To play well, it is necessary to understand well the rules of the game!
maître iota
– LET’S PROTECT OUR USAGE-DATA, BY DEFAULT!
Data-driving.com is a satellite website that allows you to discover Surf Xi’s Data-driving trilogy in a fun and educational way, as part of an experiment conducted by the author and his publisher, Les éditions à deux balles (leadb).
Surf Xi
Within the framework of this data-driving experiment, we seek to protect by default the interests of all types of users of the site and of the creations to which it gives access. In particular, we try to respect and protect the confidentiality of their usage-data.
leadb
We have not set ourselves this objective because it is a legal obligation, but because it is the foundation of the data-driving approach as proposed in the Surf Xi trilogy.
And it is also, logically, the first rule of the Data-driving game.
Superhelper, admin of the satellite
3 tips to protect your interests when playing on this satellite
– Do not continue your visit if you do not accept that the IP address with which you are connecting to Internet is used by the technical services of the host to secure the site and produce anonymous audience statistics.
– You do not need to ask your browser to accept cookies, unless you wish to sign a comment with-a-pseudonym or join-an-email-to-it (the email is not a public data)
– If you have any questions, you can contact the publisher whos directions are given further on in this page (Les éditions à deux balles.com)
3 suggestions for better protecting your interests during the game
– If you would like to know more about the site’s host, their contact details are given further down this page (Infomaniak)
– If you have less than 3 minutes, at least read the following paragraph headings: they give the minimum information necessary to understand which of your usage-data is used by the site and in what circumstances.
– If you have a few more minutes (less than 10 minutes), read at least the paragraphs that seem most important to you and if necessary ask your questions in the form of comments.
Important information before you start
Our IP address is used and stored by the programs on this site from the moment our web browser connects to it.
If you do not accept this, which is natural and respectable, the admin of the website advises you not to continue your visit on this satellite.
The admin is not in a position to erase the trace of IP addresses stored in the site’s database on request. There are many reasons why it would not be able to do so if it wished to do so, and it does not wish to do so, as this would require deliberately associating an IP address with the personal details of the person making such a request.
However, in an attempt to protect the anonymity of visitors to the data-driving.com website by default, the admin refuses to attempt to associate an IP address with a civilian identifier (other than his own IP address, which he recognises as a matter of habit from his work administering the website).
Rules and key information for playing well
Respecting and protecting our usage-data by default
The following lines present the policy of the Data-driving game, in an attempt to respect and protect the interests of all its users by default, and in particular to protect the confidentiality of their user-data.
This policy is based on three types of contributions, each of which plays a different role in the game.
3 roles to safeguard the rules of the game
3 roles to safeguard the rules of the game
- The author of the e-book data-driving.epub, the main author of the articles on the site, is the proponent of a virtuous use of our usage data, i.e. a use that respects and facilitates the balance of interests between all types of players.
- L’éditeur du livre et du site, cherche à faire se rencontrer les opinions de l’auteur avec celles de tous les autres types de joueuses-et-joueurs.
- The site administrator seeks to operate the site in accordance with a policy that is true to the spirit of Surf Xi’s data-driving trilogy.
3 political perspectives on the game
The policy of the game is therefore essentially conceived from three points of view: that of the author in search of an ecosystemic balance, that of the publisher in search of interactions between the stakeholders of the ecosystem, in order to test the author’s proposals, and that of the administrator in search of possibilities of implementation respectful of the principles at the origin of the raison d’être of the game.
5 text colours to distinguish the roles involved in the game
In order to make all points of view easily identifiable, each type of contribution is expressed with a dedicated colour. Brown for the author’s contributions, orange for the editor’s and purple for the administrator. The colour black is retained for all parts of the game that are not an expression of one of these three roles in particular. It is the colour of information-neutral-a-priori.
– How do we represent the voice of the players in the policy of the site?
