Live data from Hacker News

Sirubo: Packet filtering to block Google and Facebook tracking

peguero.xyz

1–10 of 140 posts

Re: Sirubo: Packet filtering to block Google and Facebook tracking

#3
As someone with more time, I prefer to maintain a massive whitelist for my router. Daily websites receive permanent privileges, incidental websites (such as peguero.xyz) receive temporary privileges (e.g. allow traffic for the next minute), everything else is dropped.

I don't have to worry about what chicanery advertising companies are up to when they can't reach me even if they tried.

"So the fourth herd of deer took up residence where the poison-grass sower & his followers couldn’t go and—having taken up residence there—ate food without venturing unwarily into the poison-grass sown by the poison-grass sower. By eating food without venturing unwarily into the poison-grass sown by the poison-grass sower, they didn’t become intoxicated. Not being intoxicated, they didn’t become heedless. When they weren’t heedless, the poison-grass sower wasn’t able to do with them as he liked on account of that poison-grass."

Re: Sirubo: Packet filtering to block Google and Facebook tracking

#5
I would love to block their autonomous systems entirely this way, but I fear that for Google it would be impossible without significant impact to my life. Frustratingly, Google is also the hosting provider for a massive number of critical services.

Consider that for many households today, you cannot block Google without also blocking your kid's homework, as Google Classroom has been made a mandatory part of a large portion of schools.

Re: Sirubo: Packet filtering to block Google and Facebook tracking

#6
I've been using a similar technique found here[1] in macOS and it's very effective! The only issue I've had is I always have to redo it after an update. Admittedly I never did much research into why or if that could be overcome... clearly a macOS thing.

Pretty cool.

[1]: https://www.perpetual-beta.org/weblog/blocking-facebook-on-o...

Re: Sirubo: Packet filtering to block Google and Facebook tracking

#7
This is cool, but not super useful in 2021.

Google and Facebook have already moved their tracking technologies beyond frontend network calls due to a rise in browser-level blocking (browser security policies, international regulations, AdBlock, PiHole, etc). The next generation of tracking tech relies on the backend transfer of data between a website and the ad platform, which is invisible to your own network.

It also shifts the story from "Google and Facebook nonconsensually tracking your every digital move through websites and applications" as described in the article into "websites and applications actively transmitting customer data to Google and Facebook." The websites and applications are no longer passive partners, and they assume the responsibility of managing user consent.

Re: Sirubo: Packet filtering to block Google and Facebook tracking

#8

This is cool, but not super useful in 2021. Google and Facebook have already moved their tracking technologies beyond frontend network calls due to a rise in browser-level blocking (browser security policies, international regulations, AdBlock, PiHole, etc). The next generation of tracking tech relies on the backend transfer of data between a website and the ad platform, which is invisible to your own network. It als…

> The next generation of tracking tech relies on the backend transfer of server logs between a website and the ad platform, which is invisible to your own network

I've not heard of this, what sites are giving logs to networks?

Re: Sirubo: Packet filtering to block Google and Facebook tracking

#9

This is cool, but not super useful in 2021. Google and Facebook have already moved their tracking technologies beyond frontend network calls due to a rise in browser-level blocking (browser security policies, international regulations, AdBlock, PiHole, etc). The next generation of tracking tech relies on the backend transfer of data between a website and the ad platform, which is invisible to your own network. It als…

> The next generation of tracking tech relies on the backend transfer of server logs between a website and the ad platform, which is invisible to your own network I've not heard of this, what sites are giving logs to networks?

Shipping logs would be an extreme breach in my mind.

But I can BS. Without a cross site unique identifier, the logs would not be usable across different sites...

Though... I guess a browser fingerprint could be used as a non-centralized method to generate that unique key...

Re: Sirubo: Packet filtering to block Google and Facebook tracking

#10

This is cool, but not super useful in 2021. Google and Facebook have already moved their tracking technologies beyond frontend network calls due to a rise in browser-level blocking (browser security policies, international regulations, AdBlock, PiHole, etc). The next generation of tracking tech relies on the backend transfer of data between a website and the ad platform, which is invisible to your own network. It als…

> The next generation of tracking tech relies on the backend transfer of server logs between a website and the ad platform, which is invisible to your own network I've not heard of this, what sites are giving logs to networks?

I couldn't tell you a specific site, but here's an explanation of both Google's and Facebook's functionality.

FB: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/conversio...

Google: https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/conversion...

This is also why companies like Tealium and Segment are currently valued at billions of dollars. They provide a single middleware integration point to funnel customer data to the dozens of marketing companies that are now leveraging server-side APIs instead of browser pixels.

Post reply on HN