Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/23/surveillance-zucksterism.html
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Well… yeah.
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Yet I imagine the reponse inside Google was “who the fuck failed to notice this? That data should never have gone to Facebook, it should have fucking gone to us. What part of our business did you people fail to understand?”
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@doctorow Request: Zuckermouth -> Zuckermaw
I think it captures the feel (and the image) better.
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At a certain point, analytics as a business begins to resemble something weaponized against us. And no amount of near-invisible legalese excuses this.
I like how Daring Fireball has put it: “Just incredible. The appetite for analytics is so pervasive and perverse it’s led the entire industry to lose its mind.”
Deleting one social media presence won’t affect this case.
(On the other hand, its going to do me some good.)
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The problem here is that Facebook Analytics (much like Google Analytics, and other similar SDKs for usage tracking and telemetry) will use your personal data even if you’re not a Facebook user.
My advice is install a Pi Hole and black hole all this kind of shit since adblockers will only do so much to protect you.
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We also take steps to detect and remove data that should not be shared with us.
I guarantee this is, if not an outright lie, at least nowhere near as comprehensive as this PR drone would like people to infer. At a guess, “we put in exactly the amout of effort Legal tells us we need to convince a court we made a good-faith effort to scrub for things like complete credit card details that could get Facebook into legal trouble if mishandled.”
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Yes, the best advise is: #deleteyourfacebook. But deleting alone is not enough. Delete those apps too and block facebook from your desktop by pasting this list in your system’s host file:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jmdugan/blocklists/master/corporations/facebook/all
Or FB will just keep on tracking you.
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Roger That!
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The photo accompanying this post is culturally insensitive to Mandalorians.
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pihole sounds pretty cool. but, these apps are on people’s phones. if i understand correctly, you’re not going to be covered once you leave your house. [ not to mention this sounds like there’s backend data involved as well. info that flows up from the app to its service’s servers, and then over to facebook. ]
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My questions are:
- Are they even collecting the data for anything specific? Or is it just boasting to to investors about how big thier data pool is?
- Are they actually able to pin the data to the right people? (across these various methods) If so, then why can’t my phone and comp sync tabs correctly?
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Correct - it won’t help you when you’re on the go. For that you need a VPN. You can combine a OpenVPN with Pi Hole if you’re feeling adventurous.
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Fett was no Mandalorian.
Not when NoScript blocks both from executing in my browser.
Plus getting all your friends to delete Facebook.
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That doesn’t help you when you’re using an app.
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Again, what good does that do? (Apart from helping their own mental health, I mean.)
This is just not a case where quitting FB accomplishes anything.
ETA:
Nor does it do you much good if you’re a nontechnical user and cannot carry a Pi Hole (?) around 24/7 (and does that work with cellular?)
- I don’t see that this matters. If they can, someone probably will.
- How much are you willing to pay to synchronize tabs (per tab)? If the answer is anything like what I’d pay, then I’d say it’s not gonna be a priority for them.
But this incidental data apparently has value, so.
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Okay, what?
This is a serious thread and all, but I need to know about this. Have I been living a lie?
