Here's How to Opt Out of Data Collection(?) and Display

[Skyler Pancake]

We're currently in the process of refining the process and creating public statements in regards to the opt out feature. No one involved in the project ever expected the level of attention received. Please bare with us while the changes are being made.

 

If you do change your mind, please note you can add yourself again by simply messaging "opt in."

[Theresa Tennyson]

5 minutes ago, Count Burks said:

For those in doubt about data scraping, data harvesting and data collecting. There is nothing that can collect or harvest data from you or your belongings without being granted permission, especially not some third party in Second Life. 

Case in point, Google is the largest data scraper in the world indexing billions of websites. Does that mean just because google is able to find your website it can index everything from your website as it sees fit just because it can? Well no, there is such a thing called ROBOTS.TXT where you can stipulate exactly what Google or any other search bot can harvest from your website. 

Why does ROBOTS.TXT exists? Answer: To save Google from a lot of legal trouble.

 

 

 

Here's a description of what ROBOTS.TXT really does directly from Google, including the bold-faced line, it is not a mechanism for keeping a web page out of Google.

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro

[TimKoul]

1 minute ago, Skyler Pancake said:

No one involved in the project ever expected the level of attention received.

Oh look, it's the generic 'we never expected this' response lol

[OscarSand]

I opted out by sending an instant message to said resident. 5 hours later my name still appears in the search results despite the automated reply saying it would take an hour.

[Ceka Cianci]

3 minutes ago, colleen Criss said:

I'm just floored that in SL we have to opt out of this kind of thing at all. Didn't we sign an agreement about privacy when we created our accounts? This is pretty nonchalant on LL's responses.

We had to  set the filters on our web profiles once they first came in.. They were wide open at first..  Media is  turned on in  the viewer by default, unless that's changed over time..

We have to opt out of a lot of things in SL from the get go.

[Ezbeharra]

10 minutes ago, Count Burks said:

For those in doubt about data scraping, data harvesting and data collecting. There is nothing that can collect or harvest data from you or your belongings without being granted permission, especially not some third party in Second Life. 

Case in point, Google is the largest data scraper in the world indexing billions of websites. Does that mean just because google is able to find your website it can index everything from your website as it sees fit just because it can? Well no, there is such a thing called ROBOTS.TXT where you can stipulate exactly what Google or any other search bot can harvest from your website. 

Why does ROBOTS.TXT exists? Answer: To save Google from a lot of legal trouble.

The same applies in Second Life where the Linden Lab Search Engine even needs to come and ask permission to index one of your objects or parcels or even your entire region.

 

To index a particular Object in Second Life even the Second Life Search Algorithm must be granted permission by the Object Creator or Owner to index a single Object. 

But starting from this week a bot can come to harvest everything without being granted any form of permission just because it can. Then use this data as the bot farmer sees fit?

Yeah okay this is just wrong. Nothing binds web crawler bots to obey robots.txt and in fact a large number of them completely ignore it. It is, at best, a request.

If I am in SL as a user, and in the same region as you, I can know your location and your attachments. By itself, that's fine, and necessary for SL to function. And if I send out hundreds of myself all over the place to create up to date lists of everyone's locations and attachments, that's kind of a different matter, isn't it?

[Theresa Tennyson]

9 minutes ago, Skyler Pancake said:

We're currently in the process of refining the process and creating public statements in regards to the opt out feature. No one involved in the project ever expected the level of attention received. Please bare with us while the changes are being made.

Oh? What did people say when you told them what you were planning to do?

[EliseAnne85]

13 minutes ago, Skyler Pancake said:

We're currently in the process of refining the process and creating public statements in regards to the opt out feature. No one involved in the project ever expected the level of attention received. Please bare with us while the changes are being made.

 

If you do change your mind, please note you can add yourself again by simply messaging "opt in."

Once a resident engages with a bot via the personal IM, can said bot IM that person again at any time?  IOW, is said bot collecting the usernames of those who messaged it?

Edited January 26, 2023 by EliseAnne85

[Ayashe Ninetails]

1 hour ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Hi all,

As per their recent agreement with Linden Lab, BonnieBot.com now offers the ability for both individuals and merchants to "opt-out" of their web site.

It's unclear what "opting out" means -- whether they will stop harvesting your data, or simply stop displaying it (my suspicion is the latter). And, as there has been no effort that I've yet seen to ensure that residents even know that their data is being harvested, and that opting out is an option, this really should be an "opt-in" process . . . but that's a fight for a different day.

For now, you have two options for "opting out."

I would strongly suggest that those who wish to opt out choose the former method, as the latter exposes your email address to an organization that is apparently busily scraping as much data as they can lay their hands on.

There are a great many questions still to be answered about this site, but for now we seem at least to be able to have our information (including Premium and Premium Plus status) removed from the public-facing portion of this site.

Is there going to be an official statement from LL about this? Blog post, in-world notice, tweet, login message, TP message, something? 

I'd be surprised if most people (if any) on my friends list and in various Discords even know this type of thing is occurring to begin with. They don't read the forums.

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Hi all,

As per their recent agreement with Linden Lab, BonnieBot.com now offers the ability for both individuals and merchants to "opt-out" of their web site.

