6 ms·

I immediately went to do this quiz, but then I couldn't help but wonder if this might be one of those Cambridge Analytica style "quizzes" where they're harvesti

by notJim 7y ago

I immediately went to do this quiz, but then I couldn't help but wonder if this might be one of those Cambridge Analytica style "quizzes" where they're harvesting psychological data for unknown purposes. I'm not sure if this makes me sound savvy or insane.

themodelplumber 7y ago
Taking your comment into consideration, it seems like the quiz format could potentially shut out some of those it rather intends to help--its core audience even...how sad would that be. Imagine those who would elevate your reality-grounded concern (incorporating the current privacy culture context as it does) to the paranoia level, many of whom would do so simply because stress has so affected their judgment process. I know folks who work in tech for whom this would be a very quick and biting "no" due to such paranoia. But many of these same people urgently need to set boundaries and address destructive issues with their self-criticism circuits. They are burnt out.
Freak_NL 7y ago
No personal information is asked, so the dataset will be pretty useless for monetization (you could just computationally generate a couple of thousand of responses and pretend it was the real deal). uBlock Origin blocked one weird tracker-like third-party I didn't recognize: fullstory.com. The rest were the usual Google analytics crap.
- warp 7y ago
  fullstory records your entire session, which can be really useful for developers and UX folks to investigate bugs or better understand how people are using your site. It's also super creepy.
  - Freak_NL 7y ago
    Ew. Good thing uBlock Origin blocks it then.
  - lucb1e 7y ago
    And here I was wondering if I should start Tor, as I usually do when doing anything health or politics related, but thought I was maybe being paranoid for something upvoted on HN...
    - nitrogen 7y ago
      UI session recording services are incredibly common across all kinds of services. Inspectlet, Glassbox are two others I am aware of, but there are no doubt more. They also probably exist for mobile apps.
- marcossponton 7y ago
  Marcos here, one of the members of the team behind this. Fullstory is to understand this project as a product and to see where it needs to be improved (because users don't understand or try to do things that we didn't considered, etc.). Only personal data (mail) is asked for those interested to stay in the loop in some way. The dataset without those emails will be on Github soon :)
  - Freak_NL 7y ago
    Why not just add a link add the end or in a footer where users can submit suggestions and report bugs? When you are engaging users in mental health related questions, any tracking is suspect and creepy.
    - Old_Thrashbarg 7y ago
      In my experience, users don't report minor UX flaws. These kind of recording services can show, for example, users rage clicking what looks like a button for a couple seconds before finding the real button. For startups that don't have the resources to line up tons of user testing sessions where you watch the product being used, these can help make a less frustrating experience for users.
  - coleca 7y ago
    Why ask the company name if the intent is to be anonymous? Many companies just the role name and company name is enough to identify the individual. Maybe there is only one CTO or Cloud Architect, etc. Or maybe gender + role + company is enough to identify.
    - thrower123 7y ago
      It's simple enough to enter in "Noneya Business, Inc" for the company field.
  - macu 7y ago
    I finished the survey and clicked "get my personal results" - email is required to receive the results, but you can "Join" without providing an email.
- sp332 7y ago
  They could use your IP address or some tracking cookies to link this data to a bunch of other data. Potentially.
  - harshvladha 7y ago
    - use incognito to avoid trackers - use proxy / vpn - resize your window if you are still scared
    - patneedham 7y ago
      What effect does resizing your window have?
      - harshvladha 7y ago
        a little help to bypass tracking by fingerprinting
        rzzzt 7y ago
        Doesn't it make things even more unique? How many people have a 1347×712 px window open?
        harshvladha 7y ago
        No, if u keep changing frequently!
        nitrogen 7y ago
        "Has a non-standard window size" still really narrows the search space, and there's still your desktop resolution that might be super unique if you have a laptop and a desk monitor at an offset.
    - eeZah7Ux 7y ago
      No. Use the Tor Browser. The manual hacks do very little.
- IHLayman 7y ago
  I caught that too. Good thing the test still worked with the trackers blocked.
- eeZah7Ux 7y ago
  The IP address (therefore city and country) and browser data already says a lot.
  - adtac 7y ago
    At this point, it's just 0.0.0.0/0 and Chrome
- lightswitch05 7y ago
  Ah, I took this quiz on my iPhone, luckily my pihole caught the trackers. I have a pretty extensive hosts list I use with the PiHole (full story included): https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/ https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/

