Internet Privacy

[Jalpha]

I recently came accross a Firefox Add-on called Lightbeam. What it does is track the sites which track you as you browse the web and then renders them in a visual format. I wasn't particularly surprised by what it uncovered. For reference here's a snapshot of what happened while I spied of the spies during a typical browsing session which went for a bit over three hours.

Aside from two e-mail accounts I don't use any social media, however interestingly I was being tracked by all the main ones. I have no idea what most of these sites are. Looking into some of the more active trackers I found they were random sites like magazines or your typical advertisers. It seems like just about everyone tracks your internet habits just because they can.

This kind of bothers me because I feel entitled to that information. I feel the dataset is my property, it's a snapshot of me, a frozen moment in time of who I am. I have no control or even knowledge of where this information goes and what is done with it. My permission was never asked. It makes me feel like some unwitting labrat and it's a sensation I am not comfortable with.

Am I over-reacting or is this as out of control as I think? I mean from what I can tell the whole area is largely unregulated. Additionally if my information is being used by someone for profit, am I not entitled to some portion of that profit myself?

[SmackMcBacon]

I had a similar program a while back. I also think this is pretty crazy. Better get used to it, it's only going to get worse. Same with that 'youtube heroes' thing. The free web is ded.

[Ysh]

It seems like just about everyone tracks your internet habits just because they can.

Yes. And because sales money.

This kind of bothers me because I feel entitled to that information. I feel the dataset is my property, it's a snapshot of me, a frozen moment in time of who I am. I have no control or even knowledge of where this information goes and what is done with it. My permission was never asked. It makes me feel like some unwitting labrat and it's a sensation I am not comfortable with.

Debatable. If you go to restaurant and fill out comment card for waitress, do you complain they have your information now? I think maybe not. All informations that internet site can get of you is informations that you are willingly provide. You intentional go to site and use it. You agree to use service. Maybe there is arguing that difference between restaurant examples and internet site is that I can eat at restaurant and choose to no fill out comment cards. I can not visit internet site and use service without agree to be track. But if restaurant really likes to do it, he can require all patron to agree for filling out comment cards before they are allow to be serve in restaurant. Though I think this will be bad for business because the patron may not like it and they can go to other restaurant without this policy. It is similar situation to internet. If patron of internet does not like it, he can go to different internet site with different policy.

Am I over-reacting or is this as out of control as I think?

Maybe overreact slightly. I think there is no issue with it on some moral/ethical type basis. But I do think it is unfortunate that this is the current reality. Problem is this is current reality because most people are having no issues to it. If you are correct that this is a very not good thing, eventual the men will decide that this will go on no longer and stop use data collecting site. And if the men never get burned badly enough to stop? Maybe it was not a problem thing to beginning with.

I mean from what I can tell the whole area is largely unregulated.

I could see some arguing for and against this one. I think in general it is best to err on side of freedom for the men.

Additionally if my information is being used by someone for profit, am I not entitled to some portion of that profit myself?

I think probable no.

[shubla]

They collect data of millions, billions people every day.
They don't care specifically about your data that much. Most likely no human will ever see any of that. They aren't really spying on you, actually no one cares specifically about you. For example it's used for algorithms that do various kind of stuff, such as optimize your search results in google or display ads that are targeted towards you.

Also: "Lightbeam will create a record of events for every site you visit and every third party site that is stored locally on your browser."
It lists ALL sites that your computer connects to. Not all of them "track" you.

And actually, your permission is asked almost every time, most sites have stuff as terms of service and privacy policy that list stuff that they do and don't do with data. Most sites have popups that will tell you about cookies and stuff or privacy policy that you will allow by using the site.

If you think you should get cut of profits from money made by marketing stuff to you with your data. Then you are just dumb.

No one cares or even knows if you watch some shady gay dwarf porn. But if they can sell you something via that information. They are definitely going to use it.

Also its not unregulated. It is controlled by many laws. By googling you can find some of them quite easily.

It would be dumb to advertise something to you that you absolutely don't need.
But if they know that you have googled for free mmorpgs they will advertise them to you with higher chance of you clicking and buying the product.

[Jalpha]

This kind of bothers me because I feel entitled to that information. I feel the dataset is my property, it's a snapshot of me, a frozen moment in time of who I am. I have no control or even knowledge of where this information goes and what is done with it. My permission was never asked. It makes me feel like some unwitting labrat and it's a sensation I am not comfortable with.

Debatable. If you go to restaurant and fill out comment card for waitress, do you complain they have your information now? I think maybe not.

The difference being highlighted above. It's a shady practice to hide demands for the acceptance of policies and not make them clear and apparent. Very few sites do this.

Am I over-reacting or is this as out of control as I think?

Maybe overreact slightly. I think there is no issue with it on some moral/ethical type basis. But I do think it is unfortunate that this is the current reality. Problem is this is current reality because most people are having no issues to it. If you are correct that this is a very not good thing, eventual the men will decide that this will go on no longer and stop use data collecting site. And if the men never get burned badly enough to stop? Maybe it was not a problem thing to beginning with.

