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So, by the current state of things, I'll have to visit the privacy settings in every single social network I'm using on a monthly basis just to make sure that t

by r3bl 10y ago

So, by the current state of things, I'll have to visit the privacy settings in every single social network I'm using on a monthly basis just to make sure that they haven't pushed something I didn't agree on by subscribing to their service? Great!

econner 10y ago
It's probably in the privacy policy / terms of service that you don't read when signing up (no one does...). It's actually nice of Reddit to announce these sorts of changes and not just say "we updated our privacy policy"
- noir_lord 10y ago
  Smart not nice. Reddit has a large community of technology savvy users what looks better "We started doing X that some of you may not like" vs "We updated our privacy policy"..few days later "They started doing X, burn them!". I wish more companies would be smart.
- IanCal 10y ago
  I shouldn't be hearing of this through a different news site though. I received no email about this, nor a private message. It's not even in their announcements. This message is only in /r/changelog, and going backwards they first introduced this 4 months ago, had to roll back and have been rolling it out again with other options. This is not a nice way of introducing what is, to me, a fairly large privacy change.
duaneb 10y ago
If you want to be private, don't use a social network where you are the product. Did you seriously expect reddit to NOT track your actions? If you ran the product, you would also want to collect metrics to understand how your users use the site. Of course, I imagine the big win here would be people not logged in, so even registering to opt out would be a win for reddit.
- Dylan16807 10y ago
  So don't use social networks? That's a pretty big imposition.
  - sp332 10y ago
    Many, many sites use metrics. Google does for example, so you shouldn't use Google either.
  - samtho 10y ago
    Everything is a choice and every decision has trade-offs. Free (for users) social network? Then you're going to have to be okay with your data being harvested. They don't exist to solely to serve users they exist to generate revenue.
    - Dylan16807 10y ago
      The issue isn't free vs. pay, this issue is free vs. no other realistic option. It's not like you can pay facebook to respect your privacy.
      - duaneb 10y ago
        > It's not like you can pay facebook to respect your privacy. Arguably, this is a massive loss of revenue to Facebook as click rate goes down year over year. It's a tradeoff for them, too. I would certainly pay $10/month to not see all the shit they thrown in my timeline, to opt out of all the bullshit features I don't want (ads, "memories" which seem to pop up daily with no way to opt out, friend celebrations, annoying suggestions, sports scores, non-chronological timelines, etc etc). Instead, I'm forced to limit my likes to non-commercial entities and I use heavy user stylesheet customizations to remove all the other crap. Facebook just loses $10/month this way while being unable to make money (at least via serving ads; I'm sure my information is fair game to sell to ad networks). Of course, if this were popular, the ads would accelerate in decreasing value. Which is probably why Facebook or other ad networks don't want to start this trend.
  - 10y ago
benologist 10y ago
What makes you think it's just social networks? Half the software you use is probably hemorrhaging info to Google Analytics, buried in a checkbox in the settings.
- quesera 10y ago
  Seriously. Use Little Snitch, Hands Off, Privoxy, or something else that fits your infrastructure.
- Symbiote 10y ago
  For a start, pretty much every site with the EU cookie banner has that because of Google Analytics. It's a shame the wording on the banner doesn't make it's purpose clear.

by r3bl 10y ago

econner 10y ago

It's probably in the privacy policy / terms of service that you don't read when signing up (no one does...). It's actually nice of Reddit to announce these sorts of changes and not just say "we updated our privacy policy"

noir_lord 10y ago
Smart not nice. Reddit has a large community of technology savvy users what looks better "We started doing X that some of you may not like" vs "We updated our privacy policy"..few days later "They started doing X, burn them!". I wish more companies would be smart.
IanCal 10y ago
I shouldn't be hearing of this through a different news site though. I received no email about this, nor a private message. It's not even in their announcements. This message is only in /r/changelog, and going backwards they first introduced this 4 months ago, had to roll back and have been rolling it out again with other options. This is not a nice way of introducing what is, to me, a fairly large privacy change.

duaneb 10y ago

If you want to be private, don't use a social network where you are the product. Did you seriously expect reddit to NOT track your actions? If you ran the product, you would also want to collect metrics to understand how your users use the site. Of course, I imagine the big win here would be people not logged in, so even registering to opt out would be a win for reddit.

Dylan16807 10y ago
So don't use social networks? That's a pretty big imposition.
- sp332 10y ago
  Many, many sites use metrics. Google does for example, so you shouldn't use Google either.
- samtho 10y ago
  Everything is a choice and every decision has trade-offs. Free (for users) social network? Then you're going to have to be okay with your data being harvested. They don't exist to solely to serve users they exist to generate revenue.
  - Dylan16807 10y ago
    The issue isn't free vs. pay, this issue is free vs. no other realistic option. It's not like you can pay facebook to respect your privacy.
    - duaneb 10y ago
      > It's not like you can pay facebook to respect your privacy. Arguably, this is a massive loss of revenue to Facebook as click rate goes down year over year. It's a tradeoff for them, too. I would certainly pay $10/month to not see all the shit they thrown in my timeline, to opt out of all the bullshit features I don't want (ads, "memories" which seem to pop up daily with no way to opt out, friend celebrations, annoying suggestions, sports scores, non-chronological timelines, etc etc). Instead, I'm forced to limit my likes to non-commercial entities and I use heavy user stylesheet customizations to remove all the other crap. Facebook just loses $10/month this way while being unable to make money (at least via serving ads; I'm sure my information is fair game to sell to ad networks). Of course, if this were popular, the ads would accelerate in decreasing value. Which is probably why Facebook or other ad networks don't want to start this trend.
- 10y ago

benologist 10y ago

What makes you think it's just social networks? Half the software you use is probably hemorrhaging info to Google Analytics, buried in a checkbox in the settings.

quesera 10y ago
Seriously. Use Little Snitch, Hands Off, Privoxy, or something else that fits your infrastructure.
Symbiote 10y ago
For a start, pretty much every site with the EU cookie banner has that because of Google Analytics. It's a shame the wording on the banner doesn't make it's purpose clear.