5 ms·

It's odious because they refuse to remove info about you if you ask them to. There is no legal obligation to, but most people believe that they should respond

by veyron 15y ago

It's odious because they refuse to remove info about you if you ask them to. There is no legal obligation to, but most people believe that they should respond to user requests

sp332 15y ago
1. It is not a user request, because you are not a user. The real users want your data. So they have it. 2. It's not personal information. It's your twitter handle and some info about your "network" that anyone can get from the Twitter API.
- eropple 15y ago
  Is my name on it? Yes? Then it's personal information, and those "real users" can go screw.
  - MartinCron 15y ago
    A phrase that I read here a while ago has stuck with me: "There's no way for you to opt-out of people talking about you on the Internet". Klout is just a (lame) algorithm talking about you on the Internet.
    - Confusion 15y ago
      There is a way to opt-out of people aggregating and making available informstion about you. Especially in Europe.
      - MartinCron 15y ago
        I don't know if the European privacy laws would apply to freely offered public information such as the stuff a person has on their public twitter profile. I always assumed it was for things like personally identifiable data that you gather through other means (e.g. a user signs up on your site directly). The idea of people having an expectation of privacy in a broadcast medium feels preposterous to me.
  - spooneybarger 15y ago
    If you don't want people talking about you on the internet, don't get on the internet and do things that are publicly connected to your name. This isn't specific to the internet. This is how the meat world works.
    - eropple 15y ago
      Klout is not "people." Klout is an incredibly obnoxious service that scrapes Twitter for information. (Topsy is another one.) People who want to be validated by their terrible little company may choose to do so. I do not, and any halfway reputable company would honor the request to be removed from their listings. The bigger problem, of course, is that they assert that I "[am] on Klout," when I damned well am not. A page that they have scraped from services that actually provide meaningful value has information about me on it, but I am not "on" their site in any meaningful way. They co-opt my online presence (not that it's worth much) to attempt to drive my acquaintances to use their service, when their service isn't even one I use. But, y'know. Ignoring the people whose data you're scraping and lying about their use of your service is just real ingenious hustling, or...something. I've lost track of the various ways people excuse terrible behavior like this from trendy companies.
      - danparsonson 15y ago
        Be that as it may, there's only one person responsible for the fact that your information is being used in this way: you. If you left all your possessions in the middle of the nearest town, would it surprise you if they were stolen? Of course we want to live in a world where that doesn't happen but the reality is that we don't. If you don't want people to abuse your personal information, don't make your personal information public.
        eropple 15y ago
        That ranks highly among the more perverse cases of refusal to blame the people actually doing wrong that I've ever seen. How about some blame for the douchebags actually doing something wrong? It bears no resemblance whatsoever to "don't leave your things unattended"; in this profession it is essentially impossible not to have an online presence of some significance and that does not mean that some two-bit rectum of a startup has the right to claim that I am "on" their little website (clearly and dishonestly intimating that I am using it). You are not entitled to use my information to push your service unless I agree to allow you to do so (for example, by virtue of using your service). This just isn't that complex.
  - tobtoh 15y ago
    Hardly. If you publish a book and someone publishes figures on how many books have been sold, or how many people have mentioned your book in reviews - that's not personal information. I don't see Klout as being any different. (mind you I agree that Klout metrics are completely meaningless - but that's a separate point)
  - sp332 15y ago
    Is your name on it? I thought it only pulled info from your twitter page, unless your Facebook friends gave it access to their friends list. In which case it's information from their users and not really information they harvested from you.
  - william42 15y ago
    Berlusconi thinks the same thing.
deleted 15y ago
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by veyron 15y ago

It's odious because they refuse to remove info about you if you ask them to. There is no legal obligation to, but most people believe that they should respond to user requests

sp332 15y ago

1. It is not a user request, because you are not a user. The real users want your data. So they have it. 2. It's not personal information. It's your twitter handle and some info about your "network" that anyone can get from the Twitter API.

eropple 15y ago
Is my name on it? Yes? Then it's personal information, and those "real users" can go screw.
- MartinCron 15y ago
  A phrase that I read here a while ago has stuck with me: "There's no way for you to opt-out of people talking about you on the Internet". Klout is just a (lame) algorithm talking about you on the Internet.
  - Confusion 15y ago
    There is a way to opt-out of people aggregating and making available informstion about you. Especially in Europe.
    - MartinCron 15y ago
      I don't know if the European privacy laws would apply to freely offered public information such as the stuff a person has on their public twitter profile. I always assumed it was for things like personally identifiable data that you gather through other means (e.g. a user signs up on your site directly). The idea of people having an expectation of privacy in a broadcast medium feels preposterous to me.
- spooneybarger 15y ago
  If you don't want people talking about you on the internet, don't get on the internet and do things that are publicly connected to your name. This isn't specific to the internet. This is how the meat world works.
  - eropple 15y ago
    Klout is not "people." Klout is an incredibly obnoxious service that scrapes Twitter for information. (Topsy is another one.) People who want to be validated by their terrible little company may choose to do so. I do not, and any halfway reputable company would honor the request to be removed from their listings. The bigger problem, of course, is that they assert that I "[am] on Klout," when I damned well am not. A page that they have scraped from services that actually provide meaningful value has information about me on it, but I am not "on" their site in any meaningful way. They co-opt my online presence (not that it's worth much) to attempt to drive my acquaintances to use their service, when their service isn't even one I use. But, y'know. Ignoring the people whose data you're scraping and lying about their use of your service is just real ingenious hustling, or...something. I've lost track of the various ways people excuse terrible behavior like this from trendy companies.
    - danparsonson 15y ago
      Be that as it may, there's only one person responsible for the fact that your information is being used in this way: you. If you left all your possessions in the middle of the nearest town, would it surprise you if they were stolen? Of course we want to live in a world where that doesn't happen but the reality is that we don't. If you don't want people to abuse your personal information, don't make your personal information public.
      - eropple 15y ago
        That ranks highly among the more perverse cases of refusal to blame the people actually doing wrong that I've ever seen. How about some blame for the douchebags actually doing something wrong? It bears no resemblance whatsoever to "don't leave your things unattended"; in this profession it is essentially impossible not to have an online presence of some significance and that does not mean that some two-bit rectum of a startup has the right to claim that I am "on" their little website (clearly and dishonestly intimating that I am using it). You are not entitled to use my information to push your service unless I agree to allow you to do so (for example, by virtue of using your service). This just isn't that complex.
- tobtoh 15y ago
  Hardly. If you publish a book and someone publishes figures on how many books have been sold, or how many people have mentioned your book in reviews - that's not personal information. I don't see Klout as being any different. (mind you I agree that Klout metrics are completely meaningless - but that's a separate point)
- sp332 15y ago
  Is your name on it? I thought it only pulled info from your twitter page, unless your Facebook friends gave it access to their friends list. In which case it's information from their users and not really information they harvested from you.
- william42 15y ago
  Berlusconi thinks the same thing.

deleted 15y ago

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