EU plans to give users the ability to customize algorithm's or opt out of them.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

Summary

the EU is planning to give users of social media platforms the ability to customize what they get to see, or opt out of any algorithm's entirely. 

 

Quotes

(it's in dutch sorry, i've provided a google translate translation of the part of the article i used.)

Quote

Meer openheid

Nu tasten gebruikers bijvoorbeeld nog grotendeels in het duister over waarom ze bepaalde berichten bovenaan hun tijdlijn te zien krijgen. Andere berichten zien gebruikers pas veel later of zelfs helemaal niet. Platforms bepalen dit via algoritmes, maar hoeven geen openheid te geven over hoe die algoritmes werken.

Dat moet veranderen, vindt de Europese Commissie. Facebook en YouTube moeten aan gebruikers duidelijk maken waarom bepaalde artikelen of video's aangeraden worden.

Verder moeten gebruikers de mogelijkheid krijgen dit aan te passen. Daarbij moet in ieder geval de optie zitten dat platforms geen aanbevelingen meer doen op basis van een profiel. Gebruikers moeten zo hun privacy beter kunnen beschermen.


GOOGLE TRANSLATE TRANSLATION:

More openness

For example, users are still largely in the dark about why they see certain messages at the top of their timeline. Users don't see other messages until much later or not at all. Platforms determine this via algorithms, but do not need to be open about how those algorithms work.

 

That must change, says the European Commission. Facebook and YouTube must make clear to users why certain articles or videos are recommended.

Furthermore, users should be given the option to adjust this. In any case, this should include the option that platforms no longer make recommendations based on a profile. Users should be able to better protect their privacy.

 

 

My thoughts

i'm very happy about this, for now you had to go to so called "alt-tech" sites for this stuff, which had little to no content on it, so i'm really glad that in the proposed plan the big platforms will be forced to do this too. 

 

Sources

https://nos.nl/artikel/2360717-europese-plannen-voor-online-platforms-meer-openheid-strenger-op-inhoud.html

[Bananasplit_00]

Nice, not that I see this actually happening but it would definitely be a big step forward from the black box wild west were in

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

1 minute ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

Nice, not that I see this actually happening but it would definitely be a big step forward from the black box wild west were in

the EU has put some significant legislation on big tech companies before...

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

Just now, Tedny said:

so, prompt for cookies will be choice now 

what? the cookie prompt is an entirely different law. 

 

also despite living in the EU i haven't seen one in forever, i use a chrome extention that gets rid of the warnings. 

[AlTech]

If it really turns out to be a an opt out of algorithms if you can't change them then that would be super cool.

 

Imagine a YouTube where there is no over-bearing alogorithm if you opt out...

 

As a side note, not sure how that would apply to hosted Web APIs since if you don't like the algorithms the solution now is just don't use them.

[Sauron]

I'm afraid this would turn into the same situation as GDPR where you either accept everything or have to go through a needlessly complex system to manually check out of everything individually

[Drama Lama]

Let's hope it will get adopted in a way that really works. remember it's just a plan for a EU that if passed still has to be converted into national law

[Drama Lama]

25 minutes ago, Ashley said:

i use a chrome extention that gets rid of the warnings. 

does it get rid of the tracking or just the warnings

[SpaceGhostC2C]

Ah, 2020, the year when "sort by" needs to be protected by law!

I'm glad to be so old that incomplete, mysteriously ordered lists make sites very unappealing to me  

 

 

31 minutes ago, Tedny said:

so, prompt for cookies will be choice now 

It already is, if you connect from the EU.

4 minutes ago, Drama Lama said:

does it get rid of the tracking or just the warnings

Just the warning - I guess it auto-accepts all tracking for you (or if you're outside of the EU, it just auto-clicks the dismiss button).

[Mark Kaine]

Facebook BLOCKED 

TWITTER BLOCKED (wait where'd I get my pr0n? ) 

Google BLOCKED 

Youtube? BLOCKED 

 

Sign me up! 

 

19 minutes ago, Drama Lama said:

Let's hope it will get adopted in a way that really works. remember it's just a plan for a EU that if passed still has to be converted into national law

this will never work lol 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

21 minutes ago, Drama Lama said:

does it get rid of the tracking or just the warnings

just the warnings. it auto dismisses the warning basically. 

