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Google and Facebook are watching our every move online

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Re: Google and Facebook are watching our every move online

#141

Post by alasdair_ »

astro_robot wrote: post #42

Honest question. I'm unsure what the danger is in letting these companies acquire data on us. We get a lot of benefit from using their products for free. Why should I care about giving my data to them as a cost of admission?

>Honest question. I'm unsure what the danger is in letting these companies acquire data on us. We get a lot of benefit from using their products for free. Why should I care about giving my data to them as a cost of admission?

Trivial example: Let's say sometime in the future you plan on running for political office, or you become a journalist writing a story on someone powerful or otherwise become someone who powerful people would like to discredit. Having a log of everything you've ever done online would be very useful in causing you a whole bunch of problems.

Re: Google and Facebook are watching our every move online

#142

Post by magnetic »

gknoy wrote: post #62
linsomniac wrote: post #56

I feel like I'm in the minority, but I'm mostly ok with Google. I feel like they are good stewards of my data (encrypting even internal traffic, severe restrictions on who can get access to my data, doing useful things with that data). I believe Facebook has similar policies in place. I think their biggest sins are just being big. It makes them a larger target (which probably necessitates them taking extreme protecti…

Facebook's "X years ago today, you posted this ..." has been amazing. I don't usually re-share it but it really brightens my morning or day to see photos of my kids when they were 4-5 years younger, and marvel at how much they've grown. I mean, I'd still think about that even without FB showing me things, but I would not have managed to build a "here's a flashback!" photo-reminder system. In an age when we take SO MA…

> I mean, I'd still think about that even without FB showing me things, but I would not have managed to build a "here's a flashback!" photo-reminder system.

You wouldn't have had to if you used macOS with the Photos app. Every once in a while it notifies me about a flashback, and if I click on the notification it takes me to a flashback slideshow in the Photos app.

I don't use iCloud for my photos, so I suspect this is implemented locally without having to give my data to Apple.

Maybe similar systems exist with other environments (linux, Windows, etc).

Re: Google and Facebook are watching our every move online

#144

Post by linsomniac »

mtgx wrote: post #76
linsomniac wrote: post #56

I feel like I'm in the minority, but I'm mostly ok with Google. I feel like they are good stewards of my data (encrypting even internal traffic, severe restrictions on who can get access to my data, doing useful things with that data). I believe Facebook has similar policies in place. I think their biggest sins are just being big. It makes them a larger target (which probably necessitates them taking extreme protecti…

That's great for you . But do you not agree that every user should be properly educated on what Google does with her data without having to read through pages of legalese, and then she should also be able to give her consent for that tracking and data collection?

I'm not sure that suing Google and Facebook is the right way to educate people about data collection on the Internet.

Re: Google and Facebook are watching our every move online

#145

Post by mar77i »

pdabbadabba wrote: post #131
mar77i wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then there's this... https://wikileaks.org/google-is-not-what-it-seems/ Speaking of spooky stuff and google, this article still takes the cake. EDIT: for completeness sake, there has been a follow up: https://wikileaks.org/Op-ed-Google-and-the-NSA-Who-s.html

I just spent the last few minutes skimming through that article but, if there was a bombshell (or even 'spooky') allegation in there, I didn't find it. Maybe this is more a comment on the quality of the writing than the merits, but if anyone out there could explain what is actually being claimed here, that would be really helpful.

Spooky being google intertwining with the institutions that are supposed to defend your rights, and defend them from google, if necessary. But how is any govt able to do that if google is such a huge factor in making their interests heard.

Re: Google and Facebook are watching our every move online

#146

Post by rapnie »

linsomniac wrote: post #56

I feel like I'm in the minority, but I'm mostly ok with Google. I feel like they are good stewards of my data (encrypting even internal traffic, severe restrictions on who can get access to my data, doing useful things with that data). I believe Facebook has similar policies in place. I think their biggest sins are just being big. It makes them a larger target (which probably necessitates them taking extreme protecti…

> I think their biggest sins are just being big.

yes, in fact they have become almost absolute monopolists (together with FB and a couple of others).

this is really bad.. if google decides not to show you something _it effectively does not exist_

i _really_ hope they still have the mantra of not being evil, but the temptation is trillions of dollars big :)

if they abuse your information, e.g. use it as fore knowledge, and act on it quicker than you can, they can do that in subtle ways without you even realising it.

so many ways to benefit from all this data.. who can monitor / control this?

Re: Google and Facebook are watching our every move online

#147

Post by rapnie »

imho the current web is broken.. it has become entirely dominated by monopolists, which will only grow larger.. more dominating

we need: - The Decentralized Web (as it was originally envisioned) - Users in full control of their own data - Privacy-first approaches only - Stricter regulation (though tough to implement well)

Re: Google and Facebook are watching our every move online

#148

Post by IncRnd »

trqx wrote: post #48

A common behavior I witness, is people using ad/tracker blockers such as ublock origin and/or umatrix and yet continue to consult websites that makes use of those trackers. Worse, they link those sites to other people that might not make use of those blockers. They don't think much of it, but ain't that evil? Most of the times they don't even notice anymore that trackers were blocked on the page they consult. Just lo…

That may be, but I'm happy that my blocker stopped 25 scripts/ads/sites from loading at this articles page!

Re: Google and Facebook are watching our every move online

#149

Post by rapnie »

mediaserf wrote: post #78
amelius wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How difficult would it be to defeat fingerprinting by injection of noise? I.e. your browser configuration/characteristics change every now and then by a tiny amount.

I use an extension called Canvas Defender that does this. You can have it create a new "fingerprint" every so often. It also pops up an alert when a site requests a fingerprint. I believe Facebook uses the fingerprint as part of the browser profile to help combat fraudulent logins, as I get many more "new browser" emails from them with this extension than I did prior to installing it.

unfortunately this will make you stand out more, probably

Re: Google and Facebook are watching our every move online

#150

Post by IncRnd »

PuffinBlue wrote: post #41
zevv wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My ghostery blocked 24

ublock didn't block anything. Then I realised that this site allows auto-playing videos so at some point in the past I seem to have disabled JavaScript on this site. I wish it was easier to control JavaScript usage as the visitor. It's either very complex or just 'turn it all off and go somewhere else if nothing works'. Perhaps the second option is the 'correct' response though.

ublock origin stopped 25.
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