On the heels of Apple’s opt-in tracking policy, NYT is calling for some drastic changes to app defaults.
America, Your Privacy Settings Are All Wrong https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/opinion/data-tech-privacy-opt-in.html
Some highlights:
Despite what corporations profess, much of this personal data is used not to improve products themselves, but to make those products more attractive to advertisers.
Corporations say opt-out provisions put control into the hands of consumers. But users are no more likely to switch off data collection than they are to read through the onerous and lengthy terms and conditions policies that litter the web. Many companies bury their data collection controls deep within their websites. Even if consumers can find them, their choices most likely don’t apply to a company’s subsidiaries or affiliates.
It should not be the role of consumers to make marketers’ jobs easier. Furthermore, there is evidence that such highly targeted advertising isn’t really necessary to support the free web, as technology companies that are against opt-in provisions often argue.
With more people spending time at home, tied to devices that relentlessly track their every keystroke, click and streaming show selection, granting users some semblance of control over their own data is more urgent than ever.
When the New York Times speaks, people listen to them. But even the NYT may not be able to change politicians and Silicon Valley’s attitudes towards privacy in the USA.
It is still a good sign when the Times brings it up for discussion, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for things to change shortly, unfortunately.
Maybe so. It is encouraging to see a times opinion, California laws, Oregon proposals, the EU, whatsapp backlash, and even US Congress asking Google for records wrt monopoly issues.
Eventually something will happen but tech money and lobbyists will probably end up creating a bureaucracy that only they can afford and little players can’t navigate.
The problem is publishing one op-ed doesn’t amount to enough effort on their part to push this agenda. When large news orgs and publishers like NYT need to manufacture an opinion, it’s a war of attrition where they keep posting news and op-eds related to a topic over and over again.
