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Commercialization

Boeing's Creepy Petition Wants To Track Your Online Activity

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
June 30, 2018
Filed under
Boeing's Creepy Petition Wants To Track Your Online Activity

Keith’s note: A month ago I mentioned the Facebook advertsing that Boeing has been doing (see “Boeing’s Imaginary Space Program“). Well, they are at it again. I just saw this advertisement show up on Facebook (larger image). It leads with “NASA hasn’t used American-made spacecraft to send astronauts to space since 2011. Sign the petition to show you support AMERICAN-MADE SPACECRAFT.” What’s their point? The only competitor Boeing has right now for NASA business is another 100% American-made spacecraft by SpaceX. And I suppose you can add in Sierra Nevada and Blue Origin too if you want. So no matter who flies on a commercial vehicle they will be flying on an American spacecraft. So why is Boeing trying to get you to support something that happens no matter what?
If you click on the link it sends you to this link (note the tracking code in the URL) – you are now an “enthusiast” for their “sls-space-race-petition”. https://watchusfly.com/campaigns/space-american-made-petition-acquisition/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=video-post&utm_campaign=acquisition_petition_sls-space-race-petition-2-b&utm_term=space&utm_content=enthusiast which asks you to “Add your name to support American-made spacecraft.” By giving your name, email, and zip code. Of course they also put cookies in your browser and know your IP number. Oh yes – take a look at their policy page and look at all the things you will let them do with this information (as if anyone reads this stuff):
“Your use of social media features will result in the collection or sharing of information about you, depending on the feature. The basic details we receive depends on your social network account privacy settings. We encourage you to review the privacy practices and settings of the social media sites you use to make sure you understand the personal information that may be collected, used, and shared by those sites.”

At the bottom in lighter grey text is the note: “Site intended for use by U.S. residents 14 years of age or older. Boeing may use the information you provide to send you future communications about Boeing and issues that may be of interest to you. For further information, please review Boeing’s Privacy Policy.” If you follow the Take action link you end up at a page asking you to “Support Boeing T-X Today”. OK, so why is Boeing sending you to a page that is supposed to be about space that is actually a thin disguise for a Congressional lobbying effort that is really focused on military hardware? And what is Boeing going to do with the information you have given them? Well, they tell you that too:
“When you use Boeing Services, we collect and process information about your pinpointed location, after obtaining consent as required by local law. We use various technologies to determine location, including IP address, GPS, and other sensors that, for example, provide us with information on nearby devices, Wi-Fi access points, and cell towers. Location data is used in accordance with Collection and use of personal information, and disclosed in accordance with Disclosure of your information. … Boeing uses, and permits service providers to use, tracking scripts or “tracers” and web beacons that recognize a unique identifier from a cookie placed on your device by another website. For example, we use a tracer to determine whether you visit our employment pages after visiting a resume or career site where we placed a banner ad. We also use these technologies to compile information about your website usage and your interaction with email or other communications, to measure performance, and to provide content and ads that are more relevant to you. A web beacon is typically a transparent graphic image that can be embedded in online content, videos, and emails, and can allow a server to read certain types of information from your device, know when you have viewed the beacon, and the IP address of your device. For example, we include web beacons in our promotional email messages or newsletters to determine whether our messages have been opened or interacted with and whether our mailing tools are working properly.”
Keep reading. You are, in essence. giving them permission to use your info for whatever they want to do and they will never tell you just what that is. They talk about your credit card information, buying preferences, and all manner of things that they can track if they want. Just a reminder – they can track nearly everything you visit. EVERYTHING. What on Earth is Boeing up to? Why do they need to start tracking you and your cellphone to get your location? And why are they openly allowing people people as young as 14 to consent to being tracked? This is outright creepy.

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

18 responses to “Boeing's Creepy Petition Wants To Track Your Online Activity”

  1. Henry Vanderbilt says:
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    I doubt they actually care about your credit card, buying preferences, or most of that stuff. Sounds like their legal department piling on all-contingencies boilerplate, JIC.

    My guess what they’re actually up to here? Building a list for astroturf call-your-congressman campaigns in support of SLS/Orion.

    Which is very interesting, in that it’s a sign that they actually anticipate real trouble keeping the funding flowing.

    I wonder what they know about the program that we don’t yet?

    • Terry Stetler says:
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      There’s been talk that Starliner will slip well into 2019 while Crew Dragon’s uncrewed flight may still go in Q3-ish. Wonder if they pulled an N-G and have parts falling on the floor?

      • ThomasLMatula says:
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        At this rate BFR will be available before CCP, at least if NASA keeps slipping it because they want it to be much safer than the Soyuz or NASA systems like the Shuttle.

        • fcrary says:
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          That could raise some interesting, legal issues. If NASA has not certified Falcon 9/Dragon 2 to carry people, could SpaceX get the necessary licenses and approvals to put people on BFR? Technically, they are totally separate issues. But someone may question how BFR could possibly be safe.

