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EFF warns of 'one-way mirror' of web surveillance by tech giants - led by Google
As the sacred shopping season gets underway, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has issued a report detailing the privacy cost of surveillance-based commerce.
Issued on the Monday after the US observance of Thanksgiving, a day so known for online shopping that marketers branded the event with its own commerce-promoting moniker, "Behind the One-Way Mirror" explores the technology of corporate data gathering, specifically third-party tracking. That's when websites and applications include code that enables entities other than the website or app publisher to gather data about those interacting with the software.
"The purpose of this paper is to demystify tracking by focusing on the fundamentals of how and why it works and explain the scope of the problem," said Bennett Cyphers, EFF staff technologist and report author, in a statement.
"We hope the report will educate and mobilize journalists, policy makers, and concerned consumers to find ways to disrupt the status quo and better protect our privacy."
The problem, as the EFF sees it, is such data tends to be collected surreptitiously, without meaningful consent.
"Most third-party data collection in the US is unregulated," said Cyphers. "The first step in fixing the problem is to shine a light, as this report does, on the invasive third-party tracking that, online and offline, has lurked for too long in the shadows."
[...] Asked why the EFF is revisiting this topic now after years of minimal progress, Cyphers in an email said, "Never before has so much tracking power been concentrated in the hands of so few companies. GAFT [Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter] have more data from more places that they can tie to single identities."
Cyphers is hopeful that government officials around the world may be ready, finally, to support substantive privacy rules.
"There is real momentum behind privacy legislation, both in the US and abroad, and we want to make sure lawmakers know what and how to regulate," he said.
"The tracking industry is huge and convoluted, and you can easily make rules that don't reflect the way things really work, or that play right into the hands of the biggest actors. We're trying to say, 'This problem is big, and complicated, and subtle, but it's not intractable.' We really don't want to waste the opportunity to score meaningful wins for privacy."
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Tuesday December 03 2019, @12:29PM (6 children)
bookface, amazon, netflix, scroogle
that group of 4 has the lion's share of trackers.
tracked by those? then you've been FANGED!
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday December 03 2019, @01:14PM
Remember - Friendface is a virus.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday December 03 2019, @02:03PM (2 children)
None of them are FANG/GAFT.
What's the problem?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Barenflimski on Tuesday December 03 2019, @04:41PM
Whats the problem?
I guess if this is just about you, we are all good.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @06:25PM
Really? [eff.org]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday December 03 2019, @05:47PM (1 child)
What do you have against Netflix? Yes, they know what you've watched. I've yet to see any indication that I should be afraid that Netflix knows what I like to watch. You going to use an online video service, you bet they know what you've watched. Do you also, use a credit card or debit card when purchasing things at Wal-Mart? Guess what, they know what you've bought. At a certain point, there's too much paranoia.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gault.Drakkor on Tuesday December 03 2019, @09:30PM
If I am dealing with Netflix, I reasonably would expect them to track my movie consumption with expectation of better service.
What is dubious is when netflix starts data mining for things like what is my favorite snack foods, what is my sleep/work schedule etc.
Too put it more human terms: Does that neighbor who also attends that club that you go to every week need to know your preferences on food, sleep, sex, travel, computers, work schedule, friends, what your friends know about you, family, families financial status and so on? With that neighbor, you control to a large degree what information is shared.
A line needs to be drawn and we should have some significant control on where that line is. Power imbalances do not make for fair negotiation, which means we have little to no control. FANG/GAFT parties are not negotiating. They are taking what they want, when they want, how they want.
In my opinion broad data collection is effectively committing theft and or criminal harassment (stalking) on a grand scale.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @02:40PM
Historically, this seems a recurring question, There ought to be a list.
So, what's the failure mode?
There is a theory in political science that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
With pesky humans, there are always some bad actors, and absolute power draws them like a moth to a flame.
But there are few bad actors, why worry?
It only takes one, or a confederation of a few to overwhelm the many.
Once the lights are turned out, its hard to find the switch to turn them back on.
This is just a theory, why should we worry?
Technically, in science, everything is still a theory no matter how many times it has been seen to work.
This makes gravity a theory even though in normal life we take it to be a fact.
This part of human nature seems well proven.
Shouldn't consenting adults be able to give away their privacy?
Only to the extent that it does not take out the rights of others.
Is this a threat to the Constitution?
It is an end run around the goals of separation of powers.
Anyone with a duty to preserve and defend should be concerned.
What else should be on this list?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 04 2019, @01:31AM (1 child)
Let's look over EFF's site for the two biggest internet freedom cases of the decade:
If you have complained to the EFF about government-directed online censorship, they have put your name on a blacklist which they have shared with the same big tech companies that they are pretending to complain about. The EFF may have had people call up your boss to try to get you fired. [archive.is] Find someone else to donate to.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 05 2019, @04:01AM
Arrant nonsense, your links don't point to anything of the sort.