Sure, this would be a huge disadvantage. But that is no reason not to have a discussion about it. The HN community relys heavily on analytical services, and there is a bias against privacy advocates or anything that would bring change to how the web functions right now. The www does evolve, and some decisions from the past may have to be reverted.
Would such a change be difficult? Would it shift the burdon of analytics? Sure!
But be open minded: The real world is full of analytics, but for most of them you have to opt-in. When I go into a bank, I don't want the bank to know that I was rejected 10 times that same day somewhere else. I want a fair chance on my loan. I don't want my girlfriend to know that I browsed a webstore for some medication a week ago. Analytics provider could know all that. And they can reassure that they will not use that information, but the point here is to prevent the accumulation of it in the first place.
What would happen if someone would hack an analytics provider, and put all this stuff online? Type in an IP address, and I give you all I know about that IP adress. Nobody is doing it, because the data is anonymous, so it's hard to cash it in. But it certainly would destroy some lifes or marriages.
I believe the problem the legislator is trying to solve here it to prevent the crossreference that analytics- and ad-provider facilitate across different web-pages. And I believe this is a honorable goal.
Off topic: It used to be that your credit report was only updated every 24 hours so if you were denied credit at a bank your best bet would be to go to other banks that same day. I guess it's faster now though.
Would such a change be difficult? Would it shift the burdon of analytics? Sure!
But be open minded: The real world is full of analytics, but for most of them you have to opt-in. When I go into a bank, I don't want the bank to know that I was rejected 10 times that same day somewhere else. I want a fair chance on my loan. I don't want my girlfriend to know that I browsed a webstore for some medication a week ago. Analytics provider could know all that. And they can reassure that they will not use that information, but the point here is to prevent the accumulation of it in the first place.
What would happen if someone would hack an analytics provider, and put all this stuff online? Type in an IP address, and I give you all I know about that IP adress. Nobody is doing it, because the data is anonymous, so it's hard to cash it in. But it certainly would destroy some lifes or marriages.
I believe the problem the legislator is trying to solve here it to prevent the crossreference that analytics- and ad-provider facilitate across different web-pages. And I believe this is a honorable goal.