Facebook offers funny answer for why it tracks users’ locations even when they turn tracking services off

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/18/facebook-offers-funny-answer-f.html

4 Likes

[emphasis added]
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

25 Likes

Serious question: @xeni Has BoingBoing considered quitting Facebook? If so, I’m curious about that conversation. I deleted my personal account years ago, but my org still has one because “that’s where our users are.” Do we stop providing Facebook with content in hopes it becomes less attractive to people, or do we need people to quit Facebook first, so it isn’t worth our time to provide content?

16 Likes

Fucking facebook. I’m upset that I agree with something Josh Hawley said, that just makes me itch.

13 Likes

Just in case the Security State wants this info.

1 Like

Still…

13 Likes

A curious game. The only winning move is not to play.

16 Likes

deleteyourfacebook

6 Likes

Last I checked (>2 years ago), BoingBoing’s Facebook page seemed to be the honeypot for the really noxious commenters, perhaps deflecting them from the BBS – similar to the way that Jupiter hoovers up cosmic sundries away from the inner planets.

15 Likes

Ugh. He’s the woooooooooooooorst… And I agree with him on this, too.

4 Likes
6 Likes

I say, delete Facebook.

I say that too, but few listen…

5 Likes

This seems to be about what happens when you deny the Facebook app access to location services on a smartphone. This isn’t Facebook offering users a choice to opt out of location tracking - it’s Facebook using whatever information is available to them to track you, even if you’ve chosen to block their access to your phone’s GPS.

Facebook never offered an opt-out.

(Well - unless you opt out of Facebook entirely, of course!)

3 Likes

“While walking along in desert sand, you suddenly look down and see a tortoise crawling toward you. You reach down and flip it over onto its back. The tortoise lies there, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs, trying to turn itself over, but it cannot do so without your help. You are not helping. Why?”

5 Likes

So the answer is basically, “Because we don’t care what they want- WE want to squeeze every penny possible out of them with targeted ads, so they can go fuck themselves”. Refreshingly honest, even if veiled behind bland phrasing. Why do people still use Facebook, again?

3 Likes

Don’t forget the convenient share button you can use to find out!

2 Likes

If you don’t block Facebook at the router, then you are still a Facebook user.

4 Likes

If it’s free, you are the product.
Facebook brings users to my business as other platform.

I do not see any problem with Facebook displaying ad relative to where my office computer is located/connected.

When I advertising using Facebook, I’m targeting locations; of course.

What is the problem exactly?
People are not aware that Facebook is a business living from advertising?
You can use a VPN and receive ad from the vpn location if you like a bit of “privacy”.
The use of Facebook will not brings you privacy; more likely the opposite.

Deal with it or delete it.

1 Like

If, like me, you cannot fully quit Facebook because that’s how only certain people can be reached, then do like I do and limit it only to one browser on one computer. I have Facebook on my aging iMac, but not on my laptop, not on my iPad, and not on my phone.

This way, I can still be reached on Facebook, and keep Facebook off of my other devices, but the other real advantage is that to see Facebook, I have to walk over to the desk instead of idly look at it on the sofa, during my commute, at work, in bed, and so on. Same goes for Twitter, but to a lesser degree. I have stopped using Instagram altogether.

The BoingBoing BBS, on the other hand, is something I look at on all of my devices. It’s my last remaining social media.

5 Likes

the blowing page is so bouncy loading ads my friends you can quite easily take a bad dingky winky winky wtf

1 Like