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#241 2018-05-03 14:10:15

philwareham
Core designer
From: Haslemere, Surrey, UK
Registered: 2009-06-11
Posts: 3,564
Website GitHub Mastodon

Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general

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#242 2018-05-03 16:53:37

gaekwad
Server grease monkey
From: People's Republic of Cornwall
Registered: 2005-11-19
Posts: 4,134
GitHub

Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general

This popped up on my feeds today (no affiliation):

gdprchecklist.io

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#243 2018-05-03 21:09:01

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general

philwareham wrote #311598:

It’s stuff you could retrieve from server logs anyway so I’d let hosting company, or server owner, worry about the whole GDPR issue and avoid it entirely within Textpattern core.

Exactly. And in most cases, the controller will have a DPA with the web host anyway, so whether it’s email or IP addresses, it’s all packaged up nice and neat under one agreement. No headache or worry about dubious PP statements for open source software.

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#244 2018-05-03 23:32:22

michaelkpate
Moderator
From: Avon Park, FL
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 1,379
Website GitHub Mastodon

Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general

Since I linked to Jeff Jarvis the other day, here is a brief discussion from yesterday’s This Week in Google about the effect of GDPR. What Jeff has been told is that at least one major European Media Company is anticipating laying off 30% of their staff due to the loss of revenue that GDPR will cause. News Organizations that offer E-mail newsletters will have to try and get everyone to resubscribe. There is massive uncertainty among investors because no one is sure just how the regulations will be enforced. And in the end the two companies that benefit most from GDPR will be Facebook and Google because it will so devastate their smaller competitors.

This link takes you to the relevant part of the conversation.

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#245 2018-05-04 08:07:50

philwareham
Core designer
From: Haslemere, Surrey, UK
Registered: 2009-06-11
Posts: 3,564
Website GitHub Mastodon

Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general

michaelkpate wrote #311608:

And in the end the two companies that benefit most from GDPR will be Facebook and Google because it will so devastate their smaller competitors.

Well, Europe’s strict stance on ICANN shows they are not going to roll over easily – so I can see a scenario where Google and Facebook’s many years of personal data harvesting keeps them in European courts on pretty much a permanent basis. And with fines of 2% or 4% of a large company’s annual global turnover on the table that’s going to make for some nervous shareholders.

Who.is is just a spammers’ toolbox now so I’m happy that ICANN are being made to anonymise Who.is email records – instead of forcing you to pay for the privilege.

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#246 2018-05-04 08:54:31

jakob
Admin
From: Germany
Registered: 2005-01-20
Posts: 4,578
Website

Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general

michaelkpate wrote #311608:

What Jeff has been told is that at least one major European Media Company is anticipating laying off 30% of their staff due to the loss of revenue that GDPR will cause.

Sorry to call you out again, but there’s a lot of shortcutting in there, both in what Jeff says and how you relate it.

What he actually said was that a media company boss told his staff “they could lose 30% of their business through GDPR” and by implication that could mean job losses through a drop in advertising revenue. Firstly, it’s an anecdotal report of one conjectural statement, not fact. Secondly, that doesn’t immediately equate to 30% staff layoffs (as you write and Jeff probably meant it to be heard). Thirdly, the drop in advertising revenue comes from a business model heavily dependent on unsolicited advertising. Frequently, that is a self-serving cycle of machines programmatically purchasing advertising from other machines that display it and is only tangentially (if at all) related to the actual service being provided, or the reader. Directly attributing job losses to GDPR because it may place constraints on the unsolicited advertising model is short-sighted if not disingenuous.

I think most people realise that if they wish to receive news and not pay for it, that some form of advertising noise is involved. I also think a loss of advertising revenue is a serious problem, though more for smaller media producers than larger ones. Today, though, a vast amount of news is being produced with sensational click-bait headlines or is being broken down into piecemeal chunks solely in order to generate advertising revenue. If there is anything of value in the actual content, it is made indigestible. It’s partially such abuse that breeds the problem that gives rise to its regulation.

Time for more signal and less noise. My hope is that those media providers with an actual value proposition will float to the surface. Those that exist solely to milk and feed the advertising machinery can fade as far as I’m concerned.

News Organizations that offer E-mail newsletters will have to try and get everyone to resubscribe. There is massive uncertainty among investors because no one is sure just how the regulations will be enforced. And in the end the two companies that benefit most from GDPR will be Facebook and Google because it will so devastate their smaller competitors.

Otherwise, I agree with some of the other remarks that came through in that bit of their discussion, though I’m not sure about the conclusion they draw, as the argument again shortcuts to the dramatic headline. Like one of the people said in that discussion, I think the EU is less interested in going after small businesses but hope that it will encourage better practices everywhere (it’s the same with the tax authorities). My concern (as I’ve said before) is that many law firms will make a business out of cautioning those, just as many companies are making a business out of protecting you against them. That too is noise that distracts a small business from the actual service they’re trying to provide.

