New privacy pop up? What happened?

[Wires_Guy_wires]

When visiting bonsainut I'm suddenly surprised by a pop up requesting permission to use my precise location and link devices.
The general stuff we see on almost every website with vendors and consent.
The stuff I was happy to not see on this site.

What happened? Does this imply there will be a bonsainut.com Premium for paying users?

 

[BobbyLane]

Im getting this too, was just asking someone if it looks legit and not a scam.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Im getting this too, was just asking someone if it looks legit and not a scam.

It looks legit, but I'm not sure if it's meant to be here.

 

[leatherback]

EU rules for websites I suppose. EU requires all websites to get consent and more crap that no individual user is waiting for.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

EU rules for websites I suppose. EU requires all websites to get consent and more crap that no individual user is waiting for.

Oh absolutely, but bonsainut used to work with non invasive ads based on the website profile instead of making a visitor profile if memory serves me right. Which is why we got those funky ads sometimes.
EU rules like this have been around for a while now, more than a year, and I never had this popup before.

 

[Kievnstavick]

I have not encountered this privacy/consent screen as a USA user. So it maybe a European thing unless others in the America's have encountered it.

Would you happen to be able to tell If it is a pop-up originating from your web browser and not the site itself.

I don't know anything about running websites (so I am just spitballing here). I can't imagine a US based website needing to comply with EU laws in order for you to access it. I can imagine the web browser installed on your device needing to comply with local laws though.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

When visiting bonsainut I'm suddenly surprised by a pop up requesting permission to use my precise location and link devices.
The general stuff we see on almost every website with vendors and consent.
The stuff I was happy to not see on this site.

What happened? Does this imply there will be a bonsainut.com Premium for paying users?

It has to do with new EU privacy permissions. I am not 100% certain of everything that has changed - because I don't live in the EU - but I know I had to approve a new privacy statement for our Google ads.

Nothing has changed with the site. As before, I do not ask for any personal information aside from a registration email. You may decide to share your name - or not - it does not matter to me.

The permission to link devices is a new one... I'm not sure what it means except that if you log in with the same credentials on different devices the two devices will show the same updated status(?)

And precise location is also new. I can never really know your precise location - I can just know the IP address that you post from, if I so care to look up that information. Most people post from numerous IP addresses - depending upon where they are and what device they use to log into the site. For example if I happen to be traveling in Europe and visit the site as I travel, I can post from over a dozen IP addresses that week. The only time IP addresses really come into play is with spammers - when I get a red flag for a new registration, for example, and they are trying to register from a known spam server in Russia... I can block the registration. But in terms of knowing something like where you live (exactly) your street address, etc - no I do not and can not know that.

FWIW I just looked at your account and you have posted to the site from literally hundreds of IP addresses - which should be no surprise for anyone with a cell phone, where each time you turn on the cell phone, or move to a different area you get a new IP address. Aside from knowing that you post a lot from numerous locations in the Netherlands... I can't tell much more than that. And you could have told me as much

To be honest, so much of this privacy stuff is for companies who are constantly seeking to monetize personal information. I am not in that business.

 

[leatherback]

so much of this privacy stuff is for companies who are constantly seeking to monetize personal information

Indeed. And now the EU is making the web a horrible place with loads of approval forms for just about anything online. It is a nightmare.

Running multiple websites, I had to adjust each of them, and I even had to update my mailserver to fit within the new rules. And funnily enough, it is now google pushing these EU rules, or they lock you out (Just like the browsers have been ocking out websites that do not use a secure conntection - https. Even though I am not taking anybodies details on my website, I need to have a secure socket layer certificate, or loose indexing & get browser warning that te website is not safe.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

It has to do with new EU privacy permissions. I am not 100% certain of everything that has changed - because I don't live in the EU - but I know I had to approve a new privacy statement for our Google ads.

Nothing has changed with the site. As before, I do not ask for any personal information aside from a registration email. You may decide to share your name - or not - it does not matter to me.

The permission to link devices is a new one... I'm not sure what it means except that if you log in with the same credentials on different devices the two devices will show the same updated status(?)

And precise location is also new. I can never really know your precise location - I can just know the IP address that you post from, if I so care to look up that information. Most people post from numerous IP addresses - depending upon where they are and what device they use to log into the site. For example if I happen to be traveling in Europe and visit the site as I travel, I can post from over a dozen IP addresses that week. The only time IP addresses really come into play is with spammers - when I get a red flag for a new registration, for example, and they are trying to register from a known spam server in Russia... I can block the registration. But in terms of knowing something like where you live (exactly) your street address, etc - no I do not and can not know that.

