Google/Microsoft/Twitter/Facebook Announce The Open-Source Data Transfer Project

[Aleksei]

Here's an idea:
Don't use their services. You can control your own data, pretty effortlessly.
Nobody is forcing you to upload your data to them. Unless you're a high-profile criminal, despite what you think, nobody cares about you or your data - you're not special, you're not important, and you're not interesting. Neither am I or anyone else. This paranoia of companies "controlling my data" is ridiculous and so self-centered, and nobody stops to realize that the universe doesn't revolve around them and that you are nothing but a number to these multi-billion dollar companies. Frankly, I'd rather them collect my data and give me an ad that's probably relevant to me, than see a bunch of ads for weight loss, makeup, and mortgage ratings.

What this guy said, 3 times over. If you don't like those companies - don't use them, plenty of others around. As for sensitive data - encrypt the shit out of it before backing it up on the cloud, or better yet run a private cloud (home RPi server doesn't cost much).
I personally treat any private messages on FB/VK/whatever social messaging platform as public. With the amount of data they have some leaks are unavoidable.
We're going to have our minds uploaded to the cloud pretty soon anyway

[starshipeleven]

Unless you're a high-profile criminal, despite what you think, nobody cares about you or your data - you're not special, you're not important, and you're not interesting. Neither am I or anyone else. This paranoia of companies "controlling my data" is ridiculous and so self-centered, and nobody stops to realize that the universe doesn't revolve around them and that you are nothing but a number to these multi-billion dollar companies.

tl:dr "I have nothing to hide"

Lol that's not the point.

Data is used to elaborate strategies to control consumers (marketing), used for statistical analysis for whatever else, and so on and so forth.
In practice, it has higher value than what you are paid for it, and also carries the risk of being used against you.

Ads are just the tip of the iceberg.

Frankly, I'd rather them collect my data and give me an ad that's probably relevant to me, than see a bunch of ads for weight loss, makeup, and mortgage ratings.

Fuck ads. If they ask me gently and I think their service has a value THEN I can pay them directly, but ads get blocked, period. If I can't get on a site because they detect the adblocker I just close the tab and go somewhere else.

It's all this "let's try to fuck each other" mentality that annoys me, you will use some gratis service because you don't want to pay for stuff and they try to get some money off you using dirty tricks.

It's lame.

I want to pay for a service, so that I'm NOT the product.

[angrypie]

I want to pay for a service, so that I'm NOT the product.

Well, Adobe and Microsoft are innovating in this regard: you pay for a service but still are a product.

Is this a Windows forum now? Why are people here bending over to corporations?

[Vistaus]

Good. Now let Spotify and its competitors take note of this so that we will be able to transfer our music collection between different streaming services if we want to switch from service A to B.

[Guest]

Sounds like it's more about GDPR compliance, as someone else here noted.

[schmidtbag]

Did you know there are lots of data out there, collected by many interested parties, unrelated to any services to which you may have subscribed? It is collected, folded, spindled, mutilated, pushed, filed, stamped, index, briefed, debriefed, and numbered by observers and then traded, exchanged, bought, sold, marked up and marked down and exfiltrated all without your consent or awareness. This open source project is wonderful in that it lowers the barrier to entry of additional parties, and reduces the overhead for participants.

Do you know how little any of that matters, and doesn't dispute anything I said? They can do whatever they want with my info as long as it doesn't negatively impact my life in any way, directly or indirectly. As I stated before, having ads that are more targeted toward me isn't a negative impact. However, if they give my phone number to telemarkters, that's something worth complaining about.

tl:dr "I have nothing to hide"

Lol that's not the point.

I never said it was; I know that's not the point (though honestly - I don't have anything to hide). My point is people think they're more important than they really are, and that somehow their life is made worse by these companies as they voluntarily support these companies by using their products.

Data is used to elaborate strategies to control consumers (marketing), used for statistical analysis for whatever else, and so on and so forth.
In practice, it has higher value than what you are paid for it, and also carries the risk of being used against you.

How exactly is any of that a bad thing? How does this hurt me in any way that actually matters? What are these risks you speak of? It's not my problem if sheeple buy into the stupid crap marketed toward them.

