[liberationtech] FB-like "Twitter-connect" soon. How can we avoid all this tracking?

[Sarah A. Downey]

There's no binary in DNT+'s code, so you may want to check your facts.

I'll respond to your "everything must be open source" statement, although
I'm fairly certain it won't have any effect on your opinion that "closed"
always equals "bad."  And please keep in mind that we're giving away a *free
*add-on with *zero *tracking of or advertising to its users.

It's an unnecessarily restrictive and self-handicapping position that
software *must *be open source to be useful for privacy.  Plenty of open
source privacy tools have come and gone in the past because they aren't
sustainable without funding.

Our software does what it says, and it's designed to be simple enough that
the vast majority of Internet users--people who aren't coders or
particularly tech savvy--can use it.  It also represents an inordinate
amount of time, effort, and intellectual endeavor; years of work that
simply wouldn't have been possible as a side project to supplement a paying
job.  There's nothing wrong with getting paid.  Financing allowed us to
create what we did.  It's a double-edged sword:  our VC funding provided
the resources to create what we did, which means that our investors
wouldn't be thrilled if we turned around and gave away our IP.  We're
already giving the product away for free without any monetary gain from it.

You can categorically write off software because it's not open source, but
you'll miss a lot of legitimate opportunities for privacy protection.

-Sarah

On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 10:47 AM, The Dod <unclezzzen at gmail.com> wrote:

>  Unless I'm mistaken, your source code isn't publicly available.
> I don't see how binary files could be part of any privacy solution.
>
>
> On 05/25/2012 07:35 PM, Sarah A. Downey wrote:
>
> I'm writing to suggest a tech solution.  I'm an attorney and privacy
> analyst at an online privacy startup in Boston called Abine<http://abine.com/>,
> and we developed a tracker-blocking browser add-on called DoNotTrackPlus<http://abine.com/dntdetail.php>(DNT+) with unique capabilities around social button tracker blocking.  My
> response contains elements of shameless pluggery, but it's so relevant to
> the OP's call for a solution that I had to weigh in.
>
>
>


-- 
*Sarah A. Downey*
Privacy Analyst  |  Attorney
Abine, The Online Privacy Company
t:  @SarahADowney  |  p:  800.928.1987
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