FWIW I just looked at your account and you have posted to the site from literally hundreds of IP addresses - which should be no surprise for anyone with a cell phone, where each time you turn on the cell phone, or move to a different area you get a new IP address. Aside from knowing that you post a lot from numerous locations in the Netherlands... I can't tell much more than that. And you could have told me as much

To be honest, so much of this privacy stuff is for companies who are constantly seeking to monetize personal information. I am not in that business.

Thanks for the clarification! I hope that these changes generate some income to keep the site running.
Because I know you're not in that kind of business, it was a surprise to me that all of a sudden we get this quite extensive reach inside our browsing activity. Maybe it was there all along, just without the notice.
Do you have any say over what kind of agreement pops up? I know some websites have a 'one click all denied' option, which for EU users is pretty usefull. Other websites don't allow you to turn off certain things, like device discovery (and linking to my TV for instance), which is a pain in the bum to wade through and doesn't feel like we have an option other than accepting.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Thanks for the clarification! I hope that these changes generate some income to keep the site running.
Because I know you're not in that kind of business, it was a surprise to me that all of a sudden we get this quite extensive reach inside our browsing activity. Maybe it was there all along, just without the notice.
Do you have any say over what kind of agreement pops up? I know some websites have a 'one click all denied' option, which for EU users is pretty usefull. Other websites don't allow you to turn off certain things, like device discovery (and linking to my TV for instance), which is a pain in the bum to wade through and doesn't feel like we have an option other than accepting.

I can edit the statement for Google ads, but I just used the default. I have no control over the "allow/deny" cookies form - that comes from the EU and I believe is standard. You might be able to tweak some of the text... but you have to be careful if you do, because you don't want to run afoul of the regulators.

Interestingly, I found this week that my email server was somehow being blocked as a spam server - by Microsoft and no one else. So if I tried to send an email to a hotmail or outlook account, I was being blocked, but all other emails to all other domains were going through without a problem. I had to jump through all kinds of hoops with Microsoft in order for them to clear my server from their spam list... even though I have never sent a spam email. They even included a snarky "your server may experience slower response times until you have demonstrated a history of good behavior". My response - "my email server has been up and running for almost 18 years now without issue. Can you say the same about your operating system?"

 

[Deleted member 47471]

It has to do with new EU privacy permissions. I am not 100% certain of everything that has changed - because I don't live in the EU - but I know I had to approve a new privacy statement for our Google ads.

Nothing has changed with the site. As before, I do not ask for any personal information aside from a registration email. You may decide to share your name - or not - it does not matter to me.

The permission to link devices is a new one... I'm not sure what it means except that if you log in with the same credentials on different devices the two devices will show the same updated status(?)

And precise location is also new. I can never really know your precise location - I can just know the IP address that you post from, if I so care to look up that information. Most people post from numerous IP addresses - depending upon where they are and what device they use to log into the site. For example if I happen to be traveling in Europe and visit the site as I travel, I can post from over a dozen IP addresses that week. The only time IP addresses really come into play is with spammers - when I get a red flag for a new registration, for example, and they are trying to register from a known spam server in Russia... I can block the registration. But in terms of knowing something like where you live (exactly) your street address, etc - no I do not and can not know that.

FWIW I just looked at your account and you have posted to the site from literally hundreds of IP addresses - which should be no surprise for anyone with a cell phone, where each time you turn on the cell phone, or move to a different area you get a new IP address. Aside from knowing that you post a lot from numerous locations in the Netherlands... I can't tell much more than that. And you could have told me as much

To be honest, so much of this privacy stuff is for companies who are constantly seeking to monetize personal information. I am not in that business.

much appreciated for all you have done and do for us and for Bonsai

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I can edit the statement for Google ads, but I just used the default. I have no control over the "allow/deny" cookies form - that comes from the EU and I believe is standard. You might be able to tweak some of the text... but you have to be careful if you do, because you don't want to run afoul of the regulators.

Interestingly, I found this week that my email server was somehow being blocked as a spam server - by Microsoft and no one else. So if I tried to send an email to a hotmail or outlook account, I was being blocked, but all other emails to all other domains were going through without a problem. I had to jump through all kinds of hoops with Microsoft in order for them to clear my server from their spam list... even though I have never sent a spam email. They even included a snarky "your server may experience slower response times until you have demonstrated a history of good behavior". My response - "my email server has been up and running for almost 18 years now without issue. Can you say the same about your operating system?"

At work we have the same issue where all our officially registered emails - with a paid outlook / microsoft office for business subscription have been marked as spam.
So essentially, the entire hospital and university staff can't talk to one another or to patients without manually marking everything as non-spam.
They seem to have gone towards the 'mark everything unless specified' kind of security. Which for networking is great, for communication not so much.

 

[leatherback]

I found this week that my email server was somehow being blocked as a spam server

I had had to create SKF / DKIM records for my mailserver. Mayhaps check in that direction?