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Logging out of Facbook is not enough

nikcub.appspot.com

81–90 of 126 posts

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#81
post #4

I use 2 very simple adblock plus rules that deactivate all of facebook outside of the facebook website. Simple and straightforward and works fine for me. It might not be enough, though :D Something like, for FireFox, IIRC: ||facebook.*$domain=~facebook.com|~127.0.0.1 ||fbcdn.net/*$domain=~facebook.com And for Chrome, I think it would become: *.facebook.*$domain=~facebook.com|~127.0.0.1 Edit: adding the rules

If you're a Firefox user and you'd rather whitelist known good actors, than blacklist known bad actors, as per this example. Install the RequestPolicy addon.

I got pointed to this addon in a past discussion about FB here on HN and I can fully support this recommendation.

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#82
post #43

I blackhole facebook.com at the domain level using pdnsd: neg { name=facebook.com; types=domain; } I have no idea why people are so eager to give away their privacy to Facebook and others to sell and whore-out to the highest bidder. It's akin to getting a handful of bright, pretty beads for your property.

What sort of sales and whoring-out has Facebook done? Is there really any value in one's social graph, or do we just hope there is so we can hate Facebook for being evil instead of for making us realize how dumb our friends are?

You don't want Facebook to post an announcement say "I am watching a video on makeMEpleasure.xxx, and I like it because I visit this website ten times per day." or have Facebook recommend you with potential same-flavor friends or pages, which include something making more guys happy.

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't get why it's a big deal if Facebook knows who you're going to vote for or what brands you might buy. It depends on who buys the data and / or the interpretation of that data from them. Just imagine a country like China buying it to predict who will become a subversive and arresting them before anything happens, something akin to pre-cog crime. When I think about it, we can probably aleady do this somewhat a…

So the reason why Americans shouldn't use Facebook is because it's possible that some rogue government somewhere might oppress its people? Those governments seem to be doing a pretty good job already without Facebook's help. Then there's the argument that in 30 years the US will be one of these countries, too. I wonder why people are so afraid of this, but not of the small chance that they'll be hit by a meteor when…

For most of human history most people in the world lived under tyranny. In that light the freedoms we enjoy in the USA are a pretty small blip in the data. Why do we think it will always be so, especially with so many people apparently unconcerned about the unprecedented ability of both commercial and government organizations to accurately profile the public/citizens?

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#84

To be completely honest, I don't really see why something like this is so novel and outrageous. It is as if everyone has forgotten why and how companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, etc.. are able to provide what they do for free. The implicit contract is "you get all this for free, and in return we get to serve you ads that we target to you." Moreover, they all have much more information on you than yo…

It's because the actual terms of the exchange are so infuriatingly unclear. Also, because efforts to fix this are met with an endless stream of deflections and evasions, all of which signal an intrinsically untrustworthy character in the organizations making them.

To understand this a bit better, imagine going to the grocery story, buying milk, eggs, etc. swiping your card, and not getting a total.

"Don't worry about that" says the store "as long as we (and our unnamed affiliates) have access to your bank account, everything will be fine."

Going home to look at your statement, you see a bunch of debits, most of which seem reasonable enough on their own, but none of which have a clear relation to specific purchases. All you come away with is a general sense that "I should save more" or "I can spend more".

So here's the question: if people started pointing that this arrangement was highly damaging to people's economic autonomy, and wide open to abuse, what would you think of someone who says "yeah, well, stuff isn't free"?

Would you think that this was an honest, intelligent reply? Or would you note that the person making it has just evaded the original question, shifting the topic away from concern about the deliberately unmanageable terms of the exchange and onto the (uncontested) subject of underlying economics? Also, would you notice that the jerk responding in this fashion added an extra layer of insult by suggesting that the person who asked the question must be a bit of an idiot because they don't understand basic economics?

Toxic politicians do this all the time. They 'reframe' questions before answering, allowing them to 'respond' by answering questions that nobody asked, while dodging the ones they did. If they're especially nasty, the land a rhetorical punch in the process, providing a disincentive to any further questioning.

It's bullshit. And people know it's bullshit. Ergo, the growing outrage.

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#85
post #19

Imperfect hosts list, there may be more 127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com 127.0.0.1 facebook.com 127.0.0.1 connect.facebook.net 127.0.0.1 facebook.net 127.0.0.1 fbcdn.net 127.0.0.1 www.fbcdn.net It sure seems to speed up using the web.

Thanks. I tried to get a list of domains from their nameservers but they seem to have blocked the usual ways to do this:

  $ dig @ns1.facebook.com facebook.com axfr

  ; > DiG 9.3.6-APPLE-P2 > @ns1.facebook.com facebook.com axfr
  ; (1 server found)
  ;; global options:  printcmd
  ; Transfer failed.
and...

  $ host -l -t any facebook.com
  ; Transfer failed.
  Host facebook.com not found: 5(REFUSED)
  ; Transfer failed.

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#86
In fact, deactivating/"quitting" your FB account is not enough, either.

I deactivated my FB account several weeks ago, not so much for privacy issues directly but out of concern of the overall psychological effect of so much sharing and the emphasis on superficial identity (something I don't see discussed much).

Anyway, I checked my cookies after reading this piece and, not surprisingly, FB didn't remove my old auth cookie (the one keyed 'datr') when I quit their site. I should have known better, but I still think it's shameful to some degree to track people after they've very clearly disengaged from the site and their FB "identity".

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#88
post #73
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> maybe they've just got better over time at not relying on cookies for things they shouldn't? It may be that. I just tried and Twitter is working perfectly without third-party cookies. Some months ago it didn't allow me to login. With Google I had a similar problem, I couldn't login into my Google Account in sites that weren't the search engine (Docs, YouTube, etc). I just tried them, and again, it seems that it wor…

I would suspect it has something to do with Safari (Mobile at least) having third party cookies disabled by default.

Safari help says "Select to reject cookies from advertisers and from “third parties”—websites other than those you open. This might help prevent certain advertisers from storing cookies on your computer."

This might mean that they reject third-party cookies from being set, but not from being read. That is, once you get a cookie (e.g. signed in to Facebook), every other request to Facebook (even if it's through the "Like" button) will also send your cookie.

The flag that appeared in the latest Chrome beta specifically disables sending of cookies to third parties, even if you have them.

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#89
post #64
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is indeed sort of disturbing that panopticlick gives me the message "Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 1,769,884 tested so far."

If you add any new plugins your print would be unique again compared to your previous settings, which would make you difficult to track. Stay unique, my friends.

Still possible, still possible. Of course, it all depends on how much they want to track you.

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#90
I'm not surprised by this. I noticed for a few months that I would sign out, appear to be so, but navigating to the site again would magically get me back in. Sign out was broken!

Disappointing that Facebook won't do the honorable thing.

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