[newscracker]

Should every person start keeping a list of all privacy intrusions and then opt out? That’s never going to work out due to user fatigue, which is what all these opt out platforms depend on (that nobody will go through the trouble of doing it).

(Not exactly the same) Just like Facebook announced a few years ago asking users to send it nude photos just so it could take down nude photos of that person, this also is ripe for abuse. It’s a matter of when, not if, they opt out information also leaks.

[stiray]

What you have said is one thing. Intrusion like this can only be opt-in. But I am having another problem with opt-out with such a fishy company. Who guarantees me that after I send them my ID, they wont just take it, add the data to database and set a flag "hidden" to the records.

[hwbehrens]

Often, these companies will not only do as you suggested, they will turn around and sell your data at a premium (since it's been confirmed) to third-party companies before marking it as hidden.

[jchook]

There are a couple services that opt-out for you. Often times your information will re-appear on the same site months later, too, so they provide monitoring.

https://brandyourself.com/protect-your-privacy-online

https://onerep.com/

Full disclosure: I helped develop the BrandYourself platform.

[SebastianKra]

I tried out brandyourself.com.

Once with my real info (against all reason), the second time I entered some random name and adress that couldn't possibly be real.

In both cases, I was told that I was highly exposed and that I should pay hundreds of $ per year to protect my privacy.

Also, I recognized several dark/shady design patterns.

I can only conclude that this is a very elaborate way to scare people out of money.

[jchook]

Great feedback thank you.

You may have tried an early beta version. The product now does a free private info scan up-front and displays all records found.

The premium version systematically opts-out of every record found, and continues monitoring the data broker sites for your information.

The system actually verifies the removals too, and will display the status of each record in the UI.

[diebeforei485]

I know the media attacked Facebook for that announcement, but everything I can gather suggests that it was just meant to give victims more control and didn't have any nefarious motives (unlike other 'features' offered by Facebook).

https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1249202002875297792?s=...

[JustSomeNobody]

Consider the absurdity of the request. Send us a nude so we can play a better game of whack a mole. Also, consider the mental state of the person being asked to submit such a photo.

I mean good grief.

And this is before we even get into the fact that we’re talking about Facebook.

[dathinab]

Yes, but the problem is what if the "opt out" dataset is leaked. What if a Facebook employee steals the data.

IMHO if this kind of measurements are required to protection the user it's _generally_ a better idea to not have a system which requires that.

[throwaway55554]

Did FB provide the option to just take them all down in the case where there does not exist a nude photo of someone? Or just take them all down unconditionally?

If not, was it too difficult for them to think of this option?

[kekeke2016]

I think people should probably stop using what we cutely call “the open web” when really it’s just another closed social network of financial interests distracting people from their lives

It’s essentially a filter bubble for finance ideas

You’re all doing it again, making “too big to fail” ideas that filter the benefits towards a minority (aka TV, and religion to an extent; utilitarian value aside, bubbles controlled by a minority, rent seeking on attention at scale)

Stop being a market for human rights abuse at scale

Name ONE facet of human existence Facebook has improved? Or Instagram? Other than generating wealth for a minority?

Did we have a huge problem organizing birthdays before?

I for one am excited to have front row seats from my cushy biotech job as the attention economy collapses

I don’t owe society my time in promise of a future it can’t honestly guarantee

Still waiting on my nuclear powered car, personal helicopter, and AI that does my job for me

[dang]

Could you please stop creating accounts for every few comments you post? We ban accounts that do that. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

You needn't use your real name of course, but for HN to be a community, users need some identity for others to relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be a different kind of forum. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...