[jscheel]

Jeez guys, not all tracking is evil. You know all that awesome content that exists on the web? Well the people that make and distribute that content need information to make your experience better. Let's say you start a new site. Let's use 8tracks for example: they provide a two-tiered service, one free and premium. The free service exists to drive you to a paid account, but you still derive value from it, nonetheless. In exchange for that free value, you give them stats that they use with their advertisers, who in turn give them cash they can then use to make your experience better. It's a give and take system. Thankfully, money isn't the only currency on the web, a little bit of info and some advertising goes a long way. I am willing to trade value for value, it's fair that way.

[scythe]

>not all tracking is evil.

Tracking isn't evil. Tracking people who specifically do not want to be tracked is evil.

[nikcub]

that is true. they knew that some users block all third party cookies and they still wanted to track them, hence using Etag

[klbarry]

What if I specifically don't want you on my website if you won't let me track you? You're using technology to circumvent me (adblock), why can't I use technology to circumvent your wishes (evercookie et. al.)?

[scythe]

You can specifically disallow such people from viewing your website, without being evil.

[inportb]

You mean, people who take unfair^ advantage of freemium services?

  ^ according to jscheel's assessment of fair trade

[meatsock]

"You know all that awesome content that exists on the web? Well the people that make and distribute that content need information to make your experience better."

that's funny, most of the web content i use most heavily was 'made' and 'distributed' without any input from the marketers / advertisers / trackers whom you are defending. not all tracking is evil, but the evil tracking offsets the good stuff by a wide margin. not all gun owners are evil but if you're running a company that uses that defense to justify business practices that require an invisible gun owner to be in my living room, i'm not going to be caring about how much my living room experience has improved.

[sixtofour]

There was a TV executive a few years ago who stated that getting up to go to the bathroom during a commercial is theft.

It's the commercials that make non-premium TV possible in its current free-ish structure. It seems that broadcasters should run their business with the assumption that a certain number of people are going to go the the bathroom and miss some commercials. And web companies should run their businesses and still be able to provide their free-ish services if some people decide to opt out of tracking.

What if everyone went to the bathroom all the time and missed all the commercials? That doesn't seem to happen.

[slowpoke]

  Well the people that make and distribute that content need information to make your experience better.

If somebody wants my feedback, they can ask for it, and if I have the time and like/value their service, I will gladly comply. Simply 'taking' my feedback doesn't sit well with me.

[bandushrew]

that is very cool. The important thing about the system is that it is a matter of personal choice, right? I can choose not to participate, right?

because they ask my permission, dont they? I mean, I can choose between not seeing their contact or being tracked - yes?

[inportb]

Absolutely. You can easily choose not to participate.

If, on the other hand, you choose to deny access to your data while continuing to use the Web services in question, you would be at fault (using grandparent's definition of fair trade).

[bandushrew]

great!

how can I choose to deny access to my data?

heh heh. the silly article made it sound as if that wasn't an option. trust the journalists to stuff things up.

so how do I do it?

Edit: I dont use Firefox, so AdBlock is out of the question, and I have no idea what websites do this. Is there a list available somewhere? How can I discover whether or not a website does this without visiting them in the first place?

[sorbus]

Either don't use websites that use this (what the grandparent was suggesting, I believe), or block KISSmetrics in your hosts file. Apparently it's also blocked by Adblock Plus if you're subscribed to the right lists (which are linked to elsewhere in the comments on this story).