[Fnoord]

It appears some people in this thread use a rather creative version of "opt in" [1]. There is nothing "opt" about what has been described here, nor about Microsoft telemetry (it was opt-out last time I checked).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opt-in_email

[guiambros]

Please tell me what "creative version of opt-in" you see in this: https://www.23andme.com/about/consent/

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6. Do I have any alternatives? Can I withdraw from this study?

Your alternative is not to participate in the 23andMe Research study. If you choose not to give consent for 23andMe Research, your Genetic & Self-Reported Information may still be used for other purposes, as described in our Privacy Statement. If you do give consent to participate in this study, you may choose not to take 23andMe Research surveys or use other 23andMe Research features.

At any time, you may choose to change your consent status to either take part in 23andMe Research or to withdraw all or some of your Genetic & Self-Reported Information from 23andMe Research. Your consent status is located in the 23andMe "Settings" page (if you experience problems changing your consent status, write to the Human Protections Administrator at [e-mail]). If you withdraw all or some of your Genetic & Self-Reported Information, 23andMe will prevent that information from being used in new 23andMe Research initiated after 30 days from receipt of your request (it may take up to 30 days to withdraw your information after you withdraw your consent). Any research on your data that has been performed or published prior to this date will not be reversed, undone, or withdrawn.

Choosing not to give consent or withdrawing from 23andMe Research will not affect your access to your Genetic Information or to the Personal Genome Service.

You may also discontinue participation by closing your Personal Genome Service account, as described in the Terms of Service. Requests for account closure can be made directly within your Account Settings.

[mikekchar]

I don't know anything about it, but:

> Your alternative is not to participate in the 23andMe Research study. If you choose not to give consent for 23andMe Research, your Genetic & Self-Reported Information may still be used for other purposes, as described in our Privacy Statement

Seems to imply that if you do not give your consent for whatever "23andMe Research" is, then they will still use the data for other purposes. So in other words if you do not opt in they will still use they data. That's not a normal definition of "opt in".

However, I don't know what is in the privacy statement. What are they able to do with the data if you don't opt-in?

[Xelbair]

Looking as you cannot completely disable telemetry in windows 10 i fail to see how it is opt-in, or even opt-out. It is always on.

[Fnoord]

I don't use Windows 10, but I from what I understand Microsoft had to make it GDPR compliant. I'm not sure they succeeded entirely with that (last time I checked, the German government did not find it GDPR compliant. Regardless, at the very least it was an improvement [which isn't an excuse]).

[justinclift]

> Microsoft had to make it GDPR compliant.

Not really. It's more like they have an army of lawyers paid so they can claim GDPR compliance, and delay/suppress or negotiate deals for years (if not decades) anything that comes up to say their not.

That being said, apparently there are already ongoing legal cases around GDPR complaints for MS. No idea how those will end up.

[enkid]

I believe that's his point