kestasjk wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 10:31 pm
Mmmm.. Focusing on cookies I can see how people might want to not have Google Analytics or other advertisers track them, but having every website make you accept cookies is a really backwards way to accomplish that.
You are right that it isn't covering every scenario...but it is a start. And for the average user that doesn't clear cookies periodically it really shouldn't be a big deal. They should only see this once per website.
What you're doing by adding a VPN to your phone, staying secure and alert etc; that seems like the right way to protect your privacy and security.
Actual bad actors aren't going to give you a please-can-I-abuse-you banner; they're too small to sue. They'll keep on trying to hijack your browser, add malware / extensions, steal your CC info, ransom your documents, etc..
Most people don't know what a VPN can potentially help protect you from. It won't protect you from tracking by websites. It only provides protection against MITM tracking (e.g. your ISP...or dodgy coffee shop wifi). Even if you don't screw it up (e.g. leaking NDS queries), you need to worry whether your VPN provider is compromised or is dodgy. Remember all the people hawking NordVPN?:
https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/21/nordv ... as-hacked/
I am not sure if the "but there are even worse guys on the internet!!" is a convincing argument for us to ignore the data hoarders we deal with every day.
Sites like Google/Facebook/etc will still collect as much depersonalized data as possible and use what you're searching for to provide relevant ads. Sites like this will still collect data to monitor trends, catch cheaters, develop bots, calculate whether a player is reliable or not, etc. We really don't collect info because we want to spy on you.
Ironically if web-hosted information about you actually is used to spy on you it will be because a government agency either demanded it or intercepted it.
Depersonalized data??? LOL. Their goal is to gather as much PII as possible about you. They are big enough that they may not share the personalized data (e.g. companies may say they want to run ads against a specific anonymized profile...or may upload PII about you and say run ads against similar people)...but that doesn't mean they aren't trying to gather as much as possible about you.
You are right that there are a lot of legitimate reasons to be able to gather data. I am a developer myself so I understand this. This isn't an easy problem.
You bring up a good point. Given that companies are retaining so much information on individuals, this makes it much easier for current and future governments to use it too. But this is yet another argument why we should have more control of our data...so that it can't be potentially be used against us by governments (or pilfered by other bad guys) in the future.
I'm not an anti-government zealot, I think some parts of the GDPR are sensible, and I understand the need for regulation of a new industry.. but I do think if you are concerned about your privacy online being compromised by cookies you should set your browser to restrict them.
In a world where cookies are outlawed only outlaws will use cookies. (And come on .. it's a piece of text that we ask your browser to repeat on subsequent requests, it's not a GPS tracking device..)
I will mention AGAIN that I am already taking all sorts of counter-measures to reduce the amount of info gothered...but I do know enough about how tracking technology is evolving that it is a losing battle.
I think you are living in the past a bit with your "oh, just configure your browser and call it a day". Even if that provided you complete protection while using the browser (which it won't) less and less internet interaction is being done using traditional web browsers. We have mobile phones, we have smart TVs and attached devices, "smart devices" in the home like nest thermostats and cameras and assistants, OSs like Windows where you have no control of what information is sent home etc.. You can of course try to setup additional countermeasures (e.g. using a "pi hole" for your dns resolver to try to filter out unnecessary tracking)...but again just relying on technical countermeasures is a losing battle.
Companies like Google also go out of their way to try to stop you from taking countermeasures (e.g. apps which suggest they can help you block tracking/ads are banned from the app store)...and they sell the propaganda that anything not installed from the app store is by definition "unsafe" which is of course nonsense. But ask the average person and they are convinced of this now. Even many techies will regurgitate this now too.
Again, you are making the "since there may be someone else sketchy on the internet" we should ignore the privacy violations right in front of us. You are right that cookies aren't magic. I have used them myself (mostly to keep track of active sessions). On their own they really doesn't do much. But the power of the internet not from individual cookies but from being able to aggregate data from multiple sources over a long period of time...which cookies and other tracking technology feed into.