Am sure someone smarter than myself has already pointed out that the whole UX idiom of "later" as only alternative to "yes" is painfully evocative of rape culture⋯
If someone hasn't already offered up this connection⋯ ah, well⋯ you're welcome???
I thought the cookie consent alerts were bad back in the states, but - WOW. If I lived here (visiting Europe), I would FAR rather have cookies just set and not be told about it vs. this level of in-your-face, at-every-turn COOKIE ALERT, without question. Oy.
🧐 "Our findings show how current messages to simply avoid #sexting do not work for young people."
😍 Thank you for this article. Too many people do not want to accept the reality of this admittedly complex situation. Instead, they continue applying the same (so-called) solutions.
Instead:
▪️ acknowlege reality
▪️ teach #consent & healthy relationships (BONUS: that's what they would rather learn)
▪️ stop criminalizing & shaming those you're trying to help
We are also working directly with select AI companies as long as their plans align with what our community cares about: attribution, opt-outs, and control.
Emphasis mine
This is not the tech industry’s most egregious lack of understanding of consent in recent years. That dishonor belongs to LegalFling: A blockchain app for sexual consent.
However, this is still pretty stupid, and the result of an insidious trend that doesn’t get questioned enough in software engineering circles. So I’m asking that my readers shout this from the fucking rooftops.
Opt-Out Is NOT Consent
Opt-out is “our lawyers told us to make this an option to cover our ass, but we don’t want you to actually do it”.
Opt-out is “if you missed the memo, we assume we have your consent”.
The default state of any decision regarding user data should be opted out. Users should instead be required to opt in for your decision to take effect, and they must not be coerced into doing so.
If consent is not explicitly given by an informed user, you haven’t received consent at all, and to pretend otherwise is unethical.
Your users don’t fucking care about opt-out. We care about opt-in.
“But Soatok, That’ll Hurt Our Revenue”
If you have to make money doing unethical things, or by following dubious practices that don’t actually respect other users’ autonomy, then you should go out of business.
End of.
What Automattic Should Do
If Automattic wants to make things right, they must do two things and could do a third thing (but I’m not holding my breath):
First, nuke the existing opt-out mechanism and replace it with an opt-in mechanism. If nobody checks it, then don’t include their data in the sale to Midjourney or OpenAI.
Second, they should make the permission for third-parties more granular. Some of us don’t care about third parties, but do NOT want “AI” companies using their data to enable plagiarism.
Third, if you want to go the extra mile, add support for a plugin that uses Nightshade on all hosted media in all WordPress.com plans, including free plans, to increase your users’ protection against LLM scrapists.
This is my open challenge to Automattic leadership to do better.
This Issue is Bigger than Automattic
The tech industry has gotten very bad at respecting users’ consent lately. Your options are no longer “Yes” and “No” anymore. Instead it’s “Yes” or “Maybe Later”, without a “Never” option.
ugh not even @signalapp is safe from the unstoppable deprecation of consent in favour of “not now” pic.twitter.com/sW4Ss2pqMb
It does keep going. I’m going to skip a few, but check it out.> the unstoppable deprecation of consent in favour of “not now”, episode 18 pic.twitter.com/CRdfujOBZt
Yes, even Linux is affected.Even worse, you can rarely uninstall the crapware that nags you with these consent dialogs.
This needs to stop. It’s a toxic mentality and it cultivates a culture that doesn’t respect humanity. (Which is kind of funny to write as a furry blogger.)
If you work in the tech industry, scream very loudly about properly implementing human-respecting consent controls into your software.
Just because it’s widespread doesn’t mean it’s inevitable. Push back against it. Your less privileged, less technical neighbors deserve better.
Reddit is going public via the IPO route. Last year, the CEO got $193 million, but moderators are not paid and expected to work free past IPO. Only some moderators and active users in the USA can apply for Reddit's initial public offering to buy stock at a special price. Most Reddit users are motivated by fake karma points and likes. Also, they banned all unofficial Reddit mobile clients. Meanwhile, the CEO profits while everyone provides free labor.
