JeremyAug 11, 2025

I feel like this is a good summary and timeline of enshittification so far. Maybe even a good intro for anyone who hasn’t been keeping up with how to describe what’s happening over the last 30-40 years.

@pluralistic I’d also like to add to the somewhat meaningless individual but also therapeutic ways to fight enshittification is to report all ads as spam. That’s what I do and that’s what they are.

https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/31/unsatisfying-answers/

Pluralistic: You can’t fight enshittification (31 Jul 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Show threadJWcph, Radicalized By DecencyAug 11, 2025
@jeremymuller @pluralistic Sometimes I open the "Our vendors" tab in a cookie window & spend several minutes laboriously unchecking every single "Legitimate Interest" exception - it does absolutely nothing except give me an outlet for my conviction that it's a bullshit loophole that should have never been allowed.
Show threadCory DoctorowAug 11, 2025

@jwcph @jeremymuller

I mean, there IS such a thing as a legit exception - if you send me your street address with an order for a book, it's legitimate for me to pass that on to a shipping house to they can get it in the mail to you.

Or if I switch email list providers and export your email address from the old one and import it into a new one.

No one would want enjoy the bombardment of consent requests that would be needed if we didn't have this kind of legit use exemption.

Show threadCory DoctorowAug 11, 2025

@jwcph @jeremymuller

The problem is really an enforcement one. If EU enforcers had fined a hundred companies out of existence in the first year of the GDPR for doing bullshit "legitimate exemption" processing ("pour encouragez les autres"), the rest of the industry would have colored within the lines.

Show threadJWcph, Radicalized By Decency
@pluralistic @jeremymuller I agree that legit exceptions may exist but 1. I don't think the mailing address example works; if I'm ordering something I'm giving explicit consent so no exception needed & more to the point 2. by the time GDPR rolled around there was so much bullshit going on in this space that it seems like the only way of getting it under any semblance of control is to ban it all & then find out if & when exceptions may be needed... can't be worse than before, or even now.
Aug 11, 2025 at 1:38pmWeb
Show threadCory DoctorowAug 11, 2025

@jwcph @jeremymuller

Except that's not right: if you give me your postal address, you're letting *me* process your address. When I contract with a third party to ship your parcel, *they* process your information. That's not a consented use, it's a legitimate exception.

Amazon (which has its own logistics network) doesn't have to hand your address to a third party for a delivery, but I do - so I need the legitimate use exemption as a safe harbor.

Show threadJWcph, Radicalized By DecencyAug 11, 2025

@pluralistic @jeremymuller I think we're mixing things up here - I'm not saying it isn't an example at all; I'm saying not as far as cookies on a website go. Not even on amazon dot com; if I'm browsing they don't need to know or process shit about me & by the time I order there's a consent checkbox with the order form.

I can't think of an example where the exception is needed as a universal cookie for any website visitor. I'd be glad to be enlightened - but also, see my other point.

Show threadPaul WalkerAug 14, 2025
@pluralistic You need cookies on the customer’s device to pass on the order to the fulfilment service? @jwcph @jeremymuller
Show threadJWcph, Radicalized By DecencyAug 14, 2025
@arafel @pluralistic @jeremymuller 1. No, you don't and 2. even if you did it would still only apply to users who have placed an order & not every single website visitor.