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Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data

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Re: Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data

#61

Post by SapporoChris »

dylan604 wrote: post #42
exmadscientist wrote: post #22

What happens if you've never been a Meta user? I have never had any kind of business relationship with Meta (so far as I know), and have never agreed to any contract or terms of service. What can I do, under US law, to minimize what they store about me and my behavior, or at least keep tabs on them?

Is this rhetorical? Nothing. Every website that adds their code will be tracking you. Every friend, acquaintance, or anyone that you’ve shared your contact with for what ever reason that has given them access to their contacts has provided your info for you. There’s nothing you can do about it. At the rate we’re going, it will soon be law that you have to allow them to track you. The Zuck just hasn’t figured out yet…

"Is this rhetorical? Nothing" Nonsense, and the article addresses this. "Block Meta’s Trackers"

Re: Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data

#62

Post by xyst »

amatecha wrote: post #45

IMO, skip all the "FB settings" shenanigans and instead just block all Meta (and Google while you're at it) properties using a Pi-Hole on your whole network. VPN into your own LAN with Tailscale and use the Pi-Hole for DNS resolution and never see that shit on your phone again, either. If you want to go a step further, you could do this blocking at the router/firewall level, if you have hardware capable of this.

Tailscale is a bit overpowered for just using custom DNS. Even if it’s “free” for personal use.

A simple WireGuard server setup at home configured with my custom DNS resolver to block known tracking urls and setting up VPN profiles on devices works for me.

Re: Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data

#63

Post by seabass-labrax »

esperent wrote: post #52
exmadscientist wrote: post #22

What happens if you've never been a Meta user? I have never had any kind of business relationship with Meta (so far as I know), and have never agreed to any contract or terms of service. What can I do, under US law, to minimize what they store about me and my behavior, or at least keep tabs on them?

It's almost certain that you've agreed to privacy terms somewhere (even if just a misclicked cookie box) that has the lines: "You consent to processing... by us and our partners ..." Where the partners list includes 400 or so companies, one of which is for sure Meta. Would this hold up on court? No idea. But I'm sure Meta will happily take you consent and run with it, as will all the other companies.

The option to accept or decline cookies is, unfortunately for parent, not necessarily legally enforceable outside the European Union and the United Kingdom. There might be an argument that Meta cannot track a user after explicitly offering the ability to opt-out (promissory estoppel?), but I rather doubt it.

In the EU/UK, the argument is academic, as the GDPR requires ongoing consent to track a user: you can't sign away your privacy in perpetuity.

Re: Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data

#64

Post by larsnystrom »

Jean-Papoulos wrote: post #60

There's a facebook share button right next to the article. The jokes write themselves : https://imgur.com/a/TbIjZSV

I agree it's ironic, however they seem to use an inert version of the share button. The default share button by Facebook contacts Facebook when you view the page, doesn't matter whether you click the button or not. The one used by EFF only contacts Facebook when you click it.

Re: Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data

#65

Post by the_gipsy »

pickledoyster wrote: post #12
TheEnder8 wrote: post #6

The thing is, its not just Meta. It's anyone with a square inch of pixels that you can slap an ad on. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. Meta gets a lot of flack, but it's easy to stop using Facebook. It's a lot harder to stop using Google or Amazon.

> it's easy to stop using Facebook. It's a lot harder to stop using Google or Amazon. Not in my country, where Facebook owns basically the entire messaging space through Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. I have been able to switch my default search engine, email provider, mobile OS, office suite, etc. from Google no problem, but the network effect has been too strong to get most of my friends out of Meta's ad netwo…

Not solution to the network problem, but you can bridge/puppet Whatsapp, Instagram, telegram, to matrix.org.

Re: Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data

#66

Post by amatecha »

xyst wrote: post #62
amatecha wrote: post #45

IMO, skip all the "FB settings" shenanigans and instead just block all Meta (and Google while you're at it) properties using a Pi-Hole on your whole network. VPN into your own LAN with Tailscale and use the Pi-Hole for DNS resolution and never see that shit on your phone again, either. If you want to go a step further, you could do this blocking at the router/firewall level, if you have hardware capable of this.

Tailscale is a bit overpowered for just using custom DNS. Even if it’s “free” for personal use. A simple WireGuard server setup at home configured with my custom DNS resolver to block known tracking urls and setting up VPN profiles on devices works for me.

Yeah the problem (for me anyway) with doing a normal VPN is having to open ports on your router. Though, not the end of the world, but with Tailscale your firewall can continue to block all incoming from the outside world.

Re: Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data

#68

Post by noja »

exmadscientist wrote: post #22

What happens if you've never been a Meta user? I have never had any kind of business relationship with Meta (so far as I know), and have never agreed to any contract or terms of service. What can I do, under US law, to minimize what they store about me and my behavior, or at least keep tabs on them?

Shadow profiles

Re: Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data

#69

Post by mr_mitm »

exmadscientist wrote: post #22

What happens if you've never been a Meta user? I have never had any kind of business relationship with Meta (so far as I know), and have never agreed to any contract or terms of service. What can I do, under US law, to minimize what they store about me and my behavior, or at least keep tabs on them?

I use uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger which should mitigate tracking via the "share with Facebook" button. I also use Cookie Autodelete (except for whitelisted domains) which should make tracking via cookies next to impossible. Users can be fingerprinted via other means, and I know my fingerprint is unique, so I try to make my fingerprint different every time. For this I use a UserAgent randomizer (which unfortunately breaks some sites (e.g. youtube), which then have to be whitelisted).

I think this should minimize the impact of their tracking, but surely the Hacker News crowd will now give me suggestions for improvement.

Re: Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data

#70

Post by CSSer »

c420 wrote: post #48
CSSer wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could it be that red states aren’t passing privacy laws? No snark intended. Privacy seems pretty “anti-business” when you consider that it’s a type of regulation in any form. I share the same idle curiosity because I’ve followed the EFF for years too, but the more I think about it: did they ever stand a chance with Republicans? It also seems like big tech is aging into or adopting a kind of partisanship. These compan…

Texas Data Pri­va­cy And Secu­ri­ty Act https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/consumer-protection/fil...

Hey, I didn’t know about this! Thank you for sharing.
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