Disqus comments adding third-party ad-tracking

Re:Disqus comments adding third-party ad-tracking by tombrossman on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @04:23AM (#15337052)

Closed source means users unable to verify your marketing claims about tracking. Privacy conscious users like myself would prefer an open-source commenting platform, even one with tracking, since we could verify how it worked (and also take it a step further and circumvent tracking by examining the source).

Also, what's to prevent a provider from double-dipping? If you can sell the product plus your users data you can presumably generate even more income. For example, mobile phone carriers sell monthly plans to users and some sell users location and usage data (usually "anonymised") to advertisers.

I don't mean to imply that you are doing these things, or that you ever would, but without independent verification by a trusted third-party, all the users have to go on are your marketing claims. What's your plan for dealing with sceptical users?

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Re:Disqus comments adding third-party ad-tracking by ploggingdev on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @04:42AM (#15337140)

I guess I'll have to earn trust the long, hard way :

* clear policies on how user data is handled

* explicit commitment to never sell user data to third parties

* transparency about any specific concerns users might have

* no dark patterns to trick users or website owners

* a track record of good decision making and staying true to the commitment to privacy

And for people who find me through forums (including HN) or via my blog, I think my privacy + no bullsh*t leanings are pretty clear.

Since I'm solo and bootstrapped, I don't know what options I have regarding independent verification of my claims, but if I get to a point where I can explore such options, I'm all for third party verification of my claims.

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Re:Disqus comments adding third-party ad-tracking by anon335dtzbvc on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @04:53AM (#15337176)

Could you tell why you choose to make it closed source?

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Re:Disqus comments adding third-party ad-tracking by reitanqild on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @06:24AM (#15337481)

Not op, but here is an obvious and valid one: Because it is easier to monetize that way.

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Re:Disqus comments adding third-party ad-tracking by bigbugbag on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @08:24AM (#15337975)

To prevent people self-hosting and selling an overpriced service to people who do not know better and will be disappointed when the service closes or when they want to migrate their data to another service.

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Re:Disqus comments adding third-party ad-tracking by gsich on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @08:19AM (#15337942)

You don't make money with open source unless you are big enough.

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Re:Disqus comments adding third-party ad-tracking by tombrossman on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @04:57AM (#15337190)

Appreciate the quick response. That's a very good list, and I would only add "all user data will be deleted if service is sold to another company" to it.

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Re:Disqus comments adding third-party ad-tracking by bigbugbag on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @08:26AM (#15337986)

What do you mean user data ? As in every commenter owns his comment or as in the paying customer owns the data from the commenters ?

This may make quite a legal difference when the justice system gets eventually involved.

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Re:Disqus comments adding third-party ad-tracking by TeMPOraL on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @05:58AM (#15337401)

Most of those are not a problem with closed source per-se (closed source binaries you run yourself can still be inspected, monitored and even reversed). It's a problem with SaaS model. Even if you open-source everything, how can I know you're actually running the same code you've open-sourced? I can't. And since most SaaS businesses track users like there's no tomorrow, you get perfectly reasonable distrust by default.

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