Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How To Opt Out of Facebook Ads Based on Your Real-Life Shopping Activity

eff.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 99 posts

Re: How To Opt Out of Facebook Ads Based on Your Real-Life Shopping Activity

#81

Post by Evbn »

fakeer wrote: post #49
byoogle wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lifehacker just did a comparison of popular privacy extensions and called Disconnect the best (over Ghostery and others): http://lifehacker.com/the-best-browser-extensions-that-prote...

Okay, I have used both but didn't find Disconnect(good too) even near Ghostery or ABP(have used this too); ABP is bulky that's true.. Though I've been uneasy since Ghostery went closed source[1] but it's so easy to use and light on the browser. Disconnect is partially open source[2] too, and ABP is fully open source. I guess I might switch back to ABP if complains start for Ghostery. [1] https://github.com/jonpierce/…

How is browser JS closed source?

Without auditing, calling a server open source is meaningless.

Re: How To Opt Out of Facebook Ads Based on Your Real-Life Shopping Activity

#82

Post by Evbn »

EvilTerran wrote: post #75
iSnow wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even though I still use Ghostery, the fact that it was acquired and went closed source makes me uneasy. I don't see a revenue model here - Ghostery is still free as in beer. So I am a bit wary of the moral hazard this poses to the new owner of Ghostery.

From what I recall of their website, they have an opt-in feature whereby the add-on can send them information about what ads are appearing on what pages and the like, and they anonymise and collate the data to sell it. For instance, you could buy a service off them to the effect of "what adverts are actually appearing on my website when Joe User loads it up?" And I believe I remember also seeing a statement to the ef…

Awesome, so their monetization strategy is to undermine the whole product and say "trust me"

Re: How To Opt Out of Facebook Ads Based on Your Real-Life Shopping Activity

#83

Post by Evbn »

jpswade wrote: post #67

Am I the only person who would actually prefer targeted ads based on things I might actually be interested in, rather than the crap I've been exposed to before. If you're going to use a walled garden like facebook, you expect to see walls now and again.

Since they have proven that they are awful at targeting, I don't want it.

The fact is, 90% of advertising exists because the product is not worth buying in its merits. Word of mouth recommendations and independent research studies are where good jnformarion comes from. Targeting doesn't help that.

Re: How To Opt Out of Facebook Ads Based on Your Real-Life Shopping Activity

#84

Post by Evbn »

arindone wrote: post #41

I've said this before and I'll say it again -- why the complaints now, when Google has been doing this for years? Essentially, they can collect your information from emails, purchasing habits & financial information from Google Wallet, income, and combine that with Google+ social data, files you put into Google drive, and you have a complete profile that's ripe for advertising.

Everything you listed is from data you inserted into Google's system, not bought from a third party. But keep digging deeper :-)

Re: How To Opt Out of Facebook Ads Based on Your Real-Life Shopping Activity

#85

Post by Evbn »

chii wrote: post #46
troymc wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A perfect ad is one I asked for, when I asked for it, like in Google or Amazon search results. I go to Facebook to check on friends. I don't want a fried-chicken billboard to appear beside the photo of my friend's new baby. It's the wrong context (even if I'm craving fried chicken).

what if it was a baby shower gift? What if they managed to connect enough dots to know that this is what you want, and thus, make the sale via this channel?

Then I can ask Facebook to show me gifts and stores my friends like, and some general listings.

Re: How To Opt Out of Facebook Ads Based on Your Real-Life Shopping Activity

#86

Post by Evbn »

Amadou wrote: post #79
nitrogen wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since Gmail's account name semantics are well known, the top data collecting agencies have no doubt adapted by now. Also, frustratingly, a lot of sites will break, often silently, if you give them an e-mail address with a plus symbol (e.g. it might end up in a GET request to an internal API without proper escaping, and be interpreted as a space).

Yes, the only way to go is your own domain. Use an add-on like Virtual Identity for Thunderbird to keep track of which From address goes with which recipient. https://www.absorb.it/virtual-id (their cert seems to have expired over the weekend)

I do wonder when/if trackers collapse all addresses on a small domain into a glob. They totally could.

Re: How To Opt Out of Facebook Ads Based on Your Real-Life Shopping Activity

#88

Post by bti »

nnnnni wrote: post #73
byoogle wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lifehacker just did a comparison of popular privacy extensions and called Disconnect the best (over Ghostery and others): http://lifehacker.com/the-best-browser-extensions-that-prote...

Yeah... You really should have put a disclaimer in there to let everyone know that you were advertising your own product. That makes me never want to try the extension, no matter how good it may be.

I don't think he wrote the Lifehacker article he linked to.

Re: How To Opt Out of Facebook Ads Based on Your Real-Life Shopping Activity

#90

Post by fixanoid »

Evbn wrote: post #82
EvilTerran wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I recall of their website, they have an opt-in feature whereby the add-on can send them information about what ads are appearing on what pages and the like, and they anonymise and collate the data to sell it. For instance, you could buy a service off them to the effect of "what adverts are actually appearing on my website when Joe User loads it up?" And I believe I remember also seeing a statement to the ef…

Awesome, so their monetization strategy is to undermine the whole product and say "trust me"

Well, it would be that if Ghostery didn't offer you choice. Also, the data collected is about trackers and not the user.

Note: Ghostery dev here.

Post reply on HN