Require bots to disclose what kind of data they collect in there profiles
closed
TwilightVaramek Atheria
I have seen a lot of bots just appere on my land many with blank profiles so there is no way of knowing what data they collect I live on mainland so I can't use estate powers to disable scripted agents. I would like if it became a requirement for bots to disclose what kind of data they collect in there profiles possibly with a link to a simple web page explaining in more detail what can't fit in a profile and as an addition the option to opt your sl account out of that form of data collection so that it can't collect and store data on your account or avatar such as contents of your profile or attachments your wearing or your username and basically anything connected to my account such as land I may own or groups I own and what not I feel it's somewhat invasive to have all thease data they collectors collecting stuff on us and then in some cases storing it on websites with details graphs or individual attachment names
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SL Feedback
Hello, and thank you for your feature request regarding bot data collection disclosure and opt-out options. We appreciate your concern about privacy and the impact of bots on your Second Life experience. This issue has already been brought up recently, and we have merged your request with the existing one to ensure all feedback is consolidated. Please follow the existing post for any updates on this matter. Thank you for your understanding and for helping us improve Second Life.
The post that this was merged into is: https://feedback.secondlife.com/feature-requests/p/opt-out-of-bot-data-collection
SL Feedback
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Mossbottom Mahogany
Quantum, owned by Darling Brody makes a really nice anti-bot tool. It works and saves me the trouble of enabling LL damage on my land so I can mangle, destroy and kill all the bots that come there. They cause lag, are intrusive, and are way past the point where they anger me. I have a staggeringly long block list because of bots and a grand total of three objects and maybe two real people.
Either LL fixes this problem or I'm going to start flooding each bot I encounter with inventory objects, tens of thousands of them.
Ok... Sorry, that got me off on a wee bit of a rant.
Anyways look into Quantum, their stuff works nicely.
TwilightVaramek Atheria
Mossbottom Mahogany i can take a peek i have an orb that ejects them if they land on my parcel but the data collection is what i dont like and cant stop even if they are banned from my parcel sense i do not own a sim cannkt afford one at all they cant be fully blocked from entering or collecting that data
Eowyn Southmoor
That anti-bot tool borders on griefing as far as I and many others are concerned. It scans an entire region, and as soon as you enter the region, even if you're in a completely different parcel hundred of metres away from where the orb is, it immediately informs you to click some random link to prove you are not a bot. Most people I know, sensibly, don't click on external unknown links, so the result is many normal avatars are then instantly banned from various parcels because that orb assumes we are bots. If these orbs reside on a region that has protected water or road, any time you drive or sail past you are spammed with a "you have been banned indefinitely" message. These orbs should NOT be allowed to scan outside the parcel they are rezzed in.
Allegory Malaprop
Aside from privacy and all, empty profile bots are just creepy and make one want to ban them all- especially when they have all those related names. Being up front about what you are gathering (and let's face it, the only way many will is if it's a requirement) gets around that- at least then we know if they are just land bots or whatever. Require a list of data collected, and where the data is stored and what it's used for, and a public connection to a "real" account. It's just polite.
TwilightVaramek Atheria
Allegory Malaprop i agree with that i really dont like them being just blank and haveing zero idea why they are there and what for
Skyler Pancake
I wanted to support this, but then I read through the entire original post and that of many responding. There's a lot of people replying with what I personally consider bot and privacy paranoia.
Your digital pixel personality is not your physical self. Your digital creation is not protected by personal privacy laws. It is a fictional entity. Trust me, I understand just how real Second Life can feel and how deeply an account can feel part of you. I'd be bereaved if I lost mine. But at the end of the day, my SL account is not my personal identity and is not legally protected as such. This is something important to acknowledge.
However, I do agree bot operators should willingly be providing what information they are collecting and for what purposes. There is at minimum 10,000 bots connected to SL at any time. A good 100+ of those are roaming bots collecting data without clear explanation of why, how it's being used, or who it's going to. That's why the group I'm part of purposely disclosed and shared the data we collect while ensuring it's anonymized.
Personally, the solution to all of this is an easy one. The ONLY organization that should be collecting and releasing this information is Linden Lab. The data that is shared is extremely valuable. Residents can use it to help gain a better understanding of Second Life, from what is popular to what the historic trends have been. From a journalistic archival stand point it's also a massive wealth of information on the history of our shared platform. However, the only way to truly make sure the data is both 100% secure and accurate is if it was being ran directly by Linden Labs.
Kore Jardberg
Skyler Pancake I don't see LL sharing more stats any time soon. They seem to work in the opposite direction. When is the last time we knew how many different users connect every month?
Skyler Pancake
Kore Jardberg Those numbers are honestly pretty embarrassing and I kind of understand why they wouldn't. It would be great though if they stopped worrying about comparing themself to other platforms though and just acknowledged the strengths of this one and proudly showed what we do have.