– As suggested by master iota, readers who wish to express their views on the site’s policy can post comments directly at the end of this article. If necessary, we will integrate them into this article either in the form of an evolution of the existing text, quoting the author’s pseudonym when it is specified, or in the form of dialogues which will take on a colour dedicated to the role of reader-commentator (with the author’s pseudonym in brackets).
– For the colour, may I suggest blue (master iota)
– Ok to try during the beta-tests! And I remind you that the comments validated by the site’s curation remain visible at the end of the article.
To contact the Editor, responsible for the publication of the site
Company name, address, contact details and SIREN identifier of the publisher and person responsible for the publication of the site data-driving.com:
The company Les éditions à deux balles can be reached by telephone on the number indicated above from Monday to Friday between 8.30 am and 7.30 pm France’s time ( UTC +2 ). Its website is leseditionsadeuxballes.com
To contact the site host
Details of the company hosting the site data-driving.com:
Contact for Infomaniak support in English : www.infomaniak.com
To better understand the game, before playing
With or without our consent, this site uses our Internet log-in details
The IP address
Each time an Internet Service Provider activates an Internet connection for one of its users, it assigns a unique identifier to that connection. This identifier is called the IP address
– Please have a look at your IP address by clicking below.
How does it feel to see that it will appear in
Do you still go on?
The site data-driving version zero is freely available to all Internet users.
Our visits are anonymous-a-priori, because the administrator-moderator of the site refrains from using our IP addresses to try to identify us personally.
He does not refrain from using his own IP address.
The IP addresses of visitors to the site are used by the host to provide two types of services.
The proper functioning of the site (which includes the protection of user data by default)
The IP address is used as an identifier, a-priori-anonymous, of the origin of requests that arrive at the server.
This is necessary to enable the server software to respond to each client software that queries it.
It is also useful to understand when a connection to the server causes sequences of requests that are a bit spacey..
Apart from the programs and administrators of the Host, only the administrator of the site data-driving.com is entitled to see the IP addresses of the users of the site. It is forbidden to use these addresses to try to obtain the civil identifier of the persons who visit the site.
On the other hand, it does not refrain from inquiring online about potential complaints about an IP address in the event that it emanates requests that undermine the security of the site and its users.
Statistics on the use of the site
The IP addresses of visitors to the site are used to produce usage statistics. They appear in some of the site’s audience reports, visible to the site administrator.
Visibility of IP addresses in site statistics
The site administrator will not use IP addresses to attempt to identify users of the site.
He does not refrain from using his own IP address, when he recognises it.
Duration of storage of visitors’ IP addresses
In principle, the IP addresses of visitors to the site that appear in the site’s traffic statistics are kept on the host’s servers as long as the site is in operation.
The game Data-driving and the site data-driving.com use our pseudo-names and e-mail addresses when we provide them ourselves
When posting a comment to an article, it is possible to associate a name and an e-mail address of the author by inserting them in the independent fields of the comment.
The name allows the article to be signed.
It is visible to all visitors of the site.
The e-mail address, visible only to the moderators, is used to contact the user at his request and only in this context.
Once entered, all these usage data are visible via a comment moderation interface, accessible by the site administrator.
In the administration interface, all the data entered by the commentators are visible, associated with the IP address of the connection during which they were entered!
– May I suggest that users who wish to sign their comments use a pseudonym, so as to remain pseudo-anonymous?
– I advise not to enter an e-mail address if you do not want me to see it.
– So no civil name; neither in the username nor in the e-mail address.
– To validate comments, the administrator does not use the IP addresses, names or e-mail addresses entered.
– Maybe, but in the meantime he sees them!
– That’s right! That’s why I promise not to use this information unless the person writing the comment asks me to (via a comment) or if a problem arises that requires, for the sake of the commenter, that I be able to contact them.
Duration of storage of the name and e-mail address of article commentators
If a visitor of the site posts a comment on an article in a non-anonymous manner, the information he or she enters (name and/or e-mail address) is associated with his or her IP address and stored in the site’s database, where it remains as long as the comment remains on the site.
