| I know it's the crucial part, that's why they included it in the title as an easy-out in case someone calls them out on their dishonesty. I'd rewrite your example as below in order to more clearly illustrate how I view the VPN title: US DoHS Keeping Track On World travelers movements, potentially leaking data when visiting the US. Note the main title, then the comma, and then the minor clarification. Firstly, the "main" point is at the beginning so that's the one that has the most effect and evokes an emotional response that colors the entire reading. Secondly, the last portion is separated with a comma, adds two points, doesn't clearly state how it modifies the first part of the title and is also ambiguous on its own. It vaguely confuses that tracking happens when they visit the US with the interpretation that the tracking happens all the time but only leaks when they visit the US. It also allows your interpretation that they only tracking while they visit the US. The comma should at the very least have been an "and". If we wanted a real title that wasn't click-bait, here is my stab at it: Top VPN providers record website-visitor's click/browsing behavior on their sites, potentially leaking it to metric providers with various degrees of anonymization. OR. Analysis of User-Behavior Tools On VPN Providers' Sites. <- This last one shows we can have an honest internet that isn't driven by click-bait, and could instead rely on the integrity of publications and the authors. |
Even with you changes it still looks easy to tweak or turn into click bate. "Potentially" is a weasel-word, because even safe things could potentially go wrong.
"Every time you fart you spread germs, potentially infecting everyone in the room around you with cholera or other diseases"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word