Simple Opt Out
Security and privacy
data sharing opt-out
SHOW HN2019
How HN took it
1 positive, 4 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 4 critical, out of 10 comments about the project. Thread score -0.21.
Idea: 1 for, 2 againstExecution: 0 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Useful collection of opt-out links; one commenter opted out of most data sharing with it
From 2 comments
I browse hacker news most days, and this by far is one of the most helpful links I've come across in a while. What a useful project. I'd love to see it get automated using some…
jrowley on HNI used this site a few years ago to opt out of everything (I had to send letters to everyone, no buttons to push) and had very good success. I hardly get any postal mail these…
zxcvbn4038 on HN
Objections
Opt-outs are often only cookie-based and get undone by clearing cookies
From 2 comments
All it takes is one "clear cookies" action to undo all of this. :\
Klonoar on HNPer the Amazon Ad Personalize setting: > Because your selection above is managed through HTTP cookies, if you delete these cookies or use a different browser, you will have to…
KingMachiavelli on HN
Many links are broken or require extra steps
From 2 comments
The capital one link did not work. I got an error saying "Not acceptable"
tvladeck on HNThe links I've tried have required I perform additional actions. LinkedIn was particularly bad, requiring dozens of clicks to turn off all tracking.
cjmoran on HN
Ad personalisation opt-outs do not stop data collection
From 1 comment
Since most of these only concern "ad personalisation" and not data collection/sharing, I don't see the point of doing this. They're still collecting your data, only difference…
abtom on HN
Requests
Automate opt-outs with a browser extension or bot
From 3 comments
Make a chrome extension to click all the things for me.
ibash on HNI browse hacker news most days, and this by far is one of the most helpful links I've come across in a while. What a useful project. I'd love to see it get automated using some…
jrowley on HNHow can an organization fund development of a headless bot, which runs on residential IPs to navigate opt-out dark patterns, on behalf of a human who authorizes the bot as their…
walterbell on HN
Ongoing service that handles opt-outs continuously
From 1 comment
Given that the Chase link asks for your Social Security Number, this page could be a good test of those Google phishing lessons from a post earlier today. More constructively,…
alexfringes on HN
Questions
Does uBlock Origin do this?
From 1 comment
Anyone know if ublock does this for you?
ykevinator on HN
Alternatives named
DMAchoice
From 1 comment
There's something called DMAchoice that lets you opt out of a lot of junk mail. It's at https://dmachoice.thedma.org/ Since I signed up, I hardly ever get junk mail from anyone I…
perl4ever on HN
optoutprescreen.com
From 1 comment
If you want to opt out of credit card prescreenings for free you can use: https://www.optoutprescreen.com/ You can get 5 years online - to do it for life you have to mail…
jrowley on HN
aboutads.info opt-out
From 1 comment
http://optout.aboutads.info one button. over a hundred opt out cookies.
a-dub on HN
uBlock Origin
From 1 comment
uBlock Origin[1] will block a ton of tracking and is worth running, but it won't block most of the data retention and sharing that simpleoptout.com covers. simpleoptout.com is…
troydavis on HN