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DuckDuckGo is a search engine - meaning its possible to use their tool without the collection of any data, even creating a user account. Many other tools are do

by taysic 8y ago

DuckDuckGo is a search engine - meaning its possible to use their tool without the collection of any data, even creating a user account. Many other tools are doing nothing nefarious with data but its not possible to use their tool without collecting data. It's neat that DuckDuckGo was able to find a business model through showing ads based on what you search into the search box. For me personally, I don't see much of a difference between being shown ads on what I searched at that moment and having a cookie stored in my browser and getting showed ads based on that later on. None of this disproves what the article is saying anyway - Google & Amazon will be the best equipped to handle the nuances of any data laws and as bureaucracy increases, they will benefit the most, storing more data.

bad_user 8y ago
> Many other tools are doing nothing nefarious with data You're missing the point of the danger then. Facebook isn't doing anything "nefarious" with the data either. And yet Cambridge Analytica happened. Fact of the matter is, it's not what you do with the data that counts the most, the biggest problem being that the data gets collected in the first place without users being aware of it, or aware of implications. How many users do you think are aware that Facebook follows them around the web and that this might affect their credit score, or the price they pay for their health insurance in the future? How many people in a minority, e.g. of a certain religion or of a certain sexual orientation, do you think are aware that their habits can be used to precisely identify their identity and preferences, which could put many such individuals in life threatening situations? Of course, you might be a responsible company, you might actually do good by your users and customers, but if the users don't expect tracking to be part of the service and if making them aware makes those users to not opt-in, then you are doing something nefarious by definition. Which is what GDPR is about.

by taysic 8y ago

bad_user 8y ago

> Many other tools are doing nothing nefarious with data You're missing the point of the danger then. Facebook isn't doing anything "nefarious" with the data either. And yet Cambridge Analytica happened. Fact of the matter is, it's not what you do with the data that counts the most, the biggest problem being that the data gets collected in the first place without users being aware of it, or aware of implications. How many users do you think are aware that Facebook follows them around the web and that this might affect their credit score, or the price they pay for their health insurance in the future? How many people in a minority, e.g. of a certain religion or of a certain sexual orientation, do you think are aware that their habits can be used to precisely identify their identity and preferences, which could put many such individuals in life threatening situations? Of course, you might be a responsible company, you might actually do good by your users and customers, but if the users don't expect tracking to be part of the service and if making them aware makes those users to not opt-in, then you are doing something nefarious by definition. Which is what GDPR is about.