21–30 of 99 posts
I highly recommend Ghostery. I've been using it for quite a while now and have no complaints.
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...
There's always the option to delete your FB account. I went nearly 10 months without logging into FB last year, and doing so made it quite easy to delete my FB account at the beginning of this year. Regular removal of cookies, and LSO cookies, as well as clearing the browser cache, is also recommended. Then there's the ubiquitous "Connect" buttons which are spammed all across the web. Prudence dictates that we avoid…
Deleting your account does not stop Facebook from tracking you, unfortunately.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If a person is well understood and their actions can be predicted, they can be manipulated. The real question is: why aren't you?
If I'm manipulated into buying something that I genuinely want, then I'd be happier for it. It's not as if seeing an ad for a $100 256GB SSD would make me skip looking up the reviews for it and evaluating its performance before I buy it. It's mystifying to me why people are bothered by targeted ads. If ads become relevant to me, that'd be a wonderful thing. I'm not saying I'm right -- I'm saying I wish someone would…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If a person is well understood and their actions can be predicted, they can be manipulated. The real question is: why aren't you?
If I'm manipulated into buying something that I genuinely want, then I'd be happier for it. It's not as if seeing an ad for a $100 256GB SSD would make me skip looking up the reviews for it and evaluating its performance before I buy it. It's mystifying to me why people are bothered by targeted ads. If ads become relevant to me, that'd be a wonderful thing. I'm not saying I'm right -- I'm saying I wish someone would…
1. I get no say in what information they store and use. If somebody else used my computer, that information is associated with me.
2. The more information companies have about me, the easier it is for the government to gather information without due process.
3. What is gathered about me can be stolen by somebody else.
I agree that, in theory, well targeted ads are far superior to the dating ads I get on Facebook, but with zero control, transparency or accountability, I'm very uncomfortable with the amount if info they are trying to gather from me.
I highly recommend Ghostery. I've been using it for quite a while now and have no complaints.
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...
byoogle is the mastermind behind Disconnect. :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If a person is well understood and their actions can be predicted, they can be manipulated. The real question is: why aren't you?
If I'm manipulated into buying something that I genuinely want, then I'd be happier for it. It's not as if seeing an ad for a $100 256GB SSD would make me skip looking up the reviews for it and evaluating its performance before I buy it. It's mystifying to me why people are bothered by targeted ads. If ads become relevant to me, that'd be a wonderful thing. I'm not saying I'm right -- I'm saying I wish someone would…
But do you genuinely want it? or were you _influinced_ into wanting it? It's the same principle that makes fast food advertisements so profitable for the food industry. The ads are already targeted (most people like to eat tasty food).
Furthermore, if you're truly indifferent with being influenced like this, to what extent will the "influencing" remain acceptable to you? where would you draw the line?
The method I have found to stop tracking is to use /etc/hosts to block all traffic to sites that I don't want anything to do with including Facebook and their CDNs. I based it around https://github.com/leto/Util/blob/master/config/etc/hosts.bl... and have added more tracker/advertisement domains as I have encountered them.