How to opt out of OAuth App but continue to have access to the NPP forum?
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When I joined the NPP forum here it seemed I had to consent to OAuth…
I had a question about NPP so I said OK without giving it due consideration.
According to Wikipedia
“OAuth is commonly used as a way for Internet users to grant websites or applications access to their information on other websites but without giving them the passwords.”
I got an email from GitHub about this and went to “Revoke Access” to OAuth… but as I saw it I would no longer be able to use the NPP forum if I did this.
I’m a member of other forums and as far as I can remember none have a demand that they can see my information on other websites…
Question 1: Is there a way to retain membership and use of the NPP forum without granting permission to see my information on other websites?
Question 2: Is this NPP forum maintained or affiliated with the NPP developer?
Question 3: Is granting OAuth permission a revenue source for the forum host or GitHub?
Thanks for any help. -
@Fran-3 said in How to opt out of OAuth App but continue to have access to the NPP forum?:
I’m a member of other forums and as far as I can remember none have a demand that they can see my information on other websites…
They do if you want to link the accounts (ie, if they are using OAuth as well).
The information shared is quite minimal. It includes your user-name, your “real name” as made public on the OAuth server (GitHub, in your case, apparently), and whether or not you are succesfully logged in. Nothing that you have not made public with GitHub is made public here, and it’s just used for initially filling out your profile; by clicking on your icon in the upper right and selecting Edit Profile, you can change any of the information that was copied over.
The only “active” data sharing is that when you log into the forum, it will send an OAuth request to GitHub saying, “is this user still authenticated/logged-in with you?” – basically, it uses GitHub to store your password and handle authentication, so that the forum does not have to carry the security risk of storing passwords.Question 1: Is there a way to retain membership and use of the NPP forum without granting permission to see my information on other websites?
No.
Question 2: Is this NPP forum maintained or affiliated with the NPP developer?
He is the owner of the website, yes.
Question 3: Is granting OAuth permission a revenue source for the forum host or GitHub?
No. OAuth is offered for free by Facebook, Google, Twitter, and GitHub. As far as I know, the websites that use them for authentication do not pay for the benefit, and those companies do not pay the websites like this Community for the privilege of providing authentication.
If you really don’t like such things, create a dummy account at one of those four providers, with completely anonymous information. Creating dummy accounts at any of those takes only a matter of a minute or two. (Though I recommend not Facebook, because it actively forbids anonymous/multiple accounts; check terms of service before creating an anonymous or secondary account on any such service.)
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Question 2: Is this NPP forum maintained or affiliated with the NPP developer?
@PeterJones said in How to opt out of OAuth App but continue to have access to the NPP forum?:
He is the owner of the website, yes.
Just a bit more, here…
The forum software is not created by the Notepad++ author or team. It was just selected for use by him, much like any of us choose to use Notepad++. We can complain about the forum software but even the Notepad++ author can’t do much if anything about how it works.
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I have created a FAQ, so I can stop answering similar questions every few weeks.
https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/19196/faq-desk-logging-in-to-this-forum
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@Alan-Kilborn said in How to opt out of OAuth App but continue to have access to the NPP forum?:
Just a bit more, here…
Thanks for the clarification: that was probably wise to add the extra information.
