- From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <joe@cdt.org>
- Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:13:33 -0400
- To: Shane Wiley <wileys@yahoo-inc.com>
- CC: Walter van Holst <walter.van.holst@xs4all.nl>, "public-tracking@w3.org" <public-tracking@w3.org>
On 11/2/12 11:53 AM, Shane Wiley wrote: > > While you may personally believe in your definition of privacy as a fundamental human right, the force of law and generally accepted practices in society may not perfectly align with your vision (one of the reasons your participate in these forums would be my assumption). So while it's your personal perspective, we're equally interested to understand "harms" from others in the group and how these equate to a real-world impact (rather than an impact on your perception of a human right). I don't disagree with your position but rather I hope we can document harms outside of that singular perception. Even from a US perspective, I don't think "harms" is quite right. It's more about effective avenues for consumer choice. What motivates me to want a good DNT spec is that consumers seem to not understand what data collection is going on, they feel particularly negative about this collection but they also express a desire to have some benefits of targeting, behavioral or not. (OMG, if you've watched the Weather Channel in the US lately, someone really needs to explain to them the concept of frequency capping (which may be irrelevant for niche broadcast media)... I would pay money to not see a few specific Nationwide Insurance ads for a very long time.) The fact is that users in web interactions emit tons of signals that they aren't aware of, and probably couldn't be made to understand and be aware of (much less care about) without significant effort. There is not much of a "What if DNT breaks down?" case to be made for users/consumers... while I can teach users how to use certain kinds of plugins and such to limit what they emit, there are increasingly clever methods of browser fingerprinting and even microfingerprinting (e.g., using characteristics of computation to identify a device, browser instance, etc.). So a useful and robust DNT mechanism with an exception dialog that parties can use to begin the conversation of "how this benefits you" seems crucial. The only other ways to do these things seem particularly extreme, at least for the US (legislation, regulation, boycotting web interactions, only using TorBrowser, etc.). best, Joe -- Joseph Lorenzo Hall Senior Staff Technologist Center for Democracy & Technology 1634 I ST NW STE 1100 Washington DC 20006-4011 (p) 202-407-8825 (f) 202-637-0968 joe@cdt.org
Received on Friday, 2 November 2012 16:14:02 UTC