commit e181369f3935cf1667da6281e3cbb4e18435b648
parent ea9c85bee09565e32cfa16ef0226627064f5e12e
Author: Andrew Laack <andrew@laack.co>
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2025 09:12:57 -0500
Fixed links
Diffstat:
1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/posts/entries/stop-collecting-user-data.md b/posts/entries/stop-collecting-user-data.md
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Sending the data of people who use applications you built, by default, for any p
## Why Does This Matter
-This matters because humans are trusting. It abuses this trust by tracking unnecessary data about application usage because most humans implicitly assume this is not being done, and they often don't understand what the consequences of this tracking can be [1]. Additionally, it is unreasonable to expect users to look through your source code, all of your settings, and your docs to understand what data is being collected. If data is being collected, it should be obvious based on the purpose of the application, and if it is not obvious that it must be collected for the application to work, this should be made explicitly clear to users in the most obvious way possible.
+This matters because humans are trusting. It abuses this trust by tracking unnecessary data about application usage because most humans implicitly assume this is not being done, and they often don't understand what the consequences of this tracking can be [1][2]. Additionally, it is unreasonable to expect users to look through your source code, all of your settings, and your docs to understand what data is being collected. If data is being collected, it should be obvious based on the purpose of the application, and if it is not obvious that it must be collected for the application to work, this should be made explicitly clear to users in the most obvious way possible.
## Counter Arguments
@@ -22,16 +22,18 @@ No, it isn't. GitHub (bleh) issues exists, Discord (ick) exists, Matrix exists,
## Towards a Solution
-Use applications that respect your privacy. If an application you are using collects your data and is not proprietary, it is quite likely there is a fork of it that strips out the data collection, see ungoogled-chromium [2] and LibreWolf [3] as examples. If one doesn't exist, consider making one.
+Use applications that respect your privacy. If an application you are using collects your data and is not proprietary, it is quite likely there is a fork of it that strips out the data collection, see ungoogled-chromium [3] and LibreWolf [4] as examples. If one doesn't exist, consider making one.
-If user-respecting alternatives don't exist and the application is proprietary, consider using WireShark [4] to see what domains the application is resolving. Once you find the data collection domains, add these domains to your /etc/hosts file or self-hosted DNS server (like a Pi-hole), and have them resolve to 0.0.0.0. This doesn't always work because the domain that is collecting data is sometimes used for to support the core functionallity of the application, but in an ideal world this should not be necessary as you shouldn't be using proprietary software to begin with.
+If user-respecting alternatives don't exist and the application is proprietary, consider using WireShark [5] to see what domains the application is resolving. Once you find the data collection domains, add these domains to your /etc/hosts file or self-hosted DNS server (like a Pi-hole), and have them resolve to 0.0.0.0. This doesn't always work because the domain that is collecting data is sometimes used for to support the core functionallity of the application, but in an ideal world this should not be necessary as you shouldn't be using proprietary software to begin with.
## Citations
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica
-[2] - https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium
+[2] - https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/
-[3] - https://librewolf.net/
+[4] - https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium
-[4] - https://www.wireshark.org/download.html
+[4] - https://librewolf.net/
+
+[5] - https://www.wireshark.org/download.html
