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"(as a note, atomic.computer also loads analytics and google fonts. which is whatever. but if they are going to imply 3rd-party requests are inherently bad just by nature of being 3rd-party, they may want to clean their own house a little bit.)" Opinions may differ on this but mine is that this form of argument^1 is extremely weak and only strengthens the counter position, i.e., that third party requests are _in practice_ worth reporting on. As with any reported information, the readers of the reporting may draw their own conclusions and make value judgments about what is "good" or "bad" 1. The form of argument goes something like "X website is reporting on Y phenomenon, e.g., data collection, tracking, etc., using Z website as an example, but because X is also an example, X cannot or should not report on Y." The later is arguably "shooting the messenger" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_the_messenger AFAICT this atomic.computer web page does not suggest third party requests are "inherently bad". That is a conclusion presented by the HN commenter. What the atomic.computer web page does is examine the use of third party requests as a means of data collection and tracking. The HN commenter then cites an imaginary opinion about third party requests being "inherently bad". For me, this suggests there may be something behind that idea. Perhaps the commenter has "insider" knowledge of some sort regarding data collection and tracking. It's like a leak from a guilty conscience Generally, there is no way for a computer user to monitor and control how data is used once it is collected nor where it may or may not be transferred As such, this is not question of "bad" versus "good" in any universal sense. That may be something that weighs on the minds of people connected to data collection and/or tracking practices. But every user is different. The issue for the user is control. The user cannot limit how the data is used or where it could be transferred, even he had some opinion about what uses were "good" and what uses if any were "bad" What companies do with data collected from "apps" is within their control, not the user's. Generally the operators of "app" endpoints have no obligation to disclose (a) how the data collected is used, whether it is used to "improve the service", improve their own sales/revenue, improve someone else's sales, etc. or (b) where the data might be transferred, whether that transfer is voluntary or involuntary, e.g., data breach, mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcy, requests from law enforcement, etc. |
>Perhaps the commenter has "insider" knowledge of some sort regarding data collection and tracking. It's like a leak from a guilty conscience
>That may be something that weighs on the minds of people connected to data collection and/or tracking practices
what are you even trying to say here? you seem to be trying really hard to call me something without actually calling me something.
anyways, my comment was not trying to convince you of anything or win any argument. believe what you want. i believe that this was a boring article, and the original title was clickbait. that is about it.
p.s. you might be the first person i have ever met that is unaware of the implicit negative connotation associated with "3rd-party requests". especially given the full context and the previous post by the blog author, i suspect you are being willfully ignorant here.