          The same company would have spent three years longer working on Dragon 2, almost a decade longer working on Falcon 9, and still not been able to satisfy NASA about their safety. That might raise enough eyebrows to complicate launch licensing.

          • Henry Vanderbilt says:
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            Despite all the fog that’s been spread on the subject, anyone outside of NASA who wants to fly people to space still needs only FAA approval, not NASA’s. NASA crew certification only matters because it’s NASA paying for Commercial Crew program vehicle development and Station flights..

            I’ve wondered for years how much NASA crew-cert foot-dragging SpaceX might tolerate before telling NASA “so long, thanks for the funding, not so much for the elbow-joggling, we’re going to go sell crew flights direct to customers.”

          • Henry Vanderbilt says:
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            Put another way, the only people who want NASA Crew Cert to be a mandatory basis for FAA commercial human carriage signoff are at NASA. (Well, and at some of their captive contractors.)

            I would expect the FAA, when the time comes, will copy the bits of NASA Cert that make sense while ignoring all the “faucets on the mandatory kitchen sink MUST be gold-plated to a depth of not less than…” bumf.

          • fcrary says:
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            I know a private or commercial flight would require approval from the FAA and not NASA. I’m thinking of what those FAA officials might think. To make it clearer, let’s forget about BFR. What if, hypothetically, SpaceX had a private customer for a Falcon 9/Dragon 2 flight before NASA had certified it? Technically, approval would be up to the FAA. But I can easily imagine the FAA getting cold feet over something NASA said they still weren’t sure about. Approval would involve a civil servant risking his career by second guessing NASA. He (or they) definitely have the authority to do so, but they might hesitate. And if they were hesitant, there are lots of ways they could drag out the approval process for a manned, non-NASA flight.

          • Not Invented Here says:
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            FAA has their own rules about Human Spaceflight (I believe is Part 460), they’re not relying on NASA. FAA’s rules are very relaxed and general, they do ask the company to fully inform the customers about the risks. Congress specifically asked FAA not to put too strict rules on HSF, since it’s a new industry.

          • Henry Vanderbilt says:
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            A good point there, but those exact circumstances are unlikely to arise. As long as they’re still taking significant NASA Crew development funding, SpaceX is very unlikely to offend NASA by scheduling a private Crew Dragon flight.

            When/if they reach an open breach with NASA over endless Crew Certification dithering, the political situation will have significantly shifted.

            At that point, NASA’s cert standards will be in public dispute, while FAA will face an easy bureaucratic turf choice between NASA (a would-be rival of theirs in this) and SpaceX (a customer likely to provide reason for considerable future FAA/space expansion.)

        • mfwright says:
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          I have no knowledge of certification of crewed systems but I don’t seem to recall of Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, or Shuttle being certified. These vehicles were deemed flightworthy to fly astronauts after considerable tests of prototypes (exception of vehicles that failed and killed crew).

          I can perceive how commercial aircraft are certified as these have heritage and identical vehicles flown through extensive flight tests. And many aircraft are part of an extensive global infrastructure. Somehow I don’t see how spacecraft are certified. They can be considered flightworthy for professional crew members.

          But all this is moot as any vehicle that can loft people to LEO from US soil is always one or two years into the future.

      • Henry Vanderbilt says:
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        Good point, they could instead be anticipating problems with Starliner. On the whole, its problems that I’ve seen discussed s far have seemed more serious than Crew Dragon’s.

        Or, they could be preparing for not-yet-public trouble on both fronts.

        Interesting times.

    • Michael Spencer says:
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      That’s my thinking. Just in case the whole SLS thing becomes public they can play an anti-Ruskie card.

      On the other hand, why they would want to expose the shameful fact that Americans cannot loft people is beyond explanation. It is corporate-think.

  2. cb450sc says:
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    Actually, I suspect they added this as some part of GDPR compliance. I am getting bombarded with this stuff since it went into effect last month.

    • Ted says:
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      This.

      It’s all boilerplate fine print that nobody reads. Should we be concerned what social media sites and multinational corporations are doing with our data? OF COURSE. But this isn’t something specific to Boeing. They’re tracking you just as much as every other website does.

      Reminds me of a NASAWATCH post a couple years back raising concern about those “this email is intended for the recipient only. if you have received it in error… blah blah” signature footers that are everywhere.

      Raise this issue all you want as an online privacy awareness topic, but it has nothing to do with Boeing or SLS.

      • kcowing says:
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        Yea but it is binding upon ANYONE who signs the petition.

      • fcrary says:
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        Personally, I’m waiting and hoping for a court ruling on this sort of thing. With all these “click to accept” or “by clicking Continue you automatically accept” legal terms, we’re at the point where no one can be realistically expected to go though all those lengthy terms, understand them or pay a lawyer to explain them. I think that violates the concept of informed consent, and I think (or hope) it puts the legal validity of such things into question.

  3. Joe_de_Loe says:
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    Keith, thank-you for researching and posting this.

  4. Michael Spencer says:
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    It is worth pointing out that many Americans get news solely from FB. They will see an ad like this and they will read between the lines, taking as fact the message.