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General discussionWould you kindly stop with this data-mining crap?(102 posts)(102 posts)
(102 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted May 17, 2016
When GOG first came out, it was awesome. Simple store front, no bloat, no trackers. Just local login and that's it.

Then came google, facebook, twitter, and whatnot trackers. Because it's not like we are already paying for the service, all UR data R belong to US because monetization. Or whatever.

Now I can't even bloody see the bloody images on the bloody page without allowing Amazon network (cloudnet)?

W.T.A.F.?

Not. Happy.

As much as I hate Steam, at least they have the decency not to use their storefront to spoon-feed all the big-name data miner names.

Edit: Offending script removed on 6/6/16. Thank you, GOG!
Post edited June 07, 2016 by Lukaszmik
Posted May 17, 2016
What?
Posted May 17, 2016
There are tools to hide you from data mining. I suggest you look into it instead of asking a for-profit company to give up an easy revenue stream.
Posted May 17, 2016
high rated
I've wrapped my computer in tin-foil. I'm not letting anything track my Internet!
Posted May 17, 2016
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chadjenofsky: I've wrapped my computer in tin-foil. I'm not letting anything track my Internet!
Too late. Mark Zuckerberg already poured chemtrails into your coffee.
Posted May 17, 2016
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chadjenofsky: I've wrapped my computer in tin-foil. I'm not letting anything track my Internet!
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Mr.Caine: Too late. Mark Zuckerberg already poured chemtrails into your coffee.
Sprinkle some fluorine in, then. It'll bind with the chemtrails and leave a heavy pool of autism and/or cancer at the bottom of the cup.
Posted May 17, 2016
low rated
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Lukaszmik: When GOG first came out, it was awesome. Simple store front, no bloat, no trackers. Just local login and that's it.

Then came google, facebook, twitter, and whatnot trackers. Because it's not like we are already paying for the service, all UR data R belong to US because monetization. Or whatever.

Now I can't even bloody see the bloody images on the bloody page without allowing Amazon network (cloudnet)?

W.T.A.F.?

Not. Happy.

As much as I hate Steam, at least they have the decency not to use their storefront to spoon-feed all the big-name data miner names.
Tinfoil hat much?

The evil-amazon-data-mining-cloud-of-doom that got you all scared, is a simple JS library for evaluating site performance. The reason it's loaded from a server other than GOG's is because doing an HTTP request like that asynchronously is faster.

It doesn't collect ANYTHING about you! How would you know that? Simple. Just examine the bloody library — it's open source.
Post edited May 17, 2016 by Alaric.us
Posted May 17, 2016
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chadjenofsky: I've wrapped my computer in tin-foil. I'm not letting anything track my Internet!
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Mr.Caine: Too late. Mark Zuckerberg already poured chemtrails into your coffee.
Weirdly reminds me.... Just when Facebook started using facial recognition, I remember looking at a friend's page. He keeps his hair nearly shaved off. Right to the side of it was a big advert for Mr. Clean with the guy himself! Can't tell me computer's don't have a sense of humor!
Posted May 17, 2016
Ah lol, he's talking about cloudfront.net in NoScript.
Posted May 17, 2016
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Nirth: There are tools to hide you from data mining. I suggest you look into it instead of asking a for-profit company to give up an easy revenue stream.
If you used them you would know that since the most recent website overhaul (about two or three days ago), you cannot even log in unless you allow Amazon's cloudfront.net access.

The main point is that the for-profit company is already making money on my purchases. While it is obvious a lot of other people are indifferent to the minute details of their lives being sold around without any notification, I happen to object to it. It is MY life, regardless of how much of a low-hanging and VERY profitable (just ask Google of Facebook) fruit it is.

The whole discussion of the utterly terrifying precedent this sets for the future of our society completely aside.

I'm going to ignore the rest of the "replies" since there is little substance to them aside from childish attempts at insults.
Post edited May 17, 2016 by Lukaszmik
Posted May 17, 2016
low rated
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Nirth: There are tools to hide you from data mining. I suggest you look into it instead of asking a for-profit company to give up an easy revenue stream.
avatar
Lukaszmik: If you used them you would know that since the most recent website overhaul (about two or three days ago), you cannot even log in unless you allow Amazon's cloudfront.net access.

The main point is that the for-profit company is already making money on my purchases. While it is obvious a lot of other people are indifferent to the minute details of their lives being sold around without any notification, I happen to object to it. It is MY life.

The whole discussion of the utterly terrifying precedent this sets for the future of our society completely aside.

