I almost never get popups, and never, so far as I recall, on Gimp Chat. I got the following last night. The message was defaulted to "accept." I clicked to change that and when I clicked on the "Do Not Sell" button again the message had changed to "you rejected the sale ..." When I came back to Gimp Chat sometime later last night the popup was gone. I didn't send the screenshots I had made at the time.

However, the popup is back today:



Can anyone tell me if this is actually from Gimp Chat? Does anyone have any other information about it?

Thanks!

I cant say what the problem is. I just tried it and didn't get any pop ups. (I haven't had them before either)
Oops just thought you meant the mini chat.
I do know if you are not signed in you will get adverts?
I'll check out again if I get that message when not signed in to the site.

Edit. All seems ok here, Looks like something tagged along with you. Maybe you need to clean out your computer.

Sallyanne, thank you. I've had a few computer curiosities lately, including a Windows Defender virus report that may have been a "false positive." Now everything unexpected looks bit suspicious. I usually don't sign in unless I'm going to post something new or reply. I wasn't signed in last night when I got the first popup. When I sign in I always get a message that signing in is itself potentially unsafe but after five years there has never been an issue.

It's active for me too. This is not related to advertising, but it is an aggressive way to make money from data.

Does it do it only on gimpchat?
Yes, try to find a non secure website (http > NOT httpS),
does it do it as well?
Yes, see below, but you now know it's targeting non-secure/non-encrypted websites like gimpchat.com, something like an advert-ware in a "middle"?

Does it do it only on gimpchat?
No, try disabling ALL your browser's addons / extensions, then restart your browser and test again (maybe on the Microsoft's Windows OS restart your computer).
If it stops, you know were it comes from, the guilty is one of your addons/extension.
If it has no effect, I would worry about a virus wandering around your OS... What software did you install/try recently, could be a good start to search.

Not a virus or browser (I've seen it on various computers and browsers - and even on cell phones).
It could be worse - no complete access to the website without accepting cookies.
Who is reading this:

Consent Framework

Hello and welcome ! If you are reading this page following a click on a cookie banner, it means that the website you were visiting undertakes to fulfill its obligations regarding transparency and respect of your privacy while preserving the best possible user experience and in particular by moderating the display frequency of cookies information messages.

This website is part of the open initiative called Consent Framework, managed by Sirdata and in which websites have the will to maintain a balance between privacy and the funding of a free content thanks to an User respectful advertising.

The scope of this network is limited to the European Union and the United Kingdom. By default if you did not make a choice yet relating to cookies in this network you are considered to have refused them. In this network, each website has to wait for a specific consent from you before using any advertising cookies.

Your choices regarding advertising or content personalization that you make or modify here or on any of the 5266 websites participating in this initiative will apply instantly across this network. Even of course if your choice is to refuse cookies! Also, your choices, including your refusal, will be immediately applied to any new site integrating this initiative. Finally, if a site leaves this network, your choices and in particular your consent will no longer be valid for it: if the site owner wants to use or allow cookies he will have to ask for your consent again.

This means that if you had already given your consent to cookies you can change your mind and withdraw it at any time here or on any of these websites, either by clicking on a settings link for cookies or through their privacy page. The information about the withdrawal of your consent will be instantly transmitted to all sites adhering to Sirdata's Consent Framework.

Click here to access the list of websites your choices apply on.

Oh... it's even worse than I expected
Those are advertisers and data sellers and collectors under a nice misleading name "open initiative called Consent Framework"

Pixlab: Yes, [so far] it is only on Gimp Chat.

My regrets, but I don't know how to "find a non secure website (http > NOT httpS)" for further testing.

After the earlier 'false positive' virus report and clearing out everything I could find related to that program I was attempting to install, I ran both quick and full Windows Defender scans [more than seven hours for the full scan] and no further issues were reported. A few hours after the full scan was when the Gimp Chat "Do not sell"appeared.


MareroQ: Around the beginning of this year I noticed some websites had a website-explicit "accept cookies" notice, but, like this one, they seemed to be a rather trivial sort of nuisance, like something the popup blocker had missed, and they did not actually prevent me from accessing the site. I could scroll past them or dismiss them with no penalty or threat. If any of them did try to penalize or threaten or overly hinder, I simply left the site as not being worth the bother.

The difference here -- which I didn't think about until afterward -- is that the message was neither Gimp Chat specific nor explicit about cookies. It went right to the sale of data, which no previous message had done.

Thank you both for your replies.

That was supposed to comply with Californian data privacy laws a few years ago.

I've never seen it here. Could be real or it's been spoofed by malware.

Tas [good to hear from you-as always] Those were the kind of nagging things I previously saw and grew mostly indifferent about. The difference was that what I saw were site-specified instead of the generic media example. I had never read anything about the new California law. Some of the notices may have mentioned it but I just assumed it was an EU thing. Maybe there will be even newer stuff at the beginning of this year.

vitforlinux: I do actually use several ad and popup blockers on Firefox. I seem to be somewhat ADD because when distracting things suddenly start appearing on the computer screen my immediate reaction is genuine anger for being interrupted. I don't like feeling angry, so I try to avoid situations that may arouse it.

I've only used Windows Defender for a couple years. Upon your suggestion I downloaded and ran Malwarebytes. It found 36 "potentially unwanted program" instances; which Windows Defender missed. It appeared that all of them were related to "Driver Talent". It seems they were leftovers from an application I deleted some months ago. I qurantined the PUPs and then deleted all the related items I could find, then ran CCleaner and it found some "Driver Talent" related registry entries that Malwarebytes had not found. So i cleaned those as well.

Restarted and went back to Gimp Chat and the "Do not sell" pop-under was back again for the third day.

You may apologize for your second language skills, but "previously we sailed in peace" is as lovely a description of my recent experiences as I could have hoped to find.

Thank you both for your replies.

Using linux here, but I have never seen that pop-up

Looks like privacy badger https://privacybadger.org/ blocks it.



https://privacybadger.org/

True but using an adblocker does stop that advertising. If I ever hit a site that asks "Disable the adblocker" then I just do not go there. Simple as that.