Tumblr tried to sneak in data collection under the radar. After a few taps, you can get a list of who they're sharing data with.
The list takes 19 screenshots to see all the names on my phone.
NINETEEN.
List of names of the "partners" Tumblr shares your data with
1/5
List of names of the "partners" Tumblr shares your data with
2/5
List of names of the "partners" Tumblr shares your data with
3/5
List of names of the "partners" Tumblr shares your data with
4/5
List of names of the "partners" Tumblr shares your data with
5/5
Also worth mentioning a very nice (no) dark pattern. The last name in the list is always behind the gradient block, which means you can never untick it.
That's Oath, the new owners.
Go read they shitty website in which they try to justify their invasion of your privacy, and also minimize the rights you have to control that data: https://www.oath.com/en-gb/my-data/
The deletion right is barely mentioned, at the very end, and they don't even give you a link to do so.
You gotta figure that one out yourself, I guess?
Let's also analyze for a bit the UI of their mandatory privacy disclaimer. Keep in mind the spirit of the GDPR is all about the need to have "informed consent" to collect data about a user.
First of all, you get a massive wall of text. Please excuse the french, but notice how faded (light grey one white) the button to modify the settings is.
That's the first dark pattern of this flow. Clearly the goal is to put everyone to sleep and hope everyone will blindly click on the bright blue button to simply accept everything.
If you do click the button to have more options, the next screen still tries to make you click the "OK" button, and the actual settings are a link on the side, barely more visible than a regular link.
And if you do click that link, you are taken to a third page that still tries to make you accept the new conditions without actually giving you control.
You need to click the "display" links to have some control.
And finally, you can control who gets what.
Note the list of partner consists of 322 (not a typo: three hundreds and thirty two) entries. You have to uncheck them one by one.
If I wanted to copy/paste the name of each partner that receive data from Tumblr, I would need nine standard-sized toots of 500 characters.
To finish up, here's how to uncheck everything in one go, using a desktop browser (Firefox/Chrome).
While on the page with the 322 checkboxes, open up your web console (Chrome: https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/console/#open_as_panel, Firefox: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Web_Console/Opening_the_Web_Console)
and copy-paste this :
document.querySelectorAll('input[type=checkbox]').forEach((input) => input.checked = false)
Then press enter.
All checks should be checked out.
@skiant "Tumblr boxes unchecker"
@skiant Thanks! It was very boring to uncheck them ONE BY ONE with Tab-Space-Tab-Space… My wrist hurt!
@skiant my first act of summer break will be to delete my tumblr accounts.
@skiant this is malicious. They _know_ very well that this is not only very annoying for everyone not capable of using the web console (most users).
Plus they know very well that this is illegal under GDPR.
The concept of "Out-in" was very clearly communicated.
@skiant You can make it a Firefox extension tho