If the opt-out occurs via e-mail or website, I think that potentially exposes a user's IP address for collection. Are we opting out of a low level privacy breach by opting into a higher level one?

[Scylla Rhiadra]

6 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Is there going to be an official statement from LL about this? Blog post, in-world notice, tweet, login message, TP message, something? 

I'd be surprised if most people (if any) on my friends list and in various Discords even know this type of thing is occurring to begin with. They don't read the forums.

That would be nice, wouldn't it?

This is very much the problem -- well, one of the problems -- with the "opt out" approach LL has apparently agreed to. As you note, the vast majority of people in-world don't even know their data is being harvested, yet alone that they can opt out of it. LL has, I believe, a responsibility to find a way to ensure that ALL residents are informed.

[CarlaWetter]

12 minutes ago, EliseAnne85 said:

IOW, is said bot collecting the usernames of those who messaged it?

As that's how their system has to ascertain who opted out you can be absolutely sure that they do have the username of the person opting out.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 minute ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

If the opt-out occurs via e-mail or website, I think that potentially exposes a user's IP address for collection. Are we opting out of a low level privacy breach by opting into a higher level one?

Yep. Again, as I noted in the OP, I strongly suggest using an in-world IM to opt out for just that reason.

[Ezbeharra]

Just now, Madelaine McMasters said:

If the opt-out occurs via e-mail or website, I think that potentially exposes a user's IP address for collection. Are we opting out of a low level privacy breach by opting into a higher level one?

If you use any kind of normal email service for normal people then sending an email will not reveal your IP address but it will certainly give them your email address. However, since there's no way to know the email address for any given SL account, it's not clear how they would be able to verify that you are opting yourself out and not some other person. You can also use burner addresses for this same reason, whether it's for yourself or, just hypothetically speaking, every user in the SL database.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Ezbeharra said:

If you use any kind of normal email service for normal people then sending an email will not reveal your IP address but it will certainly give them your email address. However, since there's no way to know the email address for any given SL account, it's not clear how they would be able to verify that you are opting yourself out and not some other person. You can also use burner addresses for this same reason, whether it's for yourself or, just hypothetically speaking, every user in the SL database.

I wonder how long it would take to produce a bot that sent emails opting all of SL out of this?

😉

Poetic justice?

[EliseAnne85]

19 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Yep. Again, as I noted in the OP, I strongly suggest using an in-world IM to opt out for just that reason.

If said bot is collecting usernames, what's to keep it from spamming or sending links en masse to all the usernames at another time?  

As I said before, don't click on any links a bot may send you or me or anyone.  Enable 2fa SLers if you haven't already.. before you engage with bots.

Edited January 26, 2023 by EliseAnne85

[Silent Mistwalker]

1 hour ago, Ezbeharra said:

So I can send an email to opt anyone I want out of data collection.

If you are volunteering, I know a few people who have around 100 accounts each. 🤭

 

 

No, not me. lol I only have 4 active accounts and one that's been in limbo for years. 😁

[colleen Criss]

Why would SL merchants want their monthly earnings known?

[Elsa Ewing]

The simple solution IMHO is that the Bees continue their bot hobby, but simply leave out all the names of SL residents in what they publish on their website.
So no profiles from residents on their website, no individual earnings or landholdings or whatever is possible to harvest and connect to Second Life residents.

And if there is something to opt, it always should be opt in.
- I sell you a house, unless you opt out.
- You buy our expensive insurances unless you opt out
That is not how it should work, is it?

Edited January 26, 2023 by Elsa Ewing

[Silent Mistwalker]

53 minutes ago, Skyler Pancake said:

We're currently in the process of refining the process and creating public statements in regards to the opt out feature. No one involved in the project ever expected the level of attention received. Please bare with us while the changes are being made.

 

If you do change your mind, please note you can add yourself again by simply messaging "opt in."

It should have been opt-in to begin with. Now I have to go through all of my accounts AGAIN just to opt out of something I never would have opted in for in the first place. 

SL is fast becoming an unfun place to be.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Now I have to go through all of my accounts AGAIN just to opt out of something I never would have opted in for in the first place. 

Oh my, you've reminded me - I need to opt-out LoveX also!

[Elsa Ewing]

11 minutes ago, colleen Criss said:

Why would SL merchants want their monthly earnings known?

I know exactly how many peanuts my (over here well known) alt earns every month from selling and designing for Second Life without third party websites.
His SL wallet is made of onion leather. When you have a look inside, you start to weep.
 

Edited January 26, 2023 by Elsa Ewing

[Silent Mistwalker]

52 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

Media is  turned on in  the viewer by default, unless that's changed over time..

Unless FS changed it back, FS media has been turned off by default since RZ.

[Ardy Lay]

1 hour ago, Skyler Pancake said:

Please bare with us while the changes are being made.

I am not going to bare anything for you as you have seen too much already!

[CharlotteStargazer]

1 hour ago, Skyler Pancake said:

We're currently in the process of refining the process and creating public statements in regards to the opt out feature. No one involved in the project ever expected the level of attention received. Please bare with us while the changes are being made.

 

If you do change your mind, please note you can add yourself again by simply messaging "opt in."

"We had no idea people would be so concerned about this, and in our defense we thought no one would find out!"