026, 4:45 PM UTC

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #22

embedding-shape wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I am not understanding is the case of why, why would dutch government or website do this, is it out of honest mistake/(incompetence?) or malice. There are so many competent & great dutch engineers and engineers in general, I refuse to believe that they couldn't find anyone ethical enough to take extra care regarding GDPR and sensitivity of the data in general. Ask 100 random developers to setup a website, and…

> People generally just continue with whatever they've learned, not revisiting the default choices they make, and it's been ingrained over decades that "Google Analytics is the best way to optimize your sales funnel" or whatever the marketers drink nowadays, so it'll take some time for these folks to revisit their decisions. Perhaps you are right but what the duck does sales funnel mean in a suicide prevention websit…

Post by edwinjm » Wed, May 13, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

basisword wrote: post #7

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #4

> Stichting 113 likely violated the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by sharing this data. The GDPR states that extra care must be taken regarding the security of medical personal data, which includes contact with an anonymous suicide prevention hotline. This is quite sad to think about in multitude of ways :-( What I am not understanding is the case of why , why would dutch government or website do this, is…

I think it's more incompetence than malice. It's just such a standard thing for engineers to throw analytics tracking in every website/product they build. Although I am surprised not one person realised this might be a bad idea given the sensitive nature of the site.

Post by like_any_other » Wed, May 13, 2026, 4:50 PM UTC

gtowey wrote: post #115

kbelder wrote: post #104

"How many people came to our contact page, but left without calling the hotline?" "Don't know, boss. We'd need to add analytics." "Like what?" "Google Analytics? It's free and pretty much universal." "Ok, do it." It's just standard. Not great, and Google uses the data in all sorts of ways that they don't make obvious. But it's not a cabal of evil website owners selling data to tech giants. They're just trying to run…

At some point we have to get used to the idea that there are no such thing as free services. If you're not paying for something that clearly has a cost to the entity providing it, then value will be extracted from you in other ways.

Post by fsflover » Wed, May 13, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

simonw wrote: post #151

philipwhiuk wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maintain and protect the Analytics service This is a pretty broad leash. "To maintain the analytics service we need to make money"

What's the absolute worst thing Google could be doing with that analytics data?

Post by saidnooneever » Wed, May 13, 2026, 5:23 PM UTC

saidnooneever wrote: post #152

kbelder wrote: post #104

"How many people came to our contact page, but left without calling the hotline?" "Don't know, boss. We'd need to add analytics." "Like what?" "Google Analytics? It's free and pretty much universal." "Ok, do it." It's just standard. Not great, and Google uses the data in all sorts of ways that they don't make obvious. But it's not a cabal of evil website owners selling data to tech giants. They're just trying to run…

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