TL;DR: Reddit is removing the option to opt out of ad personalization, targeting ads based on user activity. Some specific ad categories can still be limited, but there’s no more opt-out option.

  • krimson@feddit.nl
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    1 year ago

    I have the feeling the whole internet is turning into shit rapidly. Youtube is crap, Reddit is crap, everything you use needs a cloud account, my doorbell is sending me notifications about a new product, wtf is up with that. I paid for that thing and now you send me ads? Pisses me off. This corporate greed is getting too much.

    • KlausVonLechland@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      There are upsides to it, like me spending considerably less time on the random internet surfing because my annoyance overshadows my dopamine kick.

      • biddy@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        Conversely, I’m so opposed to the enshitification that I’ve carefully tailored my internet usage to places that aren’t shit and have no prospect of becoming shit, like Lemmy. Since I don’t even have the motivation of not supporting an evil company, I’m more addicted that ever.

    • FiniteLooper@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It’s really accelerated in the past few years. It’s nearly impossible to just read an article or use any product without giving it some kind of information. Lots of people (myself included many times unfortunately) just accept this. I mean, what can be done? If you want or need to use the thing you almost have no choice. If you want to avoid information leaks or being tracked you have to do so much research and work just to find an option, and then hope they don’t get purchased by a company that will reverse it all. I hate it.

      • ono@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I mean, what can be done? If you want or need to use the thing you almost have no choice.

        We have to act collectively.

        1. Don’t buy products or use services that require personal info. Of course, this means being willing to make do without some things, at least until they’re convinced/forced to change or alternatives appear. In cases where the thing is a necessity, push back (clearly, articulately, and firmly) before sharing your info. Let them know that they’re losing goodwill by being nosy, and that you’ll stop buying from them as soon as you can.
        2. Look for products/services that respect our privacy, and support them when possible.
        3. Pass legislation that forbids needlessly collecting such info. Some regions (e.g. European Union, California) have already taken small steps in this direction. We need to take it further, everywhere.

        I think it might also be helpful to have some kind of (independently verified) privacy labeling program for products and services. It would ease some of the burden from consumers when shopping around, and could become an easy marketing tool for companies that want to attract customers.

        • dom@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Honestly, number 3 is the only thing that would have marginal impact. Consumers don’t have the time and energy to research every product to the depth required foe the first two.

          • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            And the vast majority of consumers don’t even understand what’s going on, and don’t care. Look at how many people happily download and use the TikTok app, despite evidence that it’s harvesting your biometric data and sending it to a government overseas. They don’t fucking care.

          • ono@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Consumers don’t have the time and energy to research every product to the depth required foe the first two.

            You don’t need to go on a research project to see the personal info fields in a sign-up form.

            For more complicated stuff, a labeling program would help.

            • dom@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              On some products, these steps occur after you’ve purchased and opened the product and are setting it up.

              • ono@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                1a. Exercise your right to return things that have invasive hidden requirements.

                (And this is another area where a labeling program would help.)

            • dan@upvote.au
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              1 year ago

              You don’t need to go on a research project to see the personal info fields in a sign-up form.

              That’s not the only way companies get data about you though. Some collect it through their app - the sites that try and force you to use the app instead of the site are usually the worst offenders. Others just buy data from data brokers like Acxiom, Experian, LiveRamp, etc. and correlate it with the details they have on you (phone number, email address, ad targeting ID, etc).

              Where possible, use sites instead of apps, since it limits the types of data that can be collected (as sites are highly sandboxed compared to apps). Good sites let you install them as PWAs for a more app-like feel.

              • ono@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                That’s not the only way companies get data about you though.

                Nobody said it was.

                • dan@upvote.au
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                  1 year ago

                  I was mostly replying to the top level comment about choosing companies/products that respect your privacy. It’s pretty much impossible to tell if a company cares about or respects your privacy just from the sign up form.