I'm going to ignore the rest of the "replies" since there is little substance to them aside from childish attempts at insults.
They are very good at that here:)
Posted May 17, 2016
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Nirth: There are tools to hide you from data mining. I suggest you look into it instead of asking a for-profit company to give up an easy revenue stream.
avatar
Lukaszmik: If you used them you would know that since the most recent website overhaul (about two or three days ago), you cannot even log in unless you allow Amazon's cloudfront.net access.

The main point is that the for-profit company is already making money on my purchases. While it is obvious a lot of other people are indifferent to the minute details of their lives being sold around without any notification, I happen to object to it. It is MY life, regardless of how much of a low-hanging and VERY profitable (just ask Google of Facebook) fruit it is.

The whole discussion of the utterly terrifying precedent this sets for the future of our society completely aside.

I'm going to ignore the rest of the "replies" since there is little substance to them aside from childish attempts at insults.
I wasn't attempting an insult, nor am I indifferent. I seriously have no idea what cloudfront is, I never used Amazon for anything and I have no idea what this is about.
Posted May 17, 2016
low rated
avatar
Lukaszmik: If you used them you would know that since the most recent website overhaul (about two or three days ago), you cannot even log in unless you allow Amazon's cloudfront.net access.

The main point is that the for-profit company is already making money on my purchases. While it is obvious a lot of other people are indifferent to the minute details of their lives being sold around without any notification, I happen to object to it. It is MY life, regardless of how much of a low-hanging and VERY profitable (just ask Google of Facebook) fruit it is.

The whole discussion of the utterly terrifying precedent this sets for the future of our society completely aside.
insults.
This is the file you are talking about: https://d3tvtfb6518e3e.cloudfront.net/2/angular-opbeat.min.js

Let's explore what it is, shall we?

Hmm... it's called opbeat. I wonder what that is? Let's use the power of google, children!

Ah-ha! Found it! This mysterious file is provided by https://opbeat.com/

Why not inquire further? Let's read what the site says.

"Performance monitoring for developers. Server-side and client-side." Hmm, interesting.

But what if they are lying. What if they are really an evil corporation that wants to see your porn habits?

What to do, what to do? Oh, I know! Let's look at the source code! It's a bit hard to read though.

Ah, that's because it's minified to save bandwidth. We are in luck, though! The company provides a link to their github repository! Here it is: https://github.com/opbeat/bower-opbeat-angular/blob/master/angular-opbeat.js

Would you look at that! Easy to read code! And nothing in it that monitors our ... well, our anything really.

Glad we got that resolved!
Post edited May 17, 2016 by Alaric.us
Posted May 17, 2016
WE'RE ALL DOOOOOOMED!

D:
Posted May 17, 2016
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Glanced through the code, friend.

Frankly, a code of this complexity can do whatever it wants unless you are one of the rare professionals that read it like a child's book. Somehow I have my doubts on that.

Not only that, it's a monitoring software. Running client-side.

You think it can't parse uniquely identifying meta-data if somebody decides to use it? Heh.

Also, obligatory: https://panopticlick.eff.org in case anybody is curious just how easily it is to pin-point a specific end user.

Bottom line - unless I allow Amazon cloudnet access, I cannot log into GOG at all. Pretty shitty deal from my end, regardless of what GOG uses Amazon service for. Especially since I made a lot of purchases before this was introduced - and unlike the previous "beneficial" additions of Facebook et all tracking buttons, in this case I cannot block the offending element. Because the web site stops working.

Seeing how GOG page worked quite well when all it had was GOG-hosted content, I think my displeasure at the change should not be that difficult to understand.

Edit: By the by... this is the GOG privacy policy: https://www.gog.com/support/policies/gog_privacy_policy

Which I made strong objection to when it was introduced (right around the time Galaxy got pushed out), because what it contains translates, in legalese, "all UR data R belong to US."

There are no provisions that protect your information as long as GOG can prove it's not "personal information." And since even very pointedly uniquely identifying information (as in the browser aggregate data you can check via the eff.org site linked above) is not considered "personal information" even if it can very, very, oh so very much be used as unique identification in most cases, that's pretty much an open invitation to get rich on data mining.

And even if, for some miraculous reason, GOG decides to keep their data internal... well, there's always something like this: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/03/despite-privacy-policy-radioshack-customer-data-up-for-sale-in-auction/

So excuse me if the continuous invasion of my bloody privacy happens to offend me - especially coming from people I already pay for their service.

(Edited for some clarify)
Post edited May 17, 2016 by Lukaszmik
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionWould you kindly stop with this data-mining crap?(102 posts)(102 posts)
(102 posts)