4 ms·

I don't think there is any way to stop people from tracking you. Technically speaking, you can pretty much always be tracked. Even if you eliminated all third p

I don't think there is any way to stop people from tracking you. Technically speaking, you can pretty much always be tracked. Even if you eliminated all third party requests you could still be tracked. Downloads, logins, queries, etc all can be tracked. Virtually all software now has the "continuously upgrade to the latest version" bullshit so you are tracked every time you open the app. Even if you turn it off, they stop the app from working until you upgrade, so they force you to be tracked. I think the only solution is to make it law that you can't track anyone for any reason without their consent, and can't sell consensual tracking data without an additional consent agreement. It would be a huge blow to the advertising industry, so it will never be made law, but it's the only thing that would work.

slashdev 6mo ago
It’s already a law in Europe. GDPR and ePrivacy. You have to get consent from the user. Having worked for European companies, they take it seriously.
- ezfe 6mo ago
  The assumption that telemetry is not allowed by GDPR is flawed https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-26/ https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-26/
  - xigoi 6mo ago
    Anonymous telemetry is allowed – and I don’t have a problem with that.
    - 0xbadcafebee 6mo ago
      Unfortunately there's no such thing as anonymous telemetry. There are multiple techniques to re-identify scrubbed data, and some [seemingly innocuous] data is inherently identifying. https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/24/researchers-spotlight-the-lie-of-anonymous-data/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/24/researchers-spotlight-the-... | https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/11/debunking-myth-anonymous-data https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/11/debunking-myth-anonymo...
      - slashdev 6mo ago
        I disagree with your premise (I’ve worked on anonymous telemetry and it can be done well.) Not every company will do it well. Simpleanalytics.com seems to be one of the better ones. But it’s still way better than the alternatives which don’t even try to be anonymous.
pizzly 6mo ago
Also every time you install a program Microsoft, Apple and Google knows depending on the device. For your safety of course. The tracking is so pervasive and the majority of people do not care.

slashdev 6mo ago

It’s already a law in Europe. GDPR and ePrivacy. You have to get consent from the user. Having worked for European companies, they take it seriously.

ezfe 6mo ago
The assumption that telemetry is not allowed by GDPR is flawed https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-26/ https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-26/
- xigoi 6mo ago
  Anonymous telemetry is allowed – and I don’t have a problem with that.
  - 0xbadcafebee 6mo ago
    Unfortunately there's no such thing as anonymous telemetry. There are multiple techniques to re-identify scrubbed data, and some [seemingly innocuous] data is inherently identifying. https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/24/researchers-spotlight-the-lie-of-anonymous-data/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/24/researchers-spotlight-the-... | https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/11/debunking-myth-anonymous-data https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/11/debunking-myth-anonymo...
    - slashdev 6mo ago
      I disagree with your premise (I’ve worked on anonymous telemetry and it can be done well.) Not every company will do it well. Simpleanalytics.com seems to be one of the better ones. But it’s still way better than the alternatives which don’t even try to be anonymous.

pizzly 6mo ago

Also every time you install a program Microsoft, Apple and Google knows depending on the device. For your safety of course. The tracking is so pervasive and the majority of people do not care.