      • krimson@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        Yes it’s hard to deal with. I try to do my best to boycot companies that do this. Youtube, Reddit, Google search and chrome are things I don’t use anymore and the list keeps growing. My next doorbell will be a different brand but choices are limited ofcourse.

        On the other hand, there are more and more alternatives popping up lately, Mastodon, Lemmy, Peertube. This is a sign that people are getting tired of this shit. I hope this trend continues.

        • dan@upvote.au
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          1 year ago

          For a doorbell, get one that can work entirely locally, ideally that supports ONVIF for the video feed, and use it with Home Assistant.

          I don’t have a fancy doorbell, but I use Blue Iris, Home Assistant and Node-RED for my security cameras. Works well, including notifications when a person is detected, and everything is local. When I want to watch the cameras remotely, I connect to a VPN into my home.

            • dan@upvote.au
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              1 year ago

              I think Reolink make decent doorbells (even though their cameras aren’t the best) but I’ve never tried them myself so can’t make a personal recommendation for them.

      • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        And the big companies are intentionally breaking their services on clients that give any measure of control back to the users. That should be a blatant anti-trust suit, but they don’t care. Just the cost of doing business if for some reason one of the politicians they own actually takes any action against them.

    • explodicle@local106.com
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      1 year ago

      IMHO it’s cyclical.

      • Computers started out client server because of limited computing capacity
      • Then everybody got a PC and for a while, physical media were faster than downloads
      • Then we got oodles of bandwidth, so servers seemed practical again
      • Now servers are taking advantage of the trust we’ve placed in them
      • Next, we’ll all enjoy a brief P2P revolution. Hooray!
      • After that, homomorphic encryption will make servers seem appealing again
      • Even farther into the future, the attacks against that encryption will no longer be tolerable

      It will be decades more before humanity accepts the teachings of Richard Stallman.

    • 30p87@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Except it’s possible to work around it, with a minimal amount of knowledge, or by using alternatives.
      Reddit? Lemmy.
      Twitter? Mastodon.
      YouTube? Peertube. For youtube just use piped.video
      Ads? UBlock.

  • meseek #2982@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    They just went from we love you guys to we don’t even give a fuck bend over boy in like 6 months.

    Twitter has also shifted into a dystopian QQ wannabe.

    Meta has been a dumpster fire for a decade now.

    Tik Tok. heavy sigh

    This kinda seems like end of times.

    • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      if this is your version of the end of times, I suggest you take a look out your window at the burning hellscape of western north america and other locations around the globe. I also hope you’re not too attached to birds or polar bears.

      • bubblefizzpop@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        It’s almost like we can be upset about multiple things at one. Wow.

        Why are we playing these games of let’s come up with something worse so we can devalue what someone else is talking about? This isn’t a competition. That is such unnecessary behavior.

        • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
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          1 year ago

          How am I devaluing what they are saying by pointing out there are much, much, more serious signals of a looming apocalypse?

          It’s like worrying about the mosquito biting you in a room full of blood thirsty canibals.

          I realize I shifted off topic, but they were getting a bit dramatic with the end of times bit

          • bubblefizzpop@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            How is it dramatic when it’s all interconnected to begin with? People noticing a shift like that online might start to get involved in other ways as well if they start to feel more of the effect personally. It’s a good thing that people are noticing this stuff.

            Again it’s not a competition and people shouldn’t have to have their frustrations compared to something else, that is devaluing it. We are allowed to be upset about something and have that stand on its own without others chiming in and acting like it doesn’t matter because of something else so that they can act self important or more intelligent. It’s just old and tired.

            You seem to have an incredibly bad attitude and I wouldn’t be shocked if you were trying to start something, so I’m done here. Maybe try some empathy out for a change.

            • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
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              1 year ago

              I’m not trying to start anything, I just don’t follow your logic, and your comments seem like an over reaction.

              I’m happy to agree to disagree though, and won’t presue a conversation neither of us really wants to have.

