Comment by jklinger410 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jklinger410 | Hacker News Reader

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> oh no! our tracking script has been blocked! how can we work around the visibly-expressed intent of the end users and give them something that does not serve them and which they have demonstrated they don’t want?

This idea that website owners are not allowed to see what people are doing on their website, as if it's some egregious invasion of privacy, is so tiresome. It's akin to having security cameras, or matching inventory and transaction details to credit card/member information, which happens every time you purchase anything at a store in real life.

Yet this piece of javascript that turns your web session into an anonymized set of numbers is some kind of breaking point? When will the internet nerd community grow out of this phase?

Cameras don't have to be hooked up to my person in order to work. Transaction and card details are only exchanged when an actual transaction is processed, which I must do knowingly and thus consent to (pick up item, bring to counter, pay)

In contrast, the "virtual camera" equivalent involves using my computer's resources, and every move I make on the website is considered a transaction even if no purchase is made. All this data is collected and used most often without the user's knowledge!

The real life equivalent is more like a strip search before entering the store, and a pat down every time you enter a new store department along with a paragraph from you about your intents in this area of the store, and your signature on the bottom.

I'd say that's pretty tiresome for the user.

> The real life equivalent is more like a strip search before entering the store, and a pat down every time you enter a new store department along with a paragraph from you about your intents in this area of the store, and your signature on the bottom.

how is it like this at all? You claim the data is collected without user knowledge, so how could it be compared to such invasive procedures? The camera metaphor is far more apt, other than the resource usage (which is negligible in most cases, let's be real)

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