TwilightVaramek Atheria
Skyler Pancake my avatar in secondlife isent just an avatar to me its as close as i can get to my actual identity iv gone out of my way to protect the textures used on it and the custom meshes i use so that should someone decide to rip them i can go after them cus i own the rights to them not all of it like my avatar base is the snokra but the textures i use on it and the custom clothing i had made is protected i don't like when bots like the bonnie bots just pop in read off everything im wearing and then list it5 on a public data base that anyone can just grab i want there to be an option to opt out of bots collecting my data as well as for them to disclose what they are collecting
North Glenwalker
Most bots tend to land at 128,128, I'm lucky in some respects I own a few parcels at those coordinates and I ban them, and atm most are not triggering my radar again. But these do need to be sorted out. Where are the privacy laws on this, which country are the servers in ? Most countries you have to register if you collect data at all? Is this being done ? One of my in-world games I collect game data for 7 days, before it is wiped, I have my database registered under data privacy laws in the UK
TwilightVaramek Atheria
North Glenwalker i think the many of the bots are ran by US residents i think the bonnie bots are i don't know about other bots but i think it wouldn't matter what platform it is on if that platform is based in the US all of them would i assume need to follow US data collection laws but i am not to sure i have a parcel at 128 128 as well and i have banned many bots and they just come back again but right outside my parcel on someone else parcel or on the linden road
Skyler Pancake
TwilightVaramek Atheria US data collection laws are a joke. California has the only actual privacy policy enforceable and even that is extremely minimal and does not apply to anything involving data collection in Second Life. Privacy policy laws are also intended to protect your actual identity, not your fictionally created one. Even if you won the argument that they should, the strongest personal privacy law is the GDPR and has exceptions for journalistic archival purposes which is the intent for at least a handful of the organizations or groups running the bots.
Beatrice Voxel
I would support all accounts tagged as 'bots' to have an About Me link, showing what service was running them, what their stats are, and who is paying for the service.
I would also support a "No Bot Zone" toggle for land, to allow residents to control their data privacy as well as their social privacy.
Skyler Pancake
Beatrice Voxel A parcel level control to ban scripted agents was promised by Linden Labs over a year ago. Another thing they haven't followed through on.
A parcel level control though would not prevent scripted agents from collecting information on the region or individuals, as they would just teleport in to an adjacent parcel. The information they collect can even be gathered over region boundaries, there's no need for them to be directly on the region your parcel is in.
The only thing a parcel level ban option would do is permit you to ban then from directly showing up on your land, which would be valuable as it'd prevent them from accidentally teleporting into your house. Though typically this only happens when people accidentally put teleport routing on and have the landing point directly inside their house instead of outside or simply leaving it off.
TwilightVaramek Atheria
Skyler Pancake i use teleport routing on all my plots of land its usualy in the corner farthest from my house but thats exatcly why i want to know what they collect and have an option to opt out so they cant collect it off of me cus i live on mainland its all i can afford so theres no way i can fully stop them from reading off the data on my avatrar and on my property and such
Beatrice Voxel
Skyler Pancake My parcel is on the same island region as an adult club, and for a while we had a lot of people being banned and ejected from said club for breaking the rules (
cough
ageplay bad, not that hard to figure out). I subdivided off the extreme corner of my parcel, which is on the corner of the region, and put a landing point inside a box, with a visitor counter and a teleport pad for my use only. I get several avatars a week in that box, likely because they're being yeeted home but have no home point set (so it puts them at 0,0,0 on the same region). Looking at the profiles of those people? I buy brain bleach wholesale, now. >.>My Casperlet security orb has been catching a lot of empty-profile random-letter-name visitors at my landing point (middle of the driveway outside of the house) and sends them home automatically after 30 seconds. Typically the same ones show up over and over, so I flag the profiles and add them to the ban list. I've got... about fifty of them so far. Three or more per session, most days.
LL really should put in code to not allow bots to teleport to parcels marked "residential" unless they are in the parcel's group or were lured by the owner. I don't think I should have to set up a skybox for a 'reception area' outside of scan range, just to keep my home private (besides which, I doubt these bots use RLV, so a cage zone that clamps down region name/coordinates wouldn't do much.)
ostiabs Resident
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Dana Enyo
I'm thoughly disgusted that these things are allowed at all. We're back to the Redzone issue of years ago, when a gadget would grab your IP and compare it with others to identify alts. This stuff is none of their da*n business, ESPECIALLY without prior consent!
Skyler Pancake
Dana Enyo Yeah. It's like Linden Lab doesn't actually care about protecting your IP address at all.
Beatrice Voxel
Skyler Pancake SL's HTTP proxy is supposed to obscure a resident's IP if they connect to an external server via SL... but it's very easy to get around that.
Dictatorshop Resident
I can tell you, setting the bot shing on a region. My sims have that off but if I go to bonniebots their information is completely up to date about my traffic so they are undeterred by a setting.
TwilightVaramek Atheria
Dictatorshop Resident yea tho on mainland we cannot turn off scripted agents if i could afford a full sim i would defiunatly get one and do that but cant do it and thats partly why i made this feture request for those of us that cant do anything to stop them
Skyler Pancake
Dictatorshop Resident That data is collected via the public map. Not by visiting your region. Anyone and everyone can collect that information easily without having to visit your region even once.
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