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Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

consumerreports.org

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Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are we really not that identifiable with all of the fingerprinting techniques and what not? the majority of people do not use VPNs to cover their tracks, and most home ISPs don't rotate their IPs that frequently that my tin foil hat suggests that for the non-techie person attempting to foil the IDing, they're IDing them.

Most browser "fingerprinting" methods have a pretty short half-life. The last assessment I read said something like half of the fingerprints were lost within 24 hours. There are some companies that advertise device fingerprinting for moderation/anti-abuse services, but I have yet to see it in any martech stack. I assume they give lots of false positives and don't distinguish between different users/devices on the sam…

>Most browser "fingerprinting" methods have a pretty short half-life. The last assessment I read said something like half of the fingerprints were lost within 24 hours.

That's absolutely not my experience. Maybe if you use some weird research-level fingerprinting technique, but most fingerprints are just regular old boring stuff - screen and browser viewport size, installed plugins and fonts, browser UA and settings, hardware/gpu quirks, etc[1]. And it doesn't have to be 100% reliable, just reliable enough to track your activity to show you some ads.

[1] as a privacy conscious individual I'm fully aware just viewport size is enough to almost uniquely fingerprint me. I use my laptop screen, with sidebery extension, browser tab bar hidden by user css and sway in tabbed mode. My second computer is less unique, I "just" use sway and firefox with the minimal tab size (that for some reason is hidden must be unlocked in the about:config so it's very rarely used).

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#92
post #3

Has anyone tried doing a deep dive on their own data from FB? Is it fairly accessible to crunch this?

The actual Consumer Reports piece has exactly the information on how to do this: https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/each-fac... > Facebook users can browse through the list of companies that have sent their data to Facebook by going to the Accounts Center and clicking on “Your information and permissions.”

Following the instructions I get "You have no available activity to show at this time.". Even when downloading my data I get nothing under sections like "Connected apps and websites". So it looks like opting out of everything possible and running FB in a dedicated FF container only seems to do something.

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#93
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The actual Consumer Reports piece has exactly the information on how to do this: https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/each-fac... > Facebook users can browse through the list of companies that have sent their data to Facebook by going to the Accounts Center and clicking on “Your information and permissions.”

Following the instructions I get "You have no available activity to show at this time.". Even when downloading my data I get nothing under sections like "Connected apps and websites". So it looks like opting out of everything possible and running FB in a dedicated FF container only seems to do something.

I’d be surprised if the container is that effective. They get data from other source too

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#94
post #3

Has anyone tried doing a deep dive on their own data from FB? Is it fairly accessible to crunch this?

The actual Consumer Reports piece has exactly the information on how to do this: https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/each-fac... > Facebook users can browse through the list of companies that have sent their data to Facebook by going to the Accounts Center and clicking on “Your information and permissions.”

Thanks!

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, if your kid has an account, and she identified her mom, facebook will think her mom is your wife if at the same address. Those connections start to add up, add in they copied linkedin, your phone address books, email accounts, etc.

To me, the answer is noise. Generate so much false data about yourself that you both overwhelm and devalue this mechanism entirely.

I try to do this and it _seems_ to be working okay. Facebook has not given me a correct/interesting recommendation in ages and google thinks I'm a different age and various other things that are not true when I look at their collected information.

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#97
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me guess: you don't have a kid that goes to a school that only posts crucial news and updates to their Facebook page and you don't have a friend group that uses a WhatsApp group to plan events. Try explaining to the average human that you have a moral objection which means you can't install the same app everyone else has, and that everyone else needs to do a lot of work to accommodate you. One of my friend groups…

I have kids that go to school and they don't use Facebook. They don't want to. I didn't even ask them to not have an account. (that one kind-of surprised me, honestly) My Jiu Jitsu gym heavily uses Facebook but they're smart enough to recognize that not everyone (even the people that have an account) checks it regularly so they notify the members through other means. Lately they've been telling people to be on the lo…

> My Jiu Jitsu gym heavily uses Facebook...

This.

I do not use facebook anymore. Yes I do have an account but I cannot remember last time I logged in. Likely over 6 months ago. Whenever I do login it is to check my jujitsu gym. Thats it! Logged in and out with.. what.. 5 mins?

I had little friends list on my fb. It was ex co-workers, uni/college/school friends. I know people who would have hundreds and hundreds of "friends" on theirs, making out how difficult it would be to leave it. Truth is half of them they have never met or spoke in person.

There are other means to connect with my friends. I am just tired of the current world, believing they need these social media accounts which, under the disguise of being free, have flaws in other ways as well as their mental health!

It is a sad world to constantly see people on their phones, likely witnessing a teenager walking to school or work with neck injuries in 15 years time.

Some people just cannot put their phone down. They are back on forums, groups, etc, within 10 minutes. Of course this is not a social media problem - but it most certainly is part of the cause.

Rant Over.

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#98
With an average of over 2000 companies tracking each person in the study, and with a great many of those companies being retailers, there is zero chance the identities of the individuals involved are not either already de-anonymized or trivially de-anonymized at some point in the future through a leak of the data collected by one of those retailers.

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#99
post #39

Earlier today, this[1] was on the HN front page, a blog post on how Meta processes trillions of serverless functions. All that impressive tech exists for one single reason - massive surveillance at scale. [1] https://read.engineerscodex.com/p/meta-xfaas-serverless-func...

Surveillance isn't the reason. It's a means to a goal, which is to sell people stuff.

It's not always selling. It's also manipulating in order to increase power and/or control.

Elections, politics, public opinion, ...

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