Comments on post “Dataselfie”
Melinda Byerley
@mjb_sf · Founding Partner, TimeShareCMO
How do we know this is safe to use and not stealing our data?
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Shakti mb
@shakti_mb
@mjb_sf It's open source, how could it be stealing your data?
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Keith Hanson
@keith_hanson · CEO, Twin Engine Labs
@shakti_mb @mjb_sf Erm. While I am no security geek, this was the first comment I saw and I wanted to just make you aware - that I feel it's very dangerous thinking when you say "how could open source software steal your data?".
This project itself is likely not stealing data, the APIs it sends the treasure trove of data to may. Likely not, but may. In their very readable FAQ for ApplyMagicSauce.com, they state in the "Use of Information" section the following (my emphasis added):
"The information you submit to the website may be stored and used for academic and *business* purposes, and also disclosed to *third parties*, for example (but *not limited to*) other research institutions. Any disclosure will be strictly in an *anonymous format*, such that the information can never be used to identify you or any other individual user."
This tool's first fundamental purpose is to harvest your data, then analyze it. It uses third parties to do the analysis, and thus, passes along your harvested data to them, effectively "stealing" or facilitating it.
Of the currently used third parties (IBM Watson and ApplyMagicSauce), only ApplyMagicSauce claims to submit information to OTHER parties or use it for "business purposes" - which is very very vague.
And arguably, the data THIS tool collects (gaze time, clicks, etc) is way, way, way more valuable than your actual post content itself. Just my 2cents that, yes it's open source, but you need to go deeper to prove your data isn't being "stolen".
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