Audiophile Style and User Tracking Code

[lucretius]

From the subscriptions page of Audiophile Style:

https://audiophilestyle.com/subscriptions/

"Our NEW Privacy First mode removes all user tracking code from the site, enabling you to browse Audiophile Style like it was 1999. Seriously though, subscribers have access to the Premium Audiophile Style theme that contains no tracking code, no phone-home ability, and provides zero information to us about you."

 

Does this mean that members without subscriptions are subject to user tracking code from Audiophile Style?  Thanks.  

 

[photonman]

Every time you fire up your computer and connect to this wild wild world (www) you are tracked whether you know it or not.  This subject goes way beyond AS all the way to systems such as China's national social credit database.  It is indeed a brave new world.

 

 

[John Dyson]

I have a very boring tracking history -- but when the computer starts watching me and listening to me without my permission (e.g. Alexa), then something needs to be done....

 

I do pretty aggressive things to avoid tracking on my computer -- I am a different person on a true mult-user computer when i want to avoid tracking, but the darned IPv6 address still points pretty accurately in my direction.

 

The cookies typically created on a browser are vast.  I am sure that I have NO idea about what is being tracked -- I don't like it, no-one does.  But there is a little bit of a firewall when logging in as a totally different user and even using a different browser, but not much really.

 

John

 

[lucretius]

Maybe I should be using double VPN, Onion over VPN, and/or theTOR network?

[firedog]

8 hours ago, lucretius said:

Maybe I should be using double VPN, Onion over VPN, and/or theTOR network?

Today, there's an issue with "fingerprinting" you via your browser and identifying you. It can be done without knowing your actual IP. Even this site does it, apparently.

[Matias]

Websites track you. Search engines track you. DNS tracks you. Browser tracks you. OS tracks you. Your cell phone tracks you. Messaging apps track you. Your TV tracks you.

Just give up, there is no running from all of this...

[firedog]

2 hours ago, Matias said:

Websites track you. Search engines track you. DNS tracks you. Browser tracks you. OS tracks you. Your cell phone tracks you. Messaging apps track you. Your TV tracks you.

Just give up, there is no running from all of this...

The solution is to demand that lawmakers pass legislation restricting the location and personal data companies are allowed to collect and use, at least without paying for the right. No reason personal data, which has commercial value, should be available to anyone with an app - certainly not for free, and maybe not at all. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

21 hours ago, lucretius said:

Does this mean that members without subscriptions are subject to user tracking code from Audiophile Style?  Thanks.  

We use Google Analytics for our tracking code. The amount of data Google actually gives us as publishers is incredibly small compared to what it collects. Over the years this data has also become close to meaningless as it's blocked so easily. When I look at the percentage of readers who block Google Analytics code here on AS, I frequently ask myself why I still have it enabled. 

[Allan F]

10 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

When I look at the percentage of readers who block Google Analytics code here on AS, I frequently ask myself why I still have it enabled. 

 

And the answer is...? (I know, I know, it was a rhetorical question.)

[kirkmc]

On 2/24/2020 at 4:13 PM, The Computer Audiophile said:

We use Google Analytics for our tracking code. The amount of data Google actually gives us as publishers is incredibly small compared to what it collects. Over the years this data has also become close to meaningless as it's blocked so easily. When I look at the percentage of readers who block Google Analytics code here on AS, I frequently ask myself why I still have it enabled. 

 

I turned it off a few months ago on my websites. They all run on WordPress, so I get stats through WordPress, but the compromise of giving Google data on my users, and not getting much in return, pushed me to dump them. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just received this email from AVTech Media (Stereophile, etc...). It made me think of this thread with respect to information collecting and worse. It looks like AVTech Media is renting out everyone's information. "Targeted list Rental" and "psychographic list rental" dont' sound like anything I want a part of. 

 

P.S. Did they really use Comic Sans for this?

 

 

[kumakuma]

14 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Just received this email from AVTech Media (Stereophile, etc...). It made me think of this thread with respect to information collecting and worse. It looks like AVTech Media is renting out everyone's information. "Targeted list Rental" and "psychographic list rental" dont' sound like anything I want a part of. 

 

P.S. Did they really use Comic Sans for this?

 

Of course, AVTech Media is renting out their subscriber lists. It's how they can basically give away subscriptions to their magazines.

 

By the way, almost all magazines do the same thing:

 

https://lists.nextmark.com 

[The Computer Audiophile]

4 minutes ago, kumakuma said:

 

Of course, AVTech Media is renting out their subscriber lists. It's how they can basically give away subscriptions to their magazines.

 

By the way, almost all magazines do the same thing:

 

https://lists.nextmark.com 

 

Yuck.

 

[kumakuma]

15 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

Yuck.

 

 

I'm okay with it. I get lots of interesting mail because of my subscriptions to various publications.

 

By the way, it might make you feel better to know that companies are renting, not buying, your personal information. Mailing list are rented on a per-use basis and are seeded with fake names to prevent renters from stealing the list. Those renting a mailing list usually also need to provide the list owner or manager with samples of what's going to be mailed out.

 

 

[MikeyFresh]

On 3/2/2020 at 2:25 PM, kumakuma said:

By the way, almost all magazines do the same thing:

 

... and have been doing so for decades, however many folks jump to the erroneous conclusion that their email address is being rented. It is not, that would violate the CAN-SPAM act of 2003.

 

The lists available for rental are for postal address marketing, for example the Stereophile list is probably rented by the likes of MusicDirect or Acoustic Sounds a couple of times per year, to send qualified high affinity prospects a catalog via the USPS. No big deal.

 

For them to legally rent your email address, you'd have needed to formally opt-in to that, and since no one would, they don't even try.

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 minutes ago, MikeyFresh said:

The lists available for rental are for postal address marketing, for example the Stereophile list is probably rented by the likes of MusicDirect or Acoustic Sounds a couple of times per year, to send qualified high affinity prospects a catalog via the USPS. No big deal.

Your glasses are a bright rose color :~)

[MikeyFresh]

2 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Your glasses are a bright rose color :~)

 

Catalogs and sales flyers have been mailed literally since the time of Ben Franklin, and mailed large scale since Montgomery Ward (1872) and Sears (1888).

 

Reputable entities do not make their email lists available ever, nor do reputable marketers wish to use email for prospecting unless it can be proven and certified that the list has undergone an opt-in procedure for 3rd party offers. Otherwise both the list owner and mailer would be in violation of the law.

 

On 3/2/2020 at 2:46 PM, kumakuma said:

I'm okay with it. I get lots of interesting mail because of my subscriptions to various publications.

 

Me too, and what I'm not interested in goes right in the recycle bin, again, no big deal.

 

On 3/2/2020 at 2:46 PM, kumakuma said:

By the way, it might make you feel better to know that companies are renting, not buying, your personal information. Mailing list are rented on a per-use basis and are seeded with fake names to prevent renters from stealing the list. Those renting a mailing list usually also need to provide the list owner or manager with samples of what's going to be mailed out.

 

Absolutely, and that makes perfect sense when you consider many companies' single most valuable asset is their customer list. They would never in a million years allow it's use by disreputable parties, or for offers they haven't approved. They would only actually sell the list (as opposed to rent it for a single use mailing) in the event they were closing their doors, at that point the list is typically sold to a competitor.

 

EDIT: I stand corrected, using @kumakuma's link I searched for a Stereophile email list and it does in fact exist. This means they have opted-in a portion of the readership to receive 3rd party communication. I am surprised by that, I wonder what incentive they provided to entice that.