 

 

4 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Facebook BLOCKED 

TWITTER BLOCKED (wait where'd I get my pr0n? ) 

Google BLOCKED 

Youtube? BLOCKED 

 

Sign me up! 

uuh no?

 

4 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

this will never work lol 

how so?

[Bananasplit_00]

1 hour ago, Ashley said:

the EU has put some significant legislation on big tech companies before...

Yah I just don't see them giving much of a fuck unless the consequences are really fat. GDPR was a sweet so I'm hoping for another one of those

[Doobeedoo]

That'd be great, should've been as default already, but yeah may not happen in general across the board.

[RejZoR]

2 hours ago, Tedny said:

so, prompt for cookies will be choice now 

I hate those damn things. Just use minimum required cookies and don't bug me with moronic cookie banners. They purposely made them so obnoxious because EU mandated them on all webpages and wasn't by their choice.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

36 minutes ago, Grand Admiral Thrawn said:

 

Well I hope it does not act like pressing the X button thingies. Some sites I have visited had basically this in their policy: "If you press X to close this prompt, you agree to everything".

i don't even care if it does. i have the windows diagnostic stuff on too by choice, everything i do is being tracked anyway lmao

[Gamer Schnitzel]

This won't mean anything. They need to cut the issue at the source and stop those websites gathering the information IN THE FIRST PLACE.

If this just deactivates YOU from seeing the algorithm on your screen but the server still has the data to use the algorithm this is literally pointless.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

2 hours ago, Gamer Schnitzel said:

This won't mean anything. They need to cut the issue at the source and stop those websites gathering the information IN THE FIRST PLACE.

If this just deactivates YOU from seeing the algorithm on your screen but the server still has the data to use the algorithm this is literally pointless.

literallty the last part of the quote fromt he article:

 

Quote

 In any case, this should include the option that platforms no longer make recommendations based on a profile. Users should be able to better protect their privacy.

 

[Mark Kaine]

16 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

Yah I just don't see them giving much of a fuck unless the consequences are really fat. GDPR was a sweet so I'm hoping for another one of those

was it? there a tons of sites who don't give a f if you request deletion of your data, some really big sites too... 

 

And am I supposed to sue them now or go to my EU "Abgeordneten"? lmfao 

 

All GDPR brought to me is huge notification banners for tracking that often *cannot* be used to disable any tracking or are just so cluttered that it would take an hour or so to dismiss them all... 

 

I just immediately leave such sites, but it's still annoying as heck. 

[Bananasplit_00]

2 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

was it? there a tons of sites who don't give a f if you request deletion of your data, some really big sites too... 

 

And am I supposed to sue them now or go to my EU "Abgeordneten"? lmfao 

 

All GDPR brought to me is huge notification banners for tracking that often *cannot* be used to disable any tracking or are just so cluttered that it would take an hour or so to dismiss them all... 

 

I just immediately leave such sites, but it's still annoying as heck. 

I'm not saying it's been perfect but I think the legislation itself was a huge win. GDPR was not only about cookies and shit too, it's also a powerful tool if you discover some site is leaking personal data or whatever. I can report those sites to an agency and they will handle accordingly if they don't fix it.

 

It could use some revision to make sure that there is an easy way to opt out of everything instead of needing to click 70000 tickboxes but over all I think GDPR has been a good thing so far.

[Mark Kaine]

2 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

I'm not saying it's been perfect but I think the legislation itself was a huge win. GDPR was not only about cookies and shit too, it's also a powerful tool if you discover some site is leaking personal data or whatever. I can report those sites to an agency and they will handle accordingly if they don't fix it.

 

It could use some revision to make sure that there is an easy way to opt out of everything instead of needing to click 70000 tickboxes but over all I think GDPR has been a good thing so far.

There should definitely be a mandatory software option in devices *especially* such as Android Smartphones that simply automatically deny or allow this stuff, it's one of those things we're it shows the people making these laws don't really understand the matters... 

 

Tho I agree overall it surely is good, tho as said currently I don't really see a benefit for me as an average consumer, just more annoyances lol.