Backups of this database are also kept by the host and periodically replaced by an updated database (weekly backup with conservation of backups over 6 months in principle).
A backup is also kept by the site’s publisher (Les éditions à deux balles) and replaced each month by the current database on the site. This backup is only used to be able to restore an operational version of the site in case of a technical problem.
Request the deletion of identifying data associated with a comment
To remove the ip address, name and e-mail address associated with comments, you must and can simply delete the comments associated with this data.
Users can request that their comments be deleted at any time. For example by posting a comment related to this article or related to one of the articles the user has already posted to.
To be valid, the request must be made with the same e-mail address as the one used for comments.
– If it has been communicated…
The request will be executed after an e-mail exchange between a site moderator and the person making the request, to verify that this e-mail address really belongs to him/her. The e-mail-communication can also be deleted from the moderator’s mailbox, at the user’s request (ideally in the comment requesting the deletion of the e-mail address associated with the comments, to avoid a clumping effect…).
– In the event that I receive a request to delete an anonymous comment, I refuse to use an ip address to try to verify that the person requesting the deletion is probably the person who posted the comment. Firstly, because an IP address is not a reliable means of identifying a person, and secondly, because I refuse to trivialise the use of IP addresses, which I think should be limited to the strict minimum necessary: identifying connections to serve the site’s users’ requests and to guarantee its security.
– Ok with the administrator. In any case, the deletion of an anonymous comment is a matter that can be dealt with by the users of the site, using the comments and exceptionally an online survey, to gather users’ opinions if necessary.
In the case of a request for deletion of identifying data, the contributor’s comments and their metadata (including e-mail address) will be deleted from the site at the time the request is taken into account, i.e. in principle on the same day as the comment-request is posted, on a working day.
The e-mail address will be deleted from the publisher’s backup database at the beginning of the following month when the old backup (containing the e-mail address) is replaced by the new backup (no longer containing the e-mail address). It will be deleted from the host’s backups 6 months after the request in principle.
Exchanges by e-mail will be deleted from the moderator’s mailbox as soon as the request is acknowledged (in the daytime a priori for a working day).
Zero-cookies to start the game!
One of the aims of the experiment associated with the book is to understand to what extent it is possible to do without cookies.
– I’d like to start beta-testing the zero-version-of-the-site with zero-cookies.
– Here are some tips for setting up a dedicated browser
But users who block cookies will not be able to create a user account. If they try, they will be warned by this message from WorpPress
– Good for them!
– Ok, let’s see how far it is possible to go without creating a user account!
However, I would also like to test the use of user-accounts on the site, if some beta-testers want to create an account and if they accept cookies on the site, for the occasion.
– In the current state of development of the site, we apply by default the code provided by WordPress, so in order to be able to open a user-account on the site, it is necessary for the moment to accept the cookies of the WordPress application, with which the site is developed and operated.
– Before opening an account, let’s take a look at what WorPress has in store for us!
And let’s think about going to the end of the logic!
The most important thing is what WordPress puts inside the files, not all the copy and paste and cute biscuit images that go with it, when you can’t see the description of a cookie’s content anywhere!
WordPress application cookies
This section presents the cookies that are sent to our browsers and copied to the hard drives of our machines, if and only if we open a user account on the site www.data-driving.com.
– WordPress (version 5.5.3) seems to use by default, three temporary session cookies, deleted at the end of the navigation on the site, and three so-called permanent cookies, whose lifetime is 1 year.
Data-driving.com
WordPress
cookies _logged_, _sec_ and are user cookies
They contain information about the user who connects to the site with a user account. They are deleted at the end of the browsing session on the data-driving.com site, in particular when the user disconnects from his account and when he closes the tab of his browsing on the site.
– nb. _sec_ It is positioned at two locations! Two-cookies-or-nothing?
– Yes! Apparently it is to manage two different levels of security. I’m trying to find out more…
– Let’s check during the experimental beta phase please!
– These files are considered essential by WordPress, but not by me!
