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> If what they want isn’t in your app, they can’t do it and it won’t show up in your data. Excellent point. > but if it’s not entirely opt-in, I think it is e

> If what they want isn’t in your app, they can’t do it and it won’t show up in your data. Excellent point. > but if it’s not entirely opt-in, I think it is effectively spying no matter what you’re collecting, varying only along a dimension of invasiveness. Every web page visit is logged on the http server, and that's been the default since the mid 1990's. Is that spying?

nkrisc 6mo ago
In principle, yes, I believe it is a form of spying. Not particularly invasive nor harmful, but spying nonetheless. Logging every page visited is not a technical requirement of serving the requested resource.
- vlovich123 6mo ago
  > Logging every page visited is not a technical requirement of serving the requested resource. How will you know which page is having problems being served or is having performance problems?
  - nkrisc 6mo ago
    You won’t, but that’s not what was asked. Logging the requested resource is not a technical requirement of serving that resource.
    - vlovich123 6mo ago
      Depends how you define “technical requirement” but I’d say 404 for example is an indication of a failure to serve a given resource. If you don’t have logging you won’t know unless someone complains which means you’ll only catch the most visible issues. Same goes for performance - everywhere I’ve ever worked serving a resource was tightly coupled to “how fast can the user retrieve that resource”.
- DrScientist 6mo ago
  But it's just tracking something the server was asked to do - I'd say it's legitimate logging. If you buy something at the supermarket, the supermarket keeps a record of the transaction - it's part of the process. However if you try and link that to entities and build a pattern behaviour across multiple websites then I think you stray into spying. Also if the tin of beans I bought at the supermarket records audio at home and uploads to the cloud - that's spying.
account42 6mo ago
No, since GDPR logging for page views is not something you can do without thinking what metadata you store with it and for how long.

nkrisc 6mo ago

In principle, yes, I believe it is a form of spying. Not particularly invasive nor harmful, but spying nonetheless. Logging every page visited is not a technical requirement of serving the requested resource.

vlovich123 6mo ago
> Logging every page visited is not a technical requirement of serving the requested resource. How will you know which page is having problems being served or is having performance problems?
- nkrisc 6mo ago
  You won’t, but that’s not what was asked. Logging the requested resource is not a technical requirement of serving that resource.
  - vlovich123 6mo ago
    Depends how you define “technical requirement” but I’d say 404 for example is an indication of a failure to serve a given resource. If you don’t have logging you won’t know unless someone complains which means you’ll only catch the most visible issues. Same goes for performance - everywhere I’ve ever worked serving a resource was tightly coupled to “how fast can the user retrieve that resource”.
DrScientist 6mo ago
But it's just tracking something the server was asked to do - I'd say it's legitimate logging. If you buy something at the supermarket, the supermarket keeps a record of the transaction - it's part of the process. However if you try and link that to entities and build a pattern behaviour across multiple websites then I think you stray into spying. Also if the tin of beans I bought at the supermarket records audio at home and uploads to the cloud - that's spying.

account42 6mo ago

No, since GDPR logging for page views is not something you can do without thinking what metadata you store with it and for how long.