

Show HN: Proposal for Internet-wide Unsubscribe and Privacy Settings - lowglow
http://www.techendo.co/posts/internet-wide-unsubscribe-and-privacy-settings

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viraptor
> ... where all sites that collect or retain data on me, must register ...

Aaaand we're done. They don't. Anyone can break the rule at any point.

If it was a service making those operations easier in any way - great. If it
was making them more transparent - great. But if you're big enough to need to
handle complex data storage cases, you probably don't want to send people to a
3rd party so they can change their preferences.

It's also a gold mine for people who hack accounts. Get one password, login to
this service - get a complete list of services the user registered to. (and
most likely to which the user set the same password)

Sorry - as a user, I'd probably like it, but I don't think it provides much,
without a buy-in from a lot of service providers and some reason why they'd
want to do it...

~~~
lowglow
Did you read the flaws section?

~~~
viraptor
Yup, but they're slightly different than what I've listed:

\- "All personal information created or shared by me would have to be coupled
with this unique id." \- I disagree. Only the existence of an account would
have to be. Not even a "reference" to the content mentioned later in
solutions. Such service doesn't have to care if the user stores pictures on a
service - just the access rights of potential pictures.

\- "This allows central access for intelligence agencies to know what I'm
doing online" \- they already know. This is neither making it worse nor
better. The problem is that it would make scamming much easier and any
password leak much more dangerous.

\- "This would have to be a really popular opt-in for companies to maintain,
or it would have to be the law." \- I have to disagree again about the first
part. The law is not possible, anyway. (which country's law? who does it apply
to? who would be able to enforce it?) It doesn't require being popular, it
needs an incentive why anyone would want to integrate - i.e. what does the
provider get from it. If they don't get anything, there will be no interest.
Integrating such service is probably more costly than doing it in-house.

So summing it up... I think such service would be actually bad for almost
everyone really. (especially if anyone gets an idea about regulating it with
law) A browser extension that manages popular services however could be
interesting (and doesn't require any central authority)

See
[https://www.privacyfix.com/start/install](https://www.privacyfix.com/start/install)
for example.

~~~
lowglow
I would disagree with you. This article also acknowledges that the idea is
fundamentally flawed, yet it's a needed service. We should start thinking of
solutions.

------
lowglow
Thoughts on this request for comment?