Fuck ads. If they ask me gently and I think their service has a value THEN I can pay them directly, but ads get blocked, period. If I can't get on a site because they detect the adblocker I just close the tab and go somewhere else.

Right... because everything should just be given for free out of the kindness of everyone's hearts, right? What an appealing incentive, to be a developer or journalist who survives solely on donations or their country's welfare system. </sarcasm>
At least you have the decency to avoid the site in the event they deny you.

It's all this "let's try to fuck each other" mentality that annoys me, you will use some gratis service because you don't want to pay for stuff and they try to get some money off you using dirty tricks.

I'm perfectly fine with having a banner ad that my brain ignores on instinct while not having to pay for a service that is adequate for my needs. When a site or app uses pop-up ads or takes up more than 1/4 of my screen for an ad, I avoid it and where possible, will down-vote it.

I want to pay for a service, so that I'm NOT the product.

That's fair - I feel there aren't enough sites that give you the option. Though ads don't personally bother me that much, I completely understand why others hate them, and I don't think most sites realize that forcing ads with no paid ad-free subscription can seriously backfire. I think more sites should have the option.

[sjekkel]

[QUOTE=schmidtbag;n1037043]
I'm perfectly fine with having a banner ad that my brain ignores on instinct while not having to pay for a service that is adequate for my needs. When a site or app uses pop-up ads or takes up more than 1/4 of my screen for an ad, I avoid it and where possible, will down-vote it.


Lol, this shows how just how little you know. Your brain isn't ignoring it instinctively. What you're doing is exactly playing into the ads hands as ads try to get you on a subconscious level. If you want to prevent the ad from working on you you would have to do the exact opposite of "ignoring" it and analyse it instead so you can react rationally to it rather than have your instinct handle it.

[Luke]

I certainly agree with not using any of the big US cloud services (to which you are the product), but that is not enough.

One of the issues with Google and Facebook is that if you don't want to be used by them, it's not enough to not have an account and not visit their websites. You have to actively block their widgets, sharing buttons (especially the "like" button) etc on every site you use, and reject sites that don't work when Google and Facebook are blocked. I do not use any of their "services," block them in NoScript, with Disconnect, and again in /etc/hosts to limit leakage. If I see the logo of Google or Facebook on a page, I mouse over it to see if it is just a locally-served image for a hyperlink, or something else. If I see the latter I have to update my blocking setup.

No, you cannot use Netflix or log into Facebook on any computer I own. You can't use Forbes or any other website that serves the text through javascript, then uses that same JS to enforce ad-acceptance. These sites get a blank page rather than their anti-adblock popups, and I just close the tabs.

The other half is this: not being employed and not wanting anything I do online linked to a "real names" culture or database, I have no subscriptions to anything. The core sites I care the most about (and am one of the editors of one of them) do not allow advertising or use trackers at all. I could live with a model where there were NO free cloud providers because there were no ads, and where in order to publish content you had to physically host it yourself.

We computer users already own the hardware and already have at least half the bandwidth(by definition) to do all of our work on our own devices, using distributed hosting. Better yet would be to add mesh networking and cut the phone companies out(at least in urban areas) as well as the cloud hosts. Owner-operated UHF and microwave radio bridges in rural areas double as links between cities. No ads. subscriptions, no could hosting fees, and no ISP bills or refill cards either. Only the radio equipment (some ham gear can do it) is not already in the hands of those who would need it.

When Facebook and Google roll over and die because everyone blocks their ads, you will find each other on Diaspora-on your own hardware and without the snooping we get today.

[brrrrttttt]

This seems like a GDPR data portability compliance tool?

[schmidtbag]

Lol, this shows how just how little you know. Your brain isn't ignoring it instinctively. What you're doing is exactly playing into the ads hands as ads try to get you on a subconscious level. If you want to prevent the ad from working on you you would have to do the exact opposite of "ignoring" it and analyse it instead so you can react rationally to it rather than have your instinct handle it.

Wow, and just when I thought people here were clinging tight to their tin-foil hats, here you are, locking yourself up in a full-blown Faraday cage.
When an ad repeatedly shows up in the same location in a site you visit all the time, the ad can be effectively and entirely ignored. This is so well-known that there's a term for it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banner_blindness

This is a pretty well-researched topic, and there are other scientific papers on the matter.