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Cassidy James Blaede

I heard something that really bothered me on a recent podcast. With GDPR stuff happening today, it felt particularly relevant.

If you have a checked-by-default "consent" to collecting user data, THAT IS CALLED AN OPT-OUT, not an opt-in.

The user must read, understand, and consider if they want to change the default, WHICH IS TO COLLECT USER DATA. Users who don't understand it, are in a hurry, or just aren't paying attention are then giving away their data WITHOUT MAKING AN ACTIVE CHOICE to do so.

You also can't, then, say, "60% of people opt into data collection!" NO. 40% of people who were given the option read it, consider their choice, and actively decided that unchecking the box is the thing they want to do. The other 60%? Who knows. They might have just missed it.

Also consider: 40% of your users ACTIVELY changing a default setting is INCREDIBLY high. Like, maybe reconsider-your-defaults high. I bet if you make it an actual opt-in where users must actively choose to give you their data, you will get a much, much smaller pool of users.

If the point it to respect user privacy, that is exactly what you would do regardless of the number of people opting in or out. But if the point is to collect as much data as possible, of course you'd leave it opt-out and hope people don't care enough to understand the choice.

(Apologies for the all-caps bits, but there's not really a better way to emphasize text here!)