by notJim 7y ago

themodelplumber 7y ago

Taking your comment into consideration, it seems like the quiz format could potentially shut out some of those it rather intends to help--its core audience even...how sad would that be. Imagine those who would elevate your reality-grounded concern (incorporating the current privacy culture context as it does) to the paranoia level, many of whom would do so simply because stress has so affected their judgment process. I know folks who work in tech for whom this would be a very quick and biting "no" due to such paranoia. But many of these same people urgently need to set boundaries and address destructive issues with their self-criticism circuits. They are burnt out.

Freak_NL 7y ago

No personal information is asked, so the dataset will be pretty useless for monetization (you could just computationally generate a couple of thousand of responses and pretend it was the real deal). uBlock Origin blocked one weird tracker-like third-party I didn't recognize: fullstory.com. The rest were the usual Google analytics crap.

warp 7y ago
fullstory records your entire session, which can be really useful for developers and UX folks to investigate bugs or better understand how people are using your site. It's also super creepy.
- Freak_NL 7y ago
  Ew. Good thing uBlock Origin blocks it then.
- lucb1e 7y ago
  And here I was wondering if I should start Tor, as I usually do when doing anything health or politics related, but thought I was maybe being paranoid for something upvoted on HN...
  - nitrogen 7y ago
    UI session recording services are incredibly common across all kinds of services. Inspectlet, Glassbox are two others I am aware of, but there are no doubt more. They also probably exist for mobile apps.
marcossponton 7y ago
Marcos here, one of the members of the team behind this. Fullstory is to understand this project as a product and to see where it needs to be improved (because users don't understand or try to do things that we didn't considered, etc.). Only personal data (mail) is asked for those interested to stay in the loop in some way. The dataset without those emails will be on Github soon :)
- Freak_NL 7y ago
  Why not just add a link add the end or in a footer where users can submit suggestions and report bugs? When you are engaging users in mental health related questions, any tracking is suspect and creepy.
  - Old_Thrashbarg 7y ago
    In my experience, users don't report minor UX flaws. These kind of recording services can show, for example, users rage clicking what looks like a button for a couple seconds before finding the real button. For startups that don't have the resources to line up tons of user testing sessions where you watch the product being used, these can help make a less frustrating experience for users.
- coleca 7y ago
  Why ask the company name if the intent is to be anonymous? Many companies just the role name and company name is enough to identify the individual. Maybe there is only one CTO or Cloud Architect, etc. Or maybe gender + role + company is enough to identify.
  - thrower123 7y ago
    It's simple enough to enter in "Noneya Business, Inc" for the company field.
- macu 7y ago
  I finished the survey and clicked "get my personal results" - email is required to receive the results, but you can "Join" without providing an email.
sp332 7y ago
They could use your IP address or some tracking cookies to link this data to a bunch of other data. Potentially.
- harshvladha 7y ago
  - use incognito to avoid trackers - use proxy / vpn - resize your window if you are still scared
  - patneedham 7y ago
    What effect does resizing your window have?
    - harshvladha 7y ago
      a little help to bypass tracking by fingerprinting
      - rzzzt 7y ago
        Doesn't it make things even more unique? How many people have a 1347×712 px window open?
        harshvladha 7y ago
        No, if u keep changing frequently!
        nitrogen 7y ago
        "Has a non-standard window size" still really narrows the search space, and there's still your desktop resolution that might be super unique if you have a laptop and a desk monitor at an offset.
  - eeZah7Ux 7y ago
    No. Use the Tor Browser. The manual hacks do very little.
IHLayman 7y ago
I caught that too. Good thing the test still worked with the trackers blocked.
eeZah7Ux 7y ago
The IP address (therefore city and country) and browser data already says a lot.
- adtac 7y ago
  At this point, it's just 0.0.0.0/0 and Chrome
lightswitch05 7y ago
Ah, I took this quiz on my iPhone, luckily my pihole caught the trackers. I have a pretty extensive hosts list I use with the PiHole (full story included): https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/ https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/