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from the next-up-is-the-unicorns-pooping-skittles-act dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Search engine and consumer privacy advocate DuckDuckGo has announced the "Do-Not-Track Act of 2019," a piece of draft legislation that would legally require sites to honor users' tracking preferences.
[...]If the act picks up steam and passes into law, sites would be required to cease certain user tracking methods, which means less data available to inform marketing and advertising campaigns.
The impact could also cascade into platforms that leverage consumer data, possibly making them less effective. For example, one of the advantages of advertising on a platform like Google or Facebook is the ability to target audiences. If a user enables DNT, the ads displayed to them when on browsing[sic] those websites won't be informed by their external browsing history.
[Ed Note: By proposed they mean "That's why we're announcing draft legislation that can serve as a starting point for legislators in America and beyond. "]
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 08 2019, @05:23PM (1 child)
Those two positions are not mutually exclusive. It is possible for them to believe in privacy and also start a privacy business.
You should present some evidence for your claim that they don't actually care about privacy instead of just stating it as a fact.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Thursday May 09 2019, @03:44AM
DuckDuckGo's founder Gabriel Weinberg previously founded the Names Database, whose sole purpose was collecting user data and selling that data for profit.
Is it possible Gabriel Weinberg had a revelation and now believes in privacy? Perhaps.
But if I were him, I would have shouted this from the rooftops. In the interest of transparency, I would have disclosed that I previously gathered and sold user data for profit, but now I truly believe in privacy and will be completely transparent with how DuckDuckGo handles user data.
Has DuckDuckGo reported about this damning connection? Nope. In fact, unless you know exactly what to search for, you probably wouldn't even find this connection between DDG, Gabriel Weinberg, and the Names Database. I suspect that Gabriel Weinberg sent friendly takedown notices to any articles reporting on this connection.
Is any of this clear evidence? No, but I don't trust DDG at all.
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