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I might agree with you about showing ads, but regarding tracking and collecting data there's substantial difference. By collecting and storing users' data, you

I might agree with you about showing ads, but regarding tracking and collecting data there's substantial difference. By collecting and storing users' data, you put people at real risk, even if you collect with consent. The risk is data being stolen or sold and then used for malicious purposes. For example, if you're a delivery service and you store delivery history, you put your customers at risk of being burgled. So the ethical attitude would be to avoid collecting and storing anything you can avoid.

cookiecaper 10y ago
>I might agree with you about showing ads, but regarding tracking and collecting data there's substantial difference. By collecting and storing users' data, you put people at real risk, even if you collect with consent. The risk is data being stolen or sold and then used for malicious purposes. I don't think that this type of fingerprinting is necessarily any more insidious/risky than any other ordinary activity one can undertake online. That's not to say that data is not valuable to someone with malice, but I don't think it's so especially dangerous that it's inherently inappropriate to collect it. Ultimately, it's the user's responsibility to find a browser that has strong identity protection features and use them properly if it's a major concern for them. Things like storing a Flash cookie obviously contradict a user's intention, but I don't see that as automatically unethical just because the user would prefer if it didn't happen. At least not any more unethical than contradicting the publisher's intention of displaying ads.