Ad Tracking

[Strong Eagle]

Ever since FB announced (and now delayed) that all of your FB content could be used for commercial purposes (including your photos), I've become concerned about privacy.

I've taken the following steps to stop being tracked as much as possible... it was really getting ridiculous... I'd go to Home Depot to look at a gas grill... and 5 minutes later, Facebook was presenting me ads for gas grills.

1) - Dump google.com as your search engine. Use duckduckgo.com... duckduckgo does not track your searches like google does.

2) For FF, Chrome, etc, download and install DoNotTrackMe from abine.com... much better than the 'do not track' options in the browsers which don't work worth a dang anyway.

3) Unlink any tags in photos that associate your name with your photo... this will prevent companies that scan your face from associating you with a name.

Since I installed yesterday afternoon, it has blocked FB from tracking me 214 times. It has also blocked another 800 social, tracking, and ad sites from seeing what I am doing.

Really interesting stuff that the blocker is bringing up. I go to Best Buy and discover that nine separate companies are tracking me. Nine companies track me at Home Depot. Only one company tracks me at Amazon, while two do so at eBay.

[zzm9980]

To expand a little on what Strong Eagle said:

If you're logged into Facebook on a browser, any web page you visit anywhere on the Internet where you see a Facebook "Like" button or anything, you're being tracked whether or not you clicked "Like".

Minimally, keep your Facebook usage in a separate browser.

I personally still use Google and all of their products; I find things like Google Now quite useful. I also find Google ads relevant and useful at times. I do use a browser extension called "Disconnect" to keep Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc from tracking me on external sites outside of their own.

The down not track option in your browser is about as useful (or useless) as having a "No Solicitors" sticker on your front door. All it does is notify web sites you visit you don't want to be tracked. They're welcome to honor or ignore your wish.

[JR8]

But doesn't this assume you're carrying some 'on' mobile phone?

[or did ICA implant chips in our heads or summing]

[nakatago]

I'm the same with zzm; I find google now very useful and keep search history on. I do have facebook disconnect on though because if I don't use their service, I don't want them tracking me.

One more useful thing to do, though: set your browser to block third party cookies. Check your browser 'help' to see how.

[Max Headroom]

Last week, a Facebook friend told me he'd seen me "like" McDonald's on his wall. I was stunned. Not only do I hardly ever "like" anything, apart from friends' stuff, I'd never in a million years would "like" McDonald's, let alone endorse them publicly.

I'd seen other such posts on my wall where my friends endorsed third party crap like trading platforms and such, and some of them were pretty bad fits, so I figured FB is full-on into this. And there's no opt-out possibility.

Google just announced they're going to do the same, albeit with an opt-out option.

And how about this? Earlier this week, Facebook announced that you can no longer exclude your profile from the Facebook search function. They stated that the number of users that made use of this function was "just" in the single digits. So at 1.2B users, that number could well be 100 million disgruntled users!

I'm with SE on this; I reckon this whole ad-tracking/personal ad thing is getting out of hand here.

But where's the backlash??

[JR8]

I have done as suggested above. DuckDuck.go on Opera (my primary general browser), and DNTMe on Firefox (which I use for finance/banking and so on).

Fingers crossed, I'll see how it goes!

p.s. I also have Google Chrome installed on my PC, but rarely use it. But flipping Facebook useage via this browser, wouldn't seem to creating a 'Chinese wall' between the two, so I've left that for now.

Thanks, again.

p.s. This post should serve as a test, of whether it gets cross-posted onto Facebook.

Edit: No, no X-post. It has worked

[x9200]

It gets serious when you realize the court can rule the custody of your children in favor o your spouse just because (s)he posted there a lot of pictures of the kids and you did not. I kept it to absolute minimum generally contributing on parasitic levels but if insanity will continue with the current pace, happy or not everybody would need to play this game.

[JR8]

If a company with a mantra of "Do no evil" is capable of such intrusive back-handedness, well, you've got to wonder what level a state/country is capable of.

[nakatago]

If a company with a mantra of "Do no evil" is capable of such intrusive back-handedness, well, you've got to wonder what level a state/country is capable of.

It's "Don't be evil."

If good men can be perceived having done 'evil' things, people can always justify things are done for the greater good. And we all know what a can of worms that will open. Otherwise, we won't have followers of religions trying to kill each other.

I don't like dwelling over the morality of companies who still do good. If I don't like them, I just won't use them. I don't like Facebook, I don't use it. If you don't like Google, don't use their products.

Not liking governments, on the other hand, especially one you're a citizen of, however, is another story.

[JR8]

I don't like dwelling over the morality of companies who still do good. If I don't like them, I just won't use them. I don't like Facebook, I don't use it.

The difficulty with FB is that it is now so deeply embedded into social-culture.

I keep a very-very tight Friends list (only 30 odd), REAL friends and relatives. Especially when you're half a world away from home, it's ideal for sharing news, pixs, links, humour etc

But you do have to keep up to date on it, as they certainly periodically whore your data/settings.

[nakatago]

I don't like dwelling over the morality of companies who still do good. If I don't like them, I just won't use them. I don't like Facebook, I don't use it.

The difficulty with FB is that it is now so deeply embedded into social-culture.

Having a healthy tendency to be anti-social can be helpful at times.

[JR8]

Haha!

[And just now, reading your post, I notice the following:

Below the New Topic, Post Reply buttons, and Page 1 of 1, etc, there's a text box, and greyed-out text reading Add a Comment. And under it is a pre-ticked box 'Post to Facebook'.

This is how I got in this situation in the first place, i.e. how I inadvertently started writing posts here, and them copying to Facebook.

How has this 'slice' of Facebook managed to insert itself into this browser page (or rendition of it)?? Totally confused again!

Under that is a label 'Facebook Social Plug-in'... WTH...

- This is using the Opera browser.

[sundaymorningstaple]

We all had it until SE's comment about using Disconnect Me. Love it.

[nakatago]

We all had it until SE's comment about using Disconnect Me. Love it.

Not zzm and me apparently; we've been using Disconnect Facebook before it was cool.

[JR8]

Sorry I don't get it.

Is this something the forum has chosen to embed?