              Hopefully you find other people on here that are more suited to your perspectives (I’m legitimately sorry we’re clashing). Lemmy is a great platform and I want you to enjoy it as much as I do

    • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      If it’s the end of the era of social media, I’m plenty ok with that. Shit’s been cancer for almost a decade now.

      • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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        1 year ago

        And may it usher in the era of antisocial media. The era where we all stop trying to impress each other, monetize each other, and just buy a thing and have it do the thing we bought it for, and not be bothered. Long may it reign.

        • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Lol that’s more like the end of American consumerism, and while I wholeheartedly agree, that’ll take a generation or two at least to decouple from American society. That shit’s been going strong here for over 100 years.

  • Sphere@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    Some of us remember there was a time when things like Reddit didn’t exist, and neither did Facebook, Twitter etc. Lots of people lived just fine without them then. It’s completely possible to take a hard line on this stuff and just refuse to use sites/apps/products that don’t respect your privacy. Remember, there’s always a smaller, friendlier or mechanical version.

    • Erdrick@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Reddit was unique - at least in my experience - in that it expanded my horizons and allowed me to grow in many ways.
      Before Reddit I just searched out sites / forums about my interests.
      Reddit allowed me to organically gain new interests through daily interactions.

      I’ve left it since they killed Apollo but I will admit that there were various good communities that I do miss!

    • friendlymessage@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      In select countries, the option to turn off ad personalization will remain, allowing Reddit to continue to comply with GDPR restrictions.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        If it’s anything like Twitter, it resigns you up to them anyway. There’s no “turn off all” as far as I could see. The missus has to run some JS to untick all the boxes for her. Next week she’ll go back and it will have ticked more.

    • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I still dabble over there, but I had long forgotten that they have ads because I use uBlock Origin.

  • Arotrios@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    "I met a traveller from an antique land,
    Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
    Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
    Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
    And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
    Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
    Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
    The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
    And on the pedestal, these words appear:
    My name is Spezymandias, Admin of Kings;
    Look on my Reddit, ye Mighty, and despair!
    Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
    Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
    The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

  • TheBlue22@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    Correct me if im wrong, but didn’t EU ban this kind of practice?

    If true, reddit would be fucked on the European market

  • Ultimatenab@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Get Mozilla Firefox and add uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger and Ghostery plugins.

    For over the top action, but a Raspberry Pi with an ethernet port and install PiHole and change your router DNS to the IP address of the PiHole and bask in glory that 99.999% of the crap out there, will not come or go out of your household.

    • The Doctor@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      It boggles the mind that there are people who still don’t use adblocking measures these days.

    • LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.org
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      I’m pretty sure it’s everyone who uses their app, since every third post and every fourth comment on it is an ad of some sort (or at least that’s how it seemed). I’m sure anyone on old.r with an adblocker is unaffected but during the brief time I had their app installed there were enough ads to render it unusable and unnavigable.

  • AndreTelevise@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    For those who are paranoid about this - some of you have a Facebook account, and half of you have a Google-filled smartphone. Privacy is important, but IMO there should be a balance between convenience and privacy - unless you actually do stuff that requires the utmost privacy or you need to stay fully anonymous everywhere as much as possible.

    Division of identity - that is, having unique profiles/identities for different types of things you do on the web, using alias emails and anonymous email for certain things etc. - is a more viable strategy than trying to be 100% anonymous on the web.

    Commercial social media that is free does and will track your activity on the site, whether for personalized ads or for algorithm purposes. Lemmy and Mastodon don’t because they’re FOSS, and don’t run on ads (99.9% of the time).

    • png@discuss.tchncs.de
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      Apple is not considerably better for privacy either by rhe way. They just pay more for marketing that says they’re more private than the rest of big tech.

    • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Commercial social media that is free does and will track your activity on the site

      I don’t think many people have an issue with this. It’s all the bullshit they pull to track you off the site that is the problem, and they do a lot of that.

      Edit: and the selling of that information to third parties that you would never consent to. That’s also a huge issue.