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  • Showing only topics with the tag "data". Back to normal view
    1. Looking for help scraping and deleting a Reddit account

      I have a couple of old Reddit accounts I’d like to delete as fully as possible. However one of them dates back to my teenage years and it’s some of the only writings I have from that time. Any...

      I have a couple of old Reddit accounts I’d like to delete as fully as possible. However one of them dates back to my teenage years and it’s some of the only writings I have from that time. Any recommendations on good simple ways to scrape all the comments off of it and save them? Then what’s the best way to completely erase a Reddit footprint these days?

      Looking for as simple a solution as possible, I’m not tech illiterate by any means but it’s also not a real strong suit for me.

      17 votes
    2. Chrome/Firefox Plugin to locally scrape data from multiple URLs

      As the title suggests, I am looking for a free chrome or firefox plugin that can locally scrape data from multiple URLs. To be a bit more precise, what I mean by it: A free chrome or firefox...

      As the title suggests, I am looking for a free chrome or firefox plugin that can locally scrape data from multiple URLs. To be a bit more precise, what I mean by it:

      • A free chrome or firefox plugin
      • Local scraping: it runs in the browser itself. No cloud computing or "credits" required to run
      • Scrape data: Collects predefined data from certain data fields within a website such as https://www.dastelefonbuch.de/Suche/Test
      • Infinite scroll: to load data that only loads once the browser scrolls down (kind of like in the page I linked above)

      I am not looking into programming my own scraper using python or anything similar. I have found plugins that "kind of" do what I am describing above, and about two weeks ago I found one that pretty much perfectly does what is described ("DataGrab"), but it starts asking to buy credits after running it a few times.

      My own list:

      • DataGrab: Excellent, apart from asking to buy credits after a while
      • SimpleScraper: Excellent, but asks to buy credits pretty much immediately
      • Easy Scraper: Works well for single pages, but no possibility to feed in multiple URLs to crawl
      • Instant Data Scraper: Works well for single pages and infinite scroll pages, but no possibility to feed in multiple URLs to crawl
      • "Data Scraper - Easy Web Scraping" / dataminer.io: Doesn't work well
      • Scrapy.org: Too much programming, but looks quite neat and well documented

      Any suggestions are highly welcome!

      Edit: A locally run executable or cmd-line based program would be fine too, as long as it just needs to be configured (e.g., creating a list of URLs stored in a .txt or .csv file) instead of coded (e.g., coding an infinite scroll function from scratch).

      8 votes
    3. Seems like all socials are being scraped for AI and personal/aggregate data. Is Tildes?

      I was just reminded of that again when going back and looking at some of my old posts on reddit which is openly selling online data. Prompted me to use Redact which erases and overwrites comments...

      I was just reminded of that again when going back and looking at some of my old posts on reddit which is openly selling online data. Prompted me to use Redact which erases and overwrites comments before deleting them. But that got me wondering if the same is true of Tildes? And how would we know?

      34 votes
    4. Question about GDPR

      I am in the EU. I asked a company in which I had an account to delete my account. They told me they would do that as long as I sent them an ID and a postal address. This is to ensure that "I am...

      I am in the EU.

      I asked a company in which I had an account to delete my account. They told me they would do that as long as I sent them an ID and a postal address. This is to ensure that "I am the right person".

      I never gave them an ID and a postal address in the first place so how would that verify anything, and I'm using the email that I used to sign-up with them to ask for the deletion.

      Am I in the wrong to believe that this should be easier? Are they misinterpreting the GDPR or am I?

      What are my options if I do not want to send my ID and postal address?

      --

      Their arguments are:

      Article 5(1)(f) of the GDPR requires us to meet security obligations in data processing. Since data deletion is permanent, we need to ensure that the request is indeed from the person concerned.

      Furthermore, Article 12(6) of the GDPR states: "…when the data controller has reasonable doubts concerning the identity of the natural person making the request referred to in Articles 15 to 21, he may request the provision of additional information necessary to confirm the identity of the data subject."

      10 votes
    5. Please help me understand and manage external hdd sleep

      I have an external drive (3.5" hdd, SATA) in an enclosure (usb 3) (purchased separately), connected to a thunderbolt dock (OWC) connected alternately to an iMac and a macbook pro. The HDD goes to...

      I have an external drive (3.5" hdd, SATA) in an enclosure (usb 3) (purchased separately), connected to a thunderbolt dock (OWC) connected alternately to an iMac and a macbook pro. The HDD goes to sleep, and causes problems. Freezes, weird internet access problems, kernel panics.

      I have done some research, and can't seem to figure out:

      how to know whether it is the drive, enclosure, or computer causing the sleep, although, fiddling with various settings on the mac seemed to have no effect, although it may have increased my battery usage :(

      how to adjust settings on the drive, or in the enclosure.

      How to determine what the sleep behavior of prospective drives will be.

      As a workaround, I tried to write a zsh script to touch the drive ever few seconds. This kinda worked, but was a struggle to figure out appropriate permissions issues and how to make it run automatically.

      I welcome all guidance, pointers to resources, clarifications, incantations, well-wishes.

      8 votes