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Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

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Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#11

Post by kibwen »

Tade0 wrote: post #5
mozvalentin wrote: post #3

Chrome and Firefox have deployed / are deploying local-network-access which prompts the user when apps try this.

I've seen it and at least in Chrome it seems to be treating all URLs which are based on an IP address as "local", regardless of the class of the address.

I'd be inherently suspicious of any website in the wild attempting to contact a bare IP address. Aside from localhost, my default assumption would be that such a website is either trying to circumvent my hosts file (or circumvent my other DNS configuration, e.g. pi-hole or DNS-over-HTTPS), malware trying to reach a command-and-control server, or malware trying to circumvent my adblocker.

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#15

Post by gruez »

applfanboysbgon wrote: post #4

> Meta must face a lawsuit alleging that it secretly tracked Android users' browsing activity on mobile websites that embedded Meta's analytics pixel, and linked that activity to users' identities, a federal judge ruled Monday. > The decision, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco, grew out of a class-action complaint initially brought last June by California resident Devin Rose (and later joi…

docket: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70448987/in-re-meta-and...

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#16

Post by SoftTalker »

absqueued wrote: post #8
woodrowbarlow wrote: post #7

i would love to have a software engineer's union, not so much to get better working conditions but to be able to say stuff like "i can't implement that unethical feature, it's against union rules and i'd lose my membership".

Take a lead, let me sign up :)

And this is why we don't have one. Someone else is expected to do the hard part.

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#17

Post by theodorejb »

woodrowbarlow wrote: post #7

i would love to have a software engineer's union, not so much to get better working conditions but to be able to say stuff like "i can't implement that unethical feature, it's against union rules and i'd lose my membership".

You don't need to join a union to push back against unethical feature requests.

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#18

Post by SoftTalker »

pezgrande wrote: post #13
mozvalentin wrote: post #3

Chrome and Firefox have deployed / are deploying local-network-access which prompts the user when apps try this.

I guess that's why I am getting so many "Allow to find devices on your network" alerts. Good feature overall.

Only a good feature if users have a clue what that question means. Most will click "Yes" because they want to get on with whatever they want to do.

Change it to something like "This website is trying to spy on your local devices, do you want to allow this?"

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#19

Post by actionfromafar »

volkercraig wrote: post #10
woodrowbarlow wrote: post #7

i would love to have a software engineer's union, not so much to get better working conditions but to be able to say stuff like "i can't implement that unethical feature, it's against union rules and i'd lose my membership".

Start one. Unions are worker owned. You could also join the IWW.

Unions in the US are nerfed, by law.

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#20

Post by jakubadamw »

theodorejb wrote: post #17
woodrowbarlow wrote: post #7

i would love to have a software engineer's union, not so much to get better working conditions but to be able to say stuff like "i can't implement that unethical feature, it's against union rules and i'd lose my membership".

You don't need to join a union to push back against unethical feature requests.

The collective leverage of a union gives you significantly more power to do something like this.
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