As reported by CBC's Liz Thompson here
The House of Commons will review all MP websites after an investigation by CBC News revealed that dozens of them have trackers that can be used to target advertising to people who have visited the sites.
... at least 99 had one or more trackers used to target advertising.
In a follow-up announcement, all MPs have now had links from the Canadian House of Commons website to their websites cut for the duration of the election.
The House of Commons has cut its links to the websites of all 334 outgoing members of Parliament after it discovered the sites of some MPs were being used to campaign for re-election.
A review by CBC News late Wednesday found that 87% of the websites for NDP MPs were automatically redirecting to the NDP.ca campaign site or MP re-election campaign sites with donation buttons.
It is illegal to use any government resources to get yourself (re-)elected in Canada. That includes web sites hosted by the House of Commons for sitting MPs.
My bet is that most MPs probably don't know that all those social media sharing icons are themselves trackers.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @02:26PM (9 children)
What's the big deal?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @02:28PM (1 child)
Maple syrup is the big deal [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @02:44PM
Well, we certainly don't want MP's tracking more legitimate thieves!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Sunday September 15 2019, @09:38PM (5 children)
Without social media tracking, Trump wouldn't be president and the UK wouldn't be in the process of disintegration into a separate Scotland and Northern Ireland splitting from the UK.
More than enough concern, especially since there's no reason to run trackers - the individual sites can run stand-alone analytics software on their own log files. They don't need hyper accurate profiling of their visitor - but Google and Facebook do. So it only benefits the surveillance capitalists.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @11:13PM (2 children)
While it is indeed a very big deal, to see data used in such ways, you're making assertions that are not easily verifiable -- nor provable.
We don't know if Putin's attempts indeed changed the results. Nor do we know that it caused Brexit. To speak of these things as fact, when they are conjecture, is just plain wrong, and something that can cause an actual *weakening* of support for greater laws against such uses of data.
People will ask for valid, verifiable, well researched proof that real votes were 100% swayed by these things, and ONLY these things. A lack of verifiable proof will therefore weaken the case.
Speak truthfully. Speak of how it *can* cause issues, how it *may* have caused issues, and how it is a method being employed to sway elections. This is enough. Making up statements like it DID change an election, when we can't verify it, is wrong.
Also, I used to get its and it's wrong from time to time too. Here's how to keep them straight.
Noun
he hes (became)-> his
her -> hers
it -> its
It is in the same class as he or her, as a non-gender specific pronoun. EG "Who is it", when the door bell is ringing...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 16 2019, @03:20AM (1 child)
Dear AC: I wish you were part of my RL communities. Please keep posting like this. This is the gold that makes it worth the effort to filter out the drivel-noise of bad actors.
Also thank you for your patience with BH. I hope she reads your comment. She doesn't seem to be interested in anything beyond pumping up her post score/karma/social credit, but maybe she can be course-corrected so those are in parallel with this community's best interests.
I too have been frustrated by her (and others, but she's egregious) watering down the conversation with conclusions that aren't neccessarily wrong but arguments which just don't hold, or priors which are problematic. Thank you for your patience and commitment to truth.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Monday September 16 2019, @05:50PM
I would take a centrist view instead of being solidly on the left. I'd be figuratively fellating Justin Trudeau instead of calling him out for being a corrupt liar, and a phoney feminist of convenience (and a really shitty negotiator).
A large part of Canada's domestic problems relate to 3 gaffes:
His blatant and repeated attempts to have criminal bribery charges set aside against SNC-Lavalin
His attempts to blame the justice minister, a woman, for not quietly going along with it
His lying on the public stage to China that Canada's justice system is not open to public meddling by politicians over the extradition of a Huiwei executive to the US while he was trying to do exactly that - manipulate the justice system.
He's currently blocking the rcmp from further criminal investigation, something that should have been unthinkable. Of course, this plays well in Quebec, which has a long history of corruption. According to the polls Quebec voters are lapping it up. Problem is, they don't like being called corrupt, same as they don't like when people point out the racist bill 21 Quebec passed.
Racism and corruption. Canada should be ashamed.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 16 2019, @03:05AM (1 child)
What?
You are concerned about a thing that is not under discussion here.
It's not whether MPs can have tracking pixels - they can! - it's about whether or not they can serve them from their official websites which represent the government which they cannot.
Your three paragraphs didn't discuss the issue at hand at all. It has nothing to do with effectiveness. It has nothing to do with whether or not social media impacts elections. It has everything to do with government websites have laws making it illegal to personally profit by them and politicians breaking (possibly unwittingly) those laws.
Your points may or not be true but they're completely irrelevant to this issue.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Monday September 16 2019, @05:18PM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 16 2019, @03:27PM
This also affects Americans. From the southernmost part of the US (Chiapas) to the northernmost part of the US (Nanavut).
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.