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

Logging out of Facbook is not enough

nikcub.appspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 126 posts

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#11

Post by mike-cardwell »

jbk wrote: 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.

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#13

Post by dchest »

jnorthrop wrote: post #7
codedivine wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the tip! Anything equivalent for Firefox (and maybe IE and Opera too)?

In the Firefox preferences go to the Privacy tab and select Use Custom Setting for History in the History section. From there you will see the check box to accept 3rd party cookies. Keep in mind this will prevent webmasters from using things like Google Analytics. Which you may want anyway but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Are you sure that setting "Accept cookies" to "off" will prevent third-party sites from reading cookies as well?

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#14

Post by mootothemax »

wonginator1221 wrote: post #6

Even after deleting FB cookies, what prevents them from tracking you (with reasonably good accuracy) using your IP address. In that case, you might as well just blacklist all of facebook.com. In my opinion, internet users must be aware that there is no easy way to be totally anonymous, whether it be Facebook, Google, etc. If you require complete anonymity, you might as well unplug your internet cable.

what prevents them from tracking you (with reasonably good accuracy) using your IP address

Dynamic IP addresses and use of the same IP address by multiple people.

All it takes is a couple of friends, acquaintances or others accessing using your home network and it'll confuse the hell out of the stats. And that's without going into IP ranges for universities, schools, offices large and small, and your local coffee shop.

Then add in IP address pooling by ISPs, where every time a user connects (or every week, month or year) they're issued a new IP, and you end up with an unclear situation.

I won't start on how cell/mobile phone networks further confuse the situation ;)

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#15

Post by v21 »

wonginator1221 wrote: post #6

Even after deleting FB cookies, what prevents them from tracking you (with reasonably good accuracy) using your IP address. In that case, you might as well just blacklist all of facebook.com. In my opinion, internet users must be aware that there is no easy way to be totally anonymous, whether it be Facebook, Google, etc. If you require complete anonymity, you might as well unplug your internet cable.

Or, indeed, using your combination of locale, useragent, etc. These are often unique. You can test yours here: http://panopticlick.eff.org/

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#17

Post by sagarun »

jbk wrote: 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

I guess EasyPrivacy one of the in built filter in ad-block plus already does that. Correct me if i am wrong.

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#18

Post by jbk »

sagarun wrote: post #17
jbk wrote: 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

I guess EasyPrivacy one of the in built filter in ad-block plus already does that. Correct me if i am wrong.

I thought that, but with EasyPrivacy, I still have the facebook comments on TC, but not with that rule.

Maybe I did something wrong...

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#19

Post by 0x12 »

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.

Re: Logging out of Facbook is not enough

#20

Post by buro9 »

jbk wrote: post #18
sagarun wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess EasyPrivacy one of the in built filter in ad-block plus already does that. Correct me if i am wrong.

I thought that, but with EasyPrivacy, I still have the facebook comments on TC, but not with that rule. Maybe I did something wrong...

EasyPrivacy rules can be seen here: https://easylist-downloads.adblockplus.org/easyprivacy.txt

Search that for 'face' and you'll find only 4 rules that would apply, and those are about removing pixel trackers whilst leaving content intact.

The rules above remove content, which is just as well as anything a pixel tracker can do content could do. Which is where the current paranoia level seems to be.

Post reply on HN