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If the report "significantly distorts our technology and business practices," why are they making such significant changes to their technology and business prac

by jforman 15y ago

If the report "significantly distorts our technology and business practices," why are they making such significant changes to their technology and business practices as a result?

jedberg 15y ago
To assuage folks who don't understand technology and will assume they are guilty until they "make big changes".
- jforman 15y ago
  I understand technology, and I'm pretty skeezed out by their use of Etags... Also, if they truly think they're innocent, why wouldn't they just educate their userbase? Seems odd to make such drastic architectural changes just because of a perceptual problem.
  - dangrossman 15y ago
    Their userbase is not who's suing them.
  - danielharan 15y ago
    > why wouldn't they just educate their userbase? < If you were competing against better funded companies - one of which may be behind these lawsuits (hey, this is business) - how much time would you spend educating? Wouldn't you rather just be selling and making money?
    - gyardley 15y ago
      No need for conspiracy theories - other companies have nothing to do with it. One law firm in particular is behind this lawsuit. This type of thing is their bread and butter.
      - ericd 15y ago
        Which one?
  - jedberg 15y ago
    Ah, but it is all about perception. The same thing happened at reddit a few times. The mob decided someone was guilty, we investigated, found absolutely no wrongdoing. Told the community, they didn't care. They would only be happy with swift, visible action.
    - jforman 15y ago
      Comparing the relatively thoughtful discussion on this topic among the web development community to the reddit mob is not particularly fair or accurate.
      - jedberg 15y ago
        I would have to say you're naive for thinking the two are much different. Any group, no matter how civil and educated, can dislove pretty quickly into mob mentality.
        jforman 15y ago
        Your cynicism is not well borne out on this message board.
        ericd 15y ago
        This board is a very rare exception on the internet, and even it descends into its own form of lynch mobbery (with a more elevated tone than most lynch mobs).
- rsingel 15y ago
  Jeremy, sorry but you are mistaken. The report -- http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1898390 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1898390 -- was technically correct. In fact, it's KISSmetrics that's distorting what the report said. Shah writes "Mr. Soltani’s paper speculates that KISSmetrics tracks customers across websites based on his observation of a shared identifier on different customer websites." Soltani's paper and my story about it said nothing of the sort. Both point out that KISSmetrics technology gives a user the same unique ID on different sites, a technological choice that would allow its clients to compare their databases -- independent of KISSmetrics -- and share data about users. I find the recent blog post odd, because on Friday, Shah told me it was accurate and that the techniques were legal.
pbreit 15y ago
Ideally they'd be able to say "we messed up, we're making the necessary changes" but can't do that with a lawsuit pending. I don't see any good reasons why they can't simply use cookies and acknowledge that some folks will delete them.

by jforman 15y ago

If the report "significantly distorts our technology and business practices," why are they making such significant changes to their technology and business practices as a result?

jedberg 15y ago

To assuage folks who don't understand technology and will assume they are guilty until they "make big changes".

jforman 15y ago
I understand technology, and I'm pretty skeezed out by their use of Etags... Also, if they truly think they're innocent, why wouldn't they just educate their userbase? Seems odd to make such drastic architectural changes just because of a perceptual problem.
- dangrossman 15y ago
  Their userbase is not who's suing them.
- danielharan 15y ago
  > why wouldn't they just educate their userbase? < If you were competing against better funded companies - one of which may be behind these lawsuits (hey, this is business) - how much time would you spend educating? Wouldn't you rather just be selling and making money?
  - gyardley 15y ago
    No need for conspiracy theories - other companies have nothing to do with it. One law firm in particular is behind this lawsuit. This type of thing is their bread and butter.
    - ericd 15y ago
      Which one?
- jedberg 15y ago
  Ah, but it is all about perception. The same thing happened at reddit a few times. The mob decided someone was guilty, we investigated, found absolutely no wrongdoing. Told the community, they didn't care. They would only be happy with swift, visible action.
  - jforman 15y ago
    Comparing the relatively thoughtful discussion on this topic among the web development community to the reddit mob is not particularly fair or accurate.
    - jedberg 15y ago
      I would have to say you're naive for thinking the two are much different. Any group, no matter how civil and educated, can dislove pretty quickly into mob mentality.
      - jforman 15y ago
        Your cynicism is not well borne out on this message board.
        ericd 15y ago
        This board is a very rare exception on the internet, and even it descends into its own form of lynch mobbery (with a more elevated tone than most lynch mobs).
rsingel 15y ago
Jeremy, sorry but you are mistaken. The report -- http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1898390 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1898390 -- was technically correct. In fact, it's KISSmetrics that's distorting what the report said. Shah writes "Mr. Soltani’s paper speculates that KISSmetrics tracks customers across websites based on his observation of a shared identifier on different customer websites." Soltani's paper and my story about it said nothing of the sort. Both point out that KISSmetrics technology gives a user the same unique ID on different sites, a technological choice that would allow its clients to compare their databases -- independent of KISSmetrics -- and share data about users. I find the recent blog post odd, because on Friday, Shah told me it was accurate and that the techniques were legal.

pbreit 15y ago

Ideally they'd be able to say "we messed up, we're making the necessary changes" but can't do that with a lawsuit pending. I don't see any good reasons why they can't simply use cookies and acknowledge that some folks will delete them.