Reddit quietly updates 16 day old post: you are now tracked even if logged out

Before anyone gets wound up about this, they posted an explanation <i>on voat</i>: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;voat.co&#x2F;v&#x2F;MeanwhileOnReddit&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1083516&#x2F;5406839" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;voat.co&#x2F;v&#x2F;MeanwhileOnReddit&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1083516&#x2F;5406839</a><p>Assuming that gets deleted, basically it says &quot;we just keep editing that post as we add more A&#x2F;B tests so we can point people at that post if they have questions&quot;.<p>This post on HN is really just trying to fan the flames I think, there&#x27;s nothing nefarious going on here -- they&#x27;ve been tracking how you move across the site for years, and if you don&#x27;t like that, it&#x27;s super simple to avoid.<p>You can block the cookie or just incognito mode.

The update clearly says that they will be using some sort of tracking (likely cookies) for non-registered users and customizing content for them, as a trial.<p>The poster worried publicly that this would mean too many stories about Hillary on the front page -- I read that to mean he&#x27;s a conspiracy nut, and doesn&#x27;t want Hillary to be in office in the US, and thinks reddit could be used to push her there with this technology.<p>This seems like responsible disclosure, and so very far from the level of customization many content sites do (have you ever seen an ad follow you to reddit? I didn&#x27;t think so), that I&#x27;m kind of surprised it&#x27;s a big deal.

Seriously? A post from Voat on HN? This is what you get when you search for voat on Google <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;RnjbJTu.png" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;RnjbJTu.png</a>

I&#x27;m really not surprised. I assume every website does this. On my Linux laptop, I run NoScript, and I&#x27;ve got Firefox configured to clear EVERYTHING when I close my browser. I don&#x27;t run Flash or any other plugins. I haven&#x27;t done much inspection, but the whole notion of &quot;logging out&quot; doesn&#x27;t mean much to me. In the context of cookies, I just assume they clear the one that says &quot;this guy is authenticated&quot;, to &quot;not authenticated, but we know the last person that was here&quot;.

Interesting if for nothing else then because voat rarely makes the front page here?

That&#x27;s not via us (we don&#x27;t have keyword targeting or anything right now), and we definitely don&#x27;t have amazon cookies on our site. Could be via chrome? Tbh, I don&#x27;t know exactly hoe much Google collects through their browser.

Reddit reminds me of the Google, Don&#x27;t be evil bullshit mantra with shenanigans like this almost every week. I understand the fucking &quot;monetize, grow, and get bought out&quot; mentality that every web business adopts, but it is pathetic when it comes to places founded by guys like Swartz.