The Trusted Partners of Tumblr; a fairy tale.

Not being a Tumblr user sort of has its benefits. One is that, well, you’re not using Tumblr. The other one is you never accepted their cookie and tracking policy and can have a beautiful view into not only how ad tracking works, but a bit into dark patterns, and how companies, that really don’t want to, reluctantly comply with the GDPR.

Let’s look at the particular example of Tumblr! I’ll be honest, this is the first time since (presumably; see also: GDPR) last May that I actually dug into what they want you to accept without thinking. Luckily Tumblr is a site that you don’t really have to see (especially since, you know, the purge… would say a lot of other guys), so whenever I was presented with their full screen consent request by accidentally clicking a link I just closed the tab. But now I had some free time to read, and I went down the rabbit hole. Continue reading The Trusted Partners of Tumblr; a fairy tale.

Take the power (of my data) back.

So I have been rocking my own Nextcloud instance for a while.

I could say inspired by this tweet…

…but that wouldn’t be true, as I installed it some time before that, and have tested/piloted it by then.

It’s a Nextcloud on one of my servers. It works. I like it. Continue reading Take the power (of my data) back.

So I tried to deactivate my Facebook account.

I have been de facto inactive on Facebook for a long time. Haven’t used it, haven’t checked it (and it feels good), so I thought let’s deactivate it.

Except I need to keep Messenger, because that’s where friends from the old country are. (Yes, I need to convert them to something better, but that’s a separate issue.)

To tell the truth, I have tried deactivating my account before, but somehow always got reactivated, and I never really had time to understand how and why. “Some dark pattern”, I presumed, but didn’t really have time to investigate — until now. Continue reading So I tried to deactivate my Facebook account.