@nixCraft I never spent money on #Reddit gold coins or avatar tweaks. I only saw it as a way for them to further line their pockets with cash with zero value-add to the user.
On the surface, it's a #free forum site with communities for just about every topic imaginable. Under the surface, the users ARE the product. Every other conglomerate-owned #socialmedia platform does this.
However, this one feels different, especially where other platforms have tripped and fallen over major #greed driven changes which also have major #ethical ramifications. The lessons learned from these other platforms were seemingly ignored and valuable case studies were overlooked, again.
When the #api drama unfolded last summer surrounding 3rd party apps, Musk was well underway destroying #Twitter. More missed opportunities on how NOT to run a social media platform.
Reddit already admitted another blackout will hurt them. This will do the same.
on being socially available, specifically during the current festivities in the global north/west.
is it rude? to not leave one's room? during holidays? during these holidays I even don't want to name?
there are questions I prefer to reframe for clarity (of e. g. what am I trying to find out with that question).
rude is probably not useful nor precise as a concept or a criteria. too diffuse, too subjective, too culturally charged. I think even fluid entities like social interactions analysis can profit from a bit of logic. probably not a lot of two people, alistic or autist would agree to the same definition and implementation of rude. or people from the same country, similar "class" or whatever that means.
nuance is useful, but concepts which are not precise to nail lack usefulness.
would reframe it as (1)whose and (2) what (a)expectations or explicit/implicit (b)deals might be fulfilled or broken by staying in the room. and then decide.
different if I never agreed to take part in anything cultural habit in the first place, and I already communicated that clearly and often, or if I promised a child to help them with their Lego, or the neighbour with a community project. a lot of other possibilities, these would be extremes.
adenda,i have all the time this discussion with myself, regarding these festivities, including the calendáric one one week from here, and birthdays, including it's expectations of presents.
@hmm_cook @actuallyautistic
is it rude? to not leave one's room? during holidays? during these holidays I even don't want to name?
there are questions I prefer to reframe for clarity (of e. g. what am I trying to find out with that question).
rude is probably not useful nor precise as a concept or a criteria. too diffuse, too subjective, too culturally charged. I think even fluid entities like social interactions analysis can profit from a bit of logic. probably not a lot of two people, alistic or autist would agree to the same definition and implementation of rude.
would reframe it as whose and what expectations or explicit/implicit deals might be fulfilled or broken by staying in the room. and then decide.
different if I never agreed to take part in anything cultural habit in the first place, and I already communicated that clearly and often, or if I promised a child to help them with their Lego, or the neighbour with a community project.
: The Illusion of Choice in Japan’s Adult Video Industry
The popularity of pornography is predicated on the idea that those participating have given their consent. That is what allows the porn industry to dominate the media economy today, generating staggering sums of money. Looking at behind-the-scenes negotiations and abuses in Japan's adult video industry, author Akiko Takeyama challenges this pervasive notion. #adultvideo#pornography#Japan#books#consent@bookstodon
Today I filed a formal complaint against #YouTube with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner for their illegal deployment of #adblock detection technologies.
Under Article 5(3) of 2002/58/EC YouTube are legally obligated to obtain consent before storing or accessing information already stored on an end user's terminal equipment unless it is strictly necessary for the provisions of the requested service.
In 2016 the EU Commission confirmed in writing that adblock detection requires consent.
🎓 Webinar: Video Games as a Violence Prevention Tool
In this webinar, the founder and executive director of the ngo Jennifer Ann's Group will discuss how video games can be utilized to teach consent, healthy relationships, and resilience.
Join us to hear about this organization’s mission and work, and how these strategies can be used for violence prevention work with youth.
📆 Oct 19th 10:30AM-12PMPST / 1:30-3PM EST
Free and open to everyone! ASL interpreters will be present.