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Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

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Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#271

Post by et-al »

palmfacehn wrote: post #196
capyba wrote: post #162

I don’t know anyone that works at Meta, so I’m hoping that someone here could answer this for me- What makes employees there feel good (or at least okay) about doing stuff like this? You're spying on people, no? Surveilling ordinary people, not enemy combatants or foreign militaries? Perhaps a friend of a friend or even a family member? This kind of thing is so creepy and disturbing to me, not that it’s anything new…

Generally employees put the responsibility on management. As everyone has a higher up they answer to, no one feels personally responsible. From the top down, the concerns of how things are actually implemented are often too abstract. Combine these dynamics with institutional echochambers and group-think. Employees just want to make it to the weekend. Execs want to hit their targets. Sales dept. needs their bonuses. T…

Eh, software engineers throughout the ZIRP had the choice of working at plenty of companies. People chose to work at Facebook for the money disregarding all other concerns. That's it.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#272

Post by tholdem »

macNchz wrote: post #131
bink wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does sound fantastical. A piece of code that can violate the same origin policy would be a huge vulnerability. Meta could be working with other sites to share data on users via code running on both sites, but snooping on tax data without the IRS helping? Unlikely. I can only assume they're suggesting that companies like Intuit and H&R Block are sharing this data with Meta, but that seems like a huge violation of p…

It's effectively malware—this article has some more detail: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/06/meta-and-yandex-are... Basically, they created a channel between the browser and a localhost webserver running in their native apps, by abusing the ability to set arbitrary metadata on WebRTC connections. That way, they were able to exfiltrate tracking cookies out of the browser's sandbox to the native app, where they…

You are implying Meta and others were able to just siphon data from any website via WebRTC using their native apps, but this was not the case. They were only able to track which websites you visited if that website already embedded the company tracking. Many websites do, but not all.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#273

Post by whstl »

Chris2048 wrote: post #253
whstl wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sad reality is that this behavior gets normalized in the name of making money. For employees it gets normalized at the first signal that your livelihood might be affected if you don't comply. As someone who's privacy conscious, it's an uphill battle to convince co-workers to actually follow laws instead of trying to find loopholes. I've worked at places who collect every possible data point and distributes it wil…

> I know a German company requires you to "accept" data collection and processing in order to settle a debt. Pretty sure this is illegal, and probably a liability e.g. if it came up in court.

Yes. It was judged illegal a few years ago in several countries, and German courts recently ratified the decision.

I'm pretty sure if the debt itself ever goes to court, the debtor can argue that they can't even enter the website. On the other hand this company is a bit of a shitshow so good luck having the website work haha.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#274

Post by greatwhitenorth »

capyba wrote: post #162

I don’t know anyone that works at Meta, so I’m hoping that someone here could answer this for me- What makes employees there feel good (or at least okay) about doing stuff like this? You're spying on people, no? Surveilling ordinary people, not enemy combatants or foreign militaries? Perhaps a friend of a friend or even a family member? This kind of thing is so creepy and disturbing to me, not that it’s anything new…

[flagged]

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#275

Post by whstl »

phyzome wrote: post #242
whstl wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sad reality is that this behavior gets normalized in the name of making money. For employees it gets normalized at the first signal that your livelihood might be affected if you don't comply. As someone who's privacy conscious, it's an uphill battle to convince co-workers to actually follow laws instead of trying to find loopholes. I've worked at places who collect every possible data point and distributes it wil…

Instead of reporting it to their legal department, report it to an EU data privacy regulator. (I know this wasn't your main point.)

You are 200% correct.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#276

Post by mindslight »

msgodel wrote: post #249
wat10000 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big companies are paperclip maximizers, for money instead of paperclips. It’s strange how many people can see the danger of a hypothetical nonhuman intelligence with a goal of making as many paperclips as possible, but not the danger of actual nonhuman intelligences with the goal of making as much money as possible.

In theory optimizing for money long term should align everyone's interests. The problem is that (for a number of reasons) public executives have far more incentive to be short sighted.

No, it doesn't. You're assuming that markets have a computational efficiency and smoothness that simply isn't there. P != NP.

Markets are a heuristic based around mediating between the interests of different parties precisely because the overall problem is computationally hard. If markets achieved the kind of optimality you're thinking, then top-down central planning would also be workable.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#277

Post by flanked-evergl »

klipklop wrote: post #175

Always funny how nearly universally Meta employees are quiet and never defend their companies practices.. The silence says a lot.

They make something people want. Most people I know thah use it, including me, just don't really see that big a downside to using it.

I'm not even slightly considering removing any Meta app, and let's face it, Firefox is over as a project because their priorities are all out of wack.

So Chrome and meta apps all the way for me, but I'm sure to listen to the Amazon Washington Post as to how I should treat Amazon competitors in the future.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#278

Post by mcculley »

capyba wrote: post #162

I don’t know anyone that works at Meta, so I’m hoping that someone here could answer this for me- What makes employees there feel good (or at least okay) about doing stuff like this? You're spying on people, no? Surveilling ordinary people, not enemy combatants or foreign militaries? Perhaps a friend of a friend or even a family member? This kind of thing is so creepy and disturbing to me, not that it’s anything new…

It is the same process whereby websites deploy Google Analytics. They are getting value by harming their users. They easily rationalize and justify it.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#279

Post by bluesnowmonkey »

capyba wrote: post #162

I don’t know anyone that works at Meta, so I’m hoping that someone here could answer this for me- What makes employees there feel good (or at least okay) about doing stuff like this? You're spying on people, no? Surveilling ordinary people, not enemy combatants or foreign militaries? Perhaps a friend of a friend or even a family member? This kind of thing is so creepy and disturbing to me, not that it’s anything new…

You start with small moral compromises. That prepares you for big ones.

Re: Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)

#280

Post by dagmx »

capyba wrote: post #162

I don’t know anyone that works at Meta, so I’m hoping that someone here could answer this for me- What makes employees there feel good (or at least okay) about doing stuff like this? You're spying on people, no? Surveilling ordinary people, not enemy combatants or foreign militaries? Perhaps a friend of a friend or even a family member? This kind of thing is so creepy and disturbing to me, not that it’s anything new…

Meta pays a lot. Most people there don’t work on the shady stuff and don’t pay attention to what else is going on.

That’s generally the case for everyone I know who works there.

Many of them are even quite liberal and will join protests for things that Meta has actively and negatively played a part in, so they’re in effect protesting their own workplace indirectly. But will continue to work there because they can compartmentalize this.

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