I think again it's likely more an issue of awareness. If you don't know who is taking the data, where it's going and what it's being used for then how can you even formulate an effective argument against it. If people actually knew more maybe they would object. Should not this tracking at least be more transparent and less secretive?

I mean from what I can tell the whole area is largely unregulated.

I could see some arguing for and against this one. I think in general it is best to err on side of freedom for the men.

Whose freedom, mine or theirs. By the very act of having my actions observed I have had my freedom impinged upon.

Additionally if my information is being used by someone for profit, am I not entitled to some portion of that profit myself?

I think probable no.

It's not that I expect any notable returns but it seems wrong for such a parasitic relationship to exist. I effectively receive nothing while someone else profits simply from watching me. If I followed you around on the streets while you did your shopping and went to work, taking notes recording your actions and even what you looked at in the shop window, would you then object? How about if I then sold that information to other people who were interested?

It lists ALL sites that your computer connects to. Not all of them "track" you.

The purple lines connect sites with tracking cookies. It's a bit difficult to see among all the clutter.

[shubla]

It's not that I expect any notable returns but it seems wrong for such a parasitic relationship to exist. I effectively receive nothing while someone else profits simply from watching me. If I followed you around on the streets while you did your shopping and went to work, taking notes recording your actions and even what you looked at in the shop window, would you then object? How about if I then sold that information to other people who were interested?

You're dumb.

[Jalpha]

Succinct points, very well worded, great content.

2/10 I responded.

[Ysh]

This kind of bothers me because I feel entitled to that information. I feel the dataset is my property, it's a snapshot of me, a frozen moment in time of who I am. I have no control or even knowledge of where this information goes and what is done with it. My permission was never asked. It makes me feel like some unwitting labrat and it's a sensation I am not comfortable with.

Debatable. If you go to restaurant and fill out comment card for waitress, do you complain they have your information now? I think maybe not.

The difference being highlighted above. It's a shady practice to hide demands for the acceptance of policies and not make them clear and apparent. Very few sites do this.

Shady practice indeed. I think it can be argue though that you implicit consent by visit the site at all. And in many case, explicit consent with click ''I accept'' on terms of service box.

Am I over-reacting or is this as out of control as I think?

Maybe overreact slightly. I think there is no issue with it on some moral/ethical type basis. But I do think it is unfortunate that this is the current reality. Problem is this is current reality because most people are having no issues to it. If you are correct that this is a very not good thing, eventual the men will decide that this will go on no longer and stop use data collecting site. And if the men never get burned badly enough to stop? Maybe it was not a problem thing to beginning with.

I think again it's likely more an issue of awareness. If you don't know who is taking the data, where it's going and what it's being used for then how can you even formulate an effective argument against it. If people actually knew more maybe they would object. Should not this tracking at least be more transparent and less secretive?

Maybe they will object, maybe they will not. I know men who are aware and do not care. I know men who are aware and are happy they are being tracked. I am not sure how much of it is really big secret. Obviously you know of it, yes?

I mean from what I can tell the whole area is largely unregulated.

I could see some arguing for and against this one. I think in general it is best to err on side of freedom for the men.

Whose freedom, mine or theirs. By the very act of having my actions observed I have had my freedom impinged upon.

Both you and them are men and are deserving of freedoms. If you do not want to be observed, do not visit the private websites of these men. No one is forcing you to go to them.

Additionally if my information is being used by someone for profit, am I not entitled to some portion of that profit myself?

I think probable no.

It's not that I expect any notable returns but it seems wrong for such a parasitic relationship to exist. I effectively receive nothing while someone else profits simply from watching me.

When was last time you pay for news paper? How often do you watch free video on some site like YouTube? Use free email service? It go on and on. I get an amazing amount of service and content for ''free'' on internet. Free is in quote, because I do pay -- just not in money. But do not act as if you gain nothing from this monitoring. The fact that just watching you action is profitable is what does support the myriad of free service you and I can enjoy on internet.

If I followed you around on the streets while you did your shopping and went to work, taking notes recording your actions and even what you looked at in the shop window, would you then object? How about if I then sold that information to other people who were interested?

This analogy is slight different. Obvious there is some personal risk from the men knowing my personal location. It is also much easy to connect these data point with my individual person. Internet tracking does not convey this in as personal a way. Physical stalking is more dangerous than cyberweb stalking. That being said, I would rather no men in this world know what I am doing. But I can not live my life without going into public. Not easy anyway. This is just the price of it.

[Granger]

User a browser that supports only showing the default user agent(fingerprinting), add NoScript, uBlock origin, BetterPrivacy, ... (or similar) and set the cookies to auto-destroy when leaving the site.

[Bowshot125]

Shit, what if they know I watch some shady stuff. Will the FBI come to my place and arrest me? My mom will be mad.