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0 pointsbluefirebrand14d ago0 comments

This is really just how the tech industry works. We have abused the concept of consent into an absolute mess

My personal favorite way they do this lately is notification banners for like... Registering for news letters

"Would you like to sign up for our newsletter? Yes | Maybe Later"

Maybe later being the only negative answer shows a pretty strong lack of understanding about consent!

0 comments

Worse yet, instead of a checkbox to opt in/out of a newsletter or marketing email when signing up or checking out, it simply opts the user in. Simply doing business with a company is consent to spam, with the excuse that the user can unsubscribe if they don’t want it.

Tactics like these should be illegal, but instead they have become industry standards.

clbrmbr14d ago

Not everyone. If your business is chill and you are REEEEALY thoughtful and respectful with newsletters you will be rewarded with open rates well in excess of 50%…

johnnyanmac13d ago

Companies that do that instantly get reported as spam. Thrres a good reason beyond regulation to not do it that way.

Antibabelic14d ago

There is no "lack of understanding" here. The people responsible for these interfaces understand consent perfectly well, they just don't care for it.

syncsynchalt14d ago

Or the now-ubiquitous footer:

"Store cookie? [Yes] [Ask me again]"

bigfishrunning14d ago

How would it know not to ask again if it can't store a cookie?

jkaplowitz14d ago

At least if this "Store cookies?" question is implicitly referencing EU regulations, those regulations don't require consent for cookies which are considered essential, including a cookie to store the response to the consent question (but certainly not advertising tracking cookies). So the respectful replacement for "Ask me again" is "Essential cookies only" (or some equivalent wording to "Essential" like "Required" or "Strictly necessary"). And yes, some sites do get this right.

1 more reply

pavlus13d ago

It could know by respecting the DNT flag and don't even ask in the first place.

hedora14d ago

At least we haven’t gotten to Elysium levels yet, where machines arbitrarily decide to break your arm, then make you go to a government office to apologize for your transgressions to an LLM.

We’re getting close with ICE for commoners, and also for the ultra wealthy, like when Dario was forced to apologize after he complained that Trump solicited bribes, then used the DoW to retaliate on non-payment.

However, the scenario I describe is definitely still third term BS.

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