It’s entirely understandable that little information is given about how it will be enforced as people won’t adhere to it otherwise. The huge fines being bandied about aren’t about putting small businesses out of work but about making it more costly for the big guys to transgress the rules than they can earn by wilfully ignoring them.


TXP Builders – finely-crafted code, design and txp

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#247 2018-05-04 18:08:03

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general

jakob wrote #311610:

Time for more signal and less noise. My hope is that those media providers with an actual value proposition will float to the surface. Those that exist solely to milk and feed the advertising machinery can fade as far as I’m concerned.

Here, here!

And I agree with Phil, Fakebook and Gargle have a lot more to loose than any small media provider. And even if they do have more money to burn, it’s not going to be business as usual when they get done burning it. Fcukbook is already losing people right and left. I know people that work there and they’re embarrassed by the fact, but turn cheek because they’re addicted to the money. That personal struggle won’t last long. I see a handful of people daily in Masto happily declare their Falsebook deletion, while others reply to congratulate them saying ‘welcome to the club’. When the trailer folk and third-worlders realize they’re talking to themselves (it takes a while, granted), they’ll quit the carney ride too. Or the ride will quit them because the waters are fished out.

Change is in the wind. It remains to be seen how it plays out, but I welcome it. This latest event of Koum leaving Farcebook is just another big hit in a steady stream of combos to Zuck’s prominent sniffer in recent months. Heck, I think people are just plain sick of hearing and seeing the name ‘Facebook’ everywhere. It’s like smelling dog crap everywhere.

Whatever is coming, it will be better than what I’ve been witnessing the last three years, that much I’m certain. My Ts will be crossed so I’m not worried about it.

Also, Jarvis Schmarvis. Not to make this political, and I won’t be sucked into it further, but since he’s been thrown in my face twice now… His neoliberal ways were clear to me in 2016 when he not only couldn’t shut up about HC, but outright lambasted people from his righteous pedestal if they dared express interest to vote other than blue. Twitter is full of people like that, as bad as the Turnip-loving nationalists. One big reason I jettisoned that popsicle stand.

But I digress.

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#248 2018-05-06 15:25:46

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general

philwareham wrote #311609:

Who.is is just a spammers’ toolbox now so I’m happy that ICANN are being made to anonymise Who.is email records – instead of forcing you to pay for the privilege.

Seriously. That’s been a thorn in my side for a long time.

Which reminds me, I need to migrate my domains to a new registrar, away from my current lousy one, which has long since outsourced its entire support process to India. That just makes me nervous.

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#249 2018-05-06 15:28:35

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general

bici wrote #311590:

[WebFaction] let us know what you hear

I’ve now contacted them. Waiting to hear back.

But I can tell you for sure, if you need a DPA, the process right now is to open a support ticket and make your needs clear.

Update: Status is they are still under legal review, but hope to be compliant in time. They can’t give any more details until the review is done, but will share what action to take in a blog post when they have the green light to say anything.

Frankly, I don’t like this reduced buffer time, because if you have to find a new host to keep your business site up, you need the time to do that. I’ll presume they will be ready and getting a DPA is quick and painless at that point (as it was with Proton), but we’ll see.

Last edited by Destry (2018-05-06 16:15:45)

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#250 2018-05-07 05:15:50

colak
Admin
From: Cyprus
Registered: 2004-11-20
Posts: 9,007
Website GitHub Mastodon Twitter

Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general

Destry wrote #311626:

Frankly, I don’t like this reduced buffer time, because if you have to find a new host to keep your business site up, you need the time to do that. I’ll presume they will be ready and getting a DPA is quick and painless at that point (as it was with Proton), but we’ll see.

As WF is EU/UK based I believe that they’ll get their act right. They’ll have to.


Yiannis
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I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.

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#251 2018-05-07 05:37:10

phiw13
Plugin Author
From: Japan
Registered: 2004-02-27
Posts: 3,058
Website

Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general

I guess, being EU based (well, UK, but technically still in the EU to date, right?) will have to have their GDPR compliance stuff up-to-date by May 25. Not sure what the big US hosting companies will be up to, especially if they don’t have EU based (mirror) servers.

This Guardian article: UK regulator orders Cambridge Analytica to release data on US voter points to a ruling by the ICO (regulating authority in the UK) that CA must hand over data to a US based individual. Curious how this will play out.

~~~

On the same subject, over the WE Oleg has removed all IP logging from TXP 4.7, from the log panel and the IP logged when a user comments. As far as I can tell, TXP does not_ out of the box, collect Personal Identification data, except if the visitor hands it over voluntarily (such as when commenting – email, name, both of which can be faked).

Last edited by phiw13 (2018-05-07 05:37:49)


Where is that emoji for a solar powered submarine when you need it ?
Sand space – admin theme for Textpattern

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#252 2018-05-07 06:01:48

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general

phiw13 wrote #311629:

Oleg has removed all IP logging from TXP 4.7, from the log panel and the IP logged when a user comments.

Now we just need 4.7 stable. ??

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