Hiding privacy settings behind a "learn more" link is blatantly deceptive. The wording suggests a link to a privacy policy instead of controls, and is designed to minimize people clicking on it. The fact that it's so common says a lot about the sorry state of consumer protection.

Q: I value my privacy. Which mobile OS should I choose? A: Whichever one Facebook warns advertisers about – so, iOS 14 (news.ycombinator.com/item?id=242846…).

apparently SimpleOptOut should list state DMVs - except that there's no way to opt out from having your photo and SSN sold: law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18… /cc Kyrsten Sinema

Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subac…

You can now directly pay TV constructors to display ads to a targeted audience L: samsung.com/us/business/sa… C: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=246623…

New blog post "Chrome exempts Google sites from user site data settings" TL;DR The Google Chrome setting "Clear cookies and site data when you quit Chrome" doesn't work right for Google sites such as Search and YouTube. lapcatsoftware.com/articles/chrom…

Chrome exempts Google sites from user site data settings L: lapcatsoftware.com/articles/chrom… C: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=248173…

Companies are paying to show us a lot of ads that we are not remotely interested in. One large fintech company paid to show me the same ad 2,081 times in a single month. See my blog here: adalytics.io/blog/how-many-… #DigitalMarketing #adtech

current status:

𝐒𝐢𝐡𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 Prezi "It turned out that threatening to reveal all your private data if you unsubscribe really reduced our churn!"

here's a mainstream explanation, "Firefox 86 Introduces Total Cookie Protection": blog.mozilla.org/security/2021/… impressive work by Mozilla. hopefully everyone who follows SimpleOptOut is already using uBlock Origin.

Facebook Is Launching an All-Out War on Apple's Upcoming iPhone Update L: npr.org/2021/02/26/971… C: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=262754…

customers of T-Mobile, they may have unilaterally un-done your opt-out: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=264036… if you'd convinced yourself that T-Mobile was different, they've disabused you of that misconception. here's updated opt-out links: simpleoptout.com/#t-mobile, simpleoptout.com/#sprint

The WA legislature is considering a consumer data privacy bill. By now, legislators know that our data is sold to unaffiliated third parties, which zero people would opt in to. They don't seem to care. So, I sent this to Sen. Drew Hansen's cmte: troy.yort.com/letter-to-wash… /ACLU of Washington

In our own research we used this corpus to study dark patterns and manipulative tactics that political candidates use to raise money. But we've just scratched the surface and we expect there are many other questions that the data can shed light on. x.com/random_walker/…

Google to turn on activity tracking for many users who turned it off news.ycombinator.com/item?id=301718…

Congress’s inaction inches us toward a world where everyone is being watched, the Editorial Board writes. wapo.st/388m3lg

Here's how to shut down robocallers and text message (SMS) spammers: reportphonespam.org Don't just block them – report the abuse to the spammer's telecom provider and get their phone number disconnected. In 90 seconds, your report can stop a spammer. #privacy Will Wiquist FCC