3 ms·

No, it should just be illegal to share analytics with a third party. Done. I run a website. First party analytics are useful because they let me know what peop

No, it should just be illegal to share analytics with a third party. Done. I run a website. First party analytics are useful because they let me know what people are clicking on, which lets me know what features people find useful. But no one else needs to see my analytics. I don't want some third party to figure out that people are clicking on X or Y and build up some kind of profile of my users. More to the point, even if I could get paid for selling that kind of data, it should be illegal for me to do so, because it harms my users without their knowing.

ksec 6y ago
This. The problem with Analytics right now is that everyone is focusing on so called privacy, where it would be better described as invisible / anonymous tracking. That is like customers walking into my shop in Real Life and I am not allowed to look at them because of "privacy". I cant even know if he is a returning customer since I cant look at him. I mean if you come here for coffee everyday I would at least know you whether like Latte or Espresso. So in typical Tech Fashion we went from one extreme of collecting too much and sharing too much to another extreme of not collecting anything to the point we know nothing.
pabs3 6y ago
First party analytics should also meet the standards of informed consent.
- earthboundkid 6y ago
  There should be a privacy policy listed I guess, but I don’t see why you would need affirmative consent, and if 3rd party sharing is illegal, the privacy policy will be short and boring: we monitor you to improve our services.
  - pabs3 6y ago
    The policy could be shorter: we don't monitor you.
    - earthboundkid 6y ago
      Yes, but in practice that’s only for a small number of sites that do things like facilitate anonymous messaging. Basically everyone else needs to be able to do things like “notice DOS attacks” and other logging of suspicious behavior. It is actually kind of hard to not monitor at least a little so only specialized sites try.

ksec 6y ago

This. The problem with Analytics right now is that everyone is focusing on so called privacy, where it would be better described as invisible / anonymous tracking. That is like customers walking into my shop in Real Life and I am not allowed to look at them because of "privacy". I cant even know if he is a returning customer since I cant look at him. I mean if you come here for coffee everyday I would at least know you whether like Latte or Espresso. So in typical Tech Fashion we went from one extreme of collecting too much and sharing too much to another extreme of not collecting anything to the point we know nothing.

pabs3 6y ago

First party analytics should also meet the standards of informed consent.

earthboundkid 6y ago
There should be a privacy policy listed I guess, but I don’t see why you would need affirmative consent, and if 3rd party sharing is illegal, the privacy policy will be short and boring: we monitor you to improve our services.
- pabs3 6y ago
  The policy could be shorter: we don't monitor you.
  - earthboundkid 6y ago
    Yes, but in practice that’s only for a small number of sites that do things like facilitate anonymous messaging. Basically everyone else needs to be able to do things like “notice DOS attacks” and other logging of suspicious behavior. It is actually kind of hard to not monitor at least a little so only specialized sites try.