GitHub removes promise not to track you | Hacker News Reader

GitHub removes promise not to track you

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94 pointsColinWright18 comments

> This change is only on subdomains, like resources.github.com, where GitHub markets products and services to enterprise customers. Github.com will continue to operate as-is.

The PR is a better resource https://github.com/github/site-policy/pull/582

Previously discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32326573

dont know why errbody has to track each other. in the old days they'd just send you a catalog and if you were interested in something you could just buy it

Because $

Because empirically you can make more money doing it. A for-profit enterprise can only resist for so long.

It's more to answer the question if you make any money at all doing it, it's easy in advertising to spend more on ads then you make in sales from those ads

But the ad buyers aren't the ones doing the tracking. They pay intermediaries like Facebook to do the tracking.

It's the data sellers that are the problem in GP's post. Companies like Experian and Visa who have huge amounts of data and naturally cannot resist making a buck off it.

Agree, data sellers though are effectively dealt with by GDPR. Other major markets should consider adopting GDPR too

Mailing those catalogs for free costs money. Now, we can save that money and spend it on advertising that gives marginally better returns!

Tangent: how many volumes would an Amazon catalog be?

> how many volumes would an Amazon catalog be?

How many products and companies would Amazon remove if they had to pay for each page in their catalog? Either way it would be a massive improvement.

The search would be much better, too.

Ads.

because they sell your data

Except that retailers and credit card companies were/still are selling your purchase history to advertisers and data brokers.

https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/consumer-privac...

Don't forget about credit rating agencies, and the US Post Office, and ...

The tracking has always been there, it's just now becoming harder to ignore. It sucks, but it's possibly also a good thing because people are finally starting to care.

It's about changing your opinion., so they can sell you what they want not what you need or/and want.

Github already tracks me plenty. They have knowledge of all my commits, stars, forks and issues!

What promise? Everyone knows Microsoft is addicted to tracking people.

Privacy is just a useless buzzword and means nothing to the tech bros working at big tech companies because they need more ads.

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