If it reminds you of something, it reminds you of something ξ
– Part of the beta testing will be to find out whether-or-not-we-need-these-cookies (to write like Surf Xi); that is, whether or not we need, as part of this site, to create user accounts, whether or not we need all these files to have user accounts, and whether or not we need all the data that is in these files.
cookies _settings_ are usage cookies
They contain information about the choices-and-non-choices of site visitors. They are persistent, with a lifetime of 1 year, sliding (after each new update). These cookies are not considered essential by WordPress.
– If cookies are blocked, the commenter’s email address will not appear in the comment moderation interface.
– Good for us all!
Metadata of WordPress cookie files
Logged
The blurred parts contain hashes of user data and information about the location of cookies, when they are allowed. The file contains the ID of the logged-in user and when they logged in.
Sec
WordPress uses two such cookies, accessible at two different locations on the data-driving server. They contain a priori authentication information for users with site administration rights, in the sense that they access the user interface to administer their preferences.
Test
Created or updated each time a user-registrant logs in or out of the site, if their browser uses cookies.
Settings
According to the WordPress documentation, this file stores the-user’s-preferences (or default non-choices) for their use of the site data-driving.com and for the administration interface offered by WordPress.
– Can I see my user preferences?
– Just ask (thanks to maitre iota for the screenshot!) …
– Thank you! I misspoke. I’d like to see what WordPress puts in the preference cookie files? Can we have a factual description of these files? Their structure, field names, formats, maybe even an anonymised example?
– I’m searching, but it’s really not very accessible.
– Surprising from a free software…
– I will update the article with what I find as I go along…
Time
According to WordPress, this file completes the previous one.
– Two-cookies-or-nothing again?
– Let me check…
– Ok, in the meantime it would be nice if we could give some instructions for the beta tests!
– What I have to say about the admin part has already been stated above and will be updated as we go along, in this text colour.
So I’ll let you add your instructions, if you have others, with your colours…
Guidelines for entering comments
– In the content of the comments, let’s avoid any personal information!
That is, any information from which it would be possible to trace a civilian identity.
– I can confirm that we have no idea what the smart guys looking for adventure are doing…
Even when you see what they do…
So when you don’t see it, you can’t imagine what you don’t understand when you see it… 😉
– A bit of humour and hindsight don’t hurt 🙂 Let’s try to stay calm and relaxed!
The security services of the hosting company take care of the submerged part of the iceberg.
For the visible part, remaining pseudo-anonymous seems to me to be a good compromise.
– Could we also share some guidelines for opening user accounts?
Instructions for opening a user account on the site
– I have already said above what I had to say…
– So did I, but I’ll say it again.
No civil identification data.
It is better to use a pseudonymous name and an e-mail address with a pseudonym.
– Account management is configured to allow the use of avatars.
– Thank you! 😍
– Users who allow cookies are likely to inherit theirs 🤓
– So no personal picture in avatar please!🧐
– By default, an avatar is automatically generated at account opening 👾
– Well, anything else?
What we don’t yet know about our usage data for this site
– I can’t believe how difficult it is to get an accurate description of the data contained in cookies! Even WordPress beats around the bush. Its descriptions are far too vague. I find this practice not very virtuous.
– Our admin said he would update the article, as and when he finds an accurate description of the data contained in the WordPress cookie files.
One more thing
Thanks to the-fantastics who are beta-testing the e-book version zero, and its satellite site!
Les éditions à deux balles, publisher of the site
To pass messages to the author and between users, I recommend using the article comments.
The site’s administrator
Once validated by a moderator, any part of a comment can be included in the article as a quote or dialogue, if commenters enter their author’s name when they post their comment.
maitre iota
The previous section was added from a comment posted by the user maitre iota.
– With or without cookies?
– Without ! (maitre iota)
– I recommend that beta-testers use, as in this example, pseudo-anonymous author names (no civilian names please!).
And one last thing
– Volunteer beta-testers will be able to open an account on the site to write articles themselves if they wish.
– But not just yet.
To start with, please, zero cookies!