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I'm not sure how tracking is nebulous. If you want to identify an anonymous counter, or keep depersonalised logs, or IP logs for security, that's fine; it can't
by yunruse 6y ago
I'm not sure how tracking is nebulous. If you want to identify an anonymous counter, or keep depersonalised logs, or IP logs for security, that's fine; it can't identify the user. (Maybe IP logs could)
Essentially you can boil "tracking" to two main sources: when there's data collected without a legitimate purpose for doing so, and when data is collected to the point that could identify a user, but no explicit consent is given.
Take for example a Facebook comment section on a third party site. It'd be fine to click the comments and have a quick prompt for Facebook to interact – the comment is public, so it's known to all. But if the user never comments, Facebook has no right to be aware the user was ever there; that's tracking.
You could make the extended argument that overcorrelation of data for advertising is tracking in a sense, as this would cover intra-site tracking (e.g. a shopping site knowing you're pregnant before you know yourself.) This is a little more nebulous to define, as it's hard to define who it benefits If your phone launcher suggests an app, or Uber suggests a location, that's because it wants to save time. But if a shopping site suggests a product, that's advertising, and should be given explicit consent.
- ggggtez 6y ago> If you want to identify an anonymous counter, or keep depersonalised logs, or IP logs for security, that's fine; it can't identify the user. (Maybe IP logs could) Some laypeople would disagree. That's what it means to be "nebulous". A term like "tracking" needs to be defined in technical/legal language. You can't simply ask a random sample of the entire world's population and expect to get a consistent answer about what should be allowed and what should not.
- TheCoelacanth 6y agoThere is no such need. Plenty of laws are based on what a "reasonable person"[1] would believe rather than based on an objective standard. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_person https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_person
- afiori 6y agothe gdpr managed to do that. the solution is to focus on user experience and privacy not technical details as counters or ip addresses
- d0gbread 6y agoBy your definition Google Analytics is not tracking because they disallow PII.
- ehsankia 6y ago> when there's data collected without a legitimate purpose for doing so Who gets to decide what's legitimate? Most people would agree that detecting and fixing crashes is a legitimate usecase, but most of HN is probably staunchly against Windows telemetry.