Being tracked by social media

[Phyrebrat]

Hi.

I deleted my Facebook account in October after all the advertising debacle. I clicked the option to have my data sent to me but I've never received it. TBH I wasn't too bothered as I had made sure I wasn't leaving footprints a mile wide all over the internet and rarely used a Facebook log in.

But I've just had this notification as I visited a website for someone I do freelance work:

I'm only worried about the Facebook one - the others sound a bit porn-y so I assume they're just the usual rubbish - but wanted to clarify. Is this plug in running on the RAD's website, or my computer? I have no add ins or plug ins for Social Media and wanted to check.

Thanks

pH

 

[Mouse]

Second and third are also Facebook. Dunno what the last one is.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

The last one is a Twitter one

The message is coming from your browser, Firefox.

Trackers and scripts Firefox blocks in Enhanced Tracking Protection | Firefox Help

Blocks many common trackers and harmful scripts and reduces the ability of third parties to collect data about your browsing behavior

support.mozilla.org

"Firefox blocks the most common trackers from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn that appear on other websites."

 

[Phyrebrat]

I get that, but does it mean that site is actively trying to do something it shouldn't or is it all just part of interwebbery?

 

[Brian G Turner]

Last one looks like Twitter.

My initial suspicion is that these are for monitoring "Likes" from people with active accounts. Does the page have "Like" buttons for both social media services?

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

The site itself will have links back to Facebook and Twitter, either to JavaScript (code) or images. Because the site has included these elements from remote sites (FB/T) then these remotes sites can add a cookie to your browser and track you. If another site also links to the same code/image on the remote sites then the remote site knows which sites you visited because it can check for the cookie
I've just realised something. I understand it but I can't explain it very well. I'll try and find a better explanation...

In the meantime, it's nothing to be overly concerned about. No one is trying to hack you and Firefox is helping you somewhat, at least by hiding you from Facebook and Twitter.

By the way, this forum uses code from Google, so Google know you've been here, unless you're paranoid like me and use a blocking plug in

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

These might help better than my effort

Tracking Cookies: What They Are, and How They Threaten Your Privacy

Too many cookies can lead to problems.

www.tomsguide.com

 

[Astro Pen]

It isn't just social media. Amazon builds quite amazing profiles on individuals. Many kindle users for example have no idea that every touch and scroll is logged stored.
A slightly long but "you need to know" article from the BBC about the intrusive depth of it, recording all your kids interactions with alexa with text and sound for example.

Amazon: How Bezos built his data machine

Leo Kelion investigates the rise of Amazon and its huge data-gathering operation

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Phyrebrat]

Thanks you guys. That’s great info - and I understand it

 

[Danny McG]

Thanks you guys. That’s great info - and I understand it

I'm glad someone does, I've read the articles linked in this thread and it means f***all to me!

 

[J Riff]

...blocking this stuff... will attract attention... why are you blocking...what are you HIDInG?!?
you can't ever delete Facebook, many have tried. They know what you are clicking.. .*

 

[Astro Pen]

I remember a quote from a former home secretary
"The Law abiding citizen has nothing to fear from surveillance."
It's an absolute gem isn't it.

 

[-K2-]

...blocking this stuff... will attract attention... why are you blocking...what are you HIDInG?!?
you can't ever delete Facebook, many have tried. They know what you are clicking.. .*

I'd have to add it first...

What i can add is, every time you link up your phone, another email account, another social networking account, or anything else to any other, you just increased the Man's tracking ability 100-fold.

You should all be watching the current Westworld... You're ALL in the system--except me--I just have an encrypted app that keeps telling me,
"Make money mother..."

*I loved that schtick! *

K2

 

[Wyrmlord]

Good for you deleting Facebook. I left years ago and don't miss it. I couldn't stand the brain-dead people from my hometown mindlessly sharing memes.

 

[Foxbat]

All this tracking jiggerypokery is why I use Firefox

 

[J Riff]

The new Firefoxbat is is all the rage.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

I'm glad someone does, I've read the articles linked in this thread and it means f***all to me!

I was dissatisfied with my earlier explanation, so I thought I'd try an analogy.


Imagine you have a jacket you wear every time you go out shopping.

You walk into the butchers. A bloke with an F on his head walks up to you and pins a tracking badge on your jacket. The badge contains nothing more than a seemingly random number and an F. This bloke goes back to his computer and enters the number and the name of the shop into his computer.

You walk into the bakers. Another bloke with an F on his head walks up to you, sees your badge with an F on it, makes a note of the number, goes back to his computer and enters the number and the name of the shop into his computer.

You walk into the candlestick makers. Yet another bloke with an F on his head walks up to you sees your badge with an F on it, makes a note of the number, goes back to his computer and enters the number and the name of the shop into his computer. He also runs a quick check on your number. He then picks up a couple of leaflets and returns to you and hands you the leaflets. One leaflet is for the butchers you have just left, the other is for a bakers further down the street.

Now, these blokes with an F on their heads don't know any personal details about you, but they do know the number on your badge shops at butchers, bakers and candlestick makers.

When you get home, you take off your jacket but don't remove any of the badges. The next day you go out shopping again and naturally put on your shopping jacket. This time you go into a shop that has only just opened that day. It too has a bloke with an F on his head. He does the usual recording, and hands you three leaflets, one for the butchers you visited yesterday, one for a bakers further down the street and one for a candlestick makers in the next town.

As you merrily shop away, the F-blokes gradually build up a more and more detailed picture of the shopping habits for your badge number.

And each shop you go in also has blokes with a G on their head doing the same thing as the F-blokes. And there are M-blokes and A-blokes, all pinning their own unique badges to your jacket and recording the details.

You could, of course, simply remove the tracking badges when you take off your jacket, but sometimes the badges are useful and it's hard to know which badges to remove and which to leave. Ideally you want a jacket that stops the leaflet distributing blokes pinning tracking badges onto it in the first place.

Your jacket is the web browser, the shops are web sites, the badges are cookies, the leaflets are web ads. Every time you visit a web site, some ad-flinger is adding and reading cookies and serving up web-ads.


Does this help, or is the water even muddier?

 

[-K2-]

Does this help, or is the water even muddier?

It's much worse than that. No matter which of the gazillion different ways, ultimately added to that 'jacket' you present:
* It gets tied to your home address (who visits there and what packages are shipped there due to that person being tracked).
* They get tied to your phone(s) (where it physically is located and travels to, when you use it, who you call, text and so on...it also can have the array of microphones and cameras remotely turned on and streamed elsewhere, work as elevation sensors while in buildings, echolocation to map out rooms, RFID to identify you in passing, NFC to notify other devices you're near...etc. etc.)
* They get tied to your vehicles (which use many of the same features as a phone, but also use WiFi to notify law enforcement in passing as to your vehicles current data--speed, seatbelts, etc. (including how many seats are occupied), a history of where the vehicle has been, and naturally they have microphones and cameras which are remotely controlled, and the vehicle can be remotely controlled by others).
* They get tied to any and all credit cards which are cross referenced and matched (naturally, all uses of, history, and RFID tracking)
* They all get tied to all of your bank and credit information in explicit detail...and nothing gets erased
* They get tied to all legal information, tickets, court, etc..
* They all get tied to any and all credit reporting sources, also all financial activity is monitored
* They get tied to your medical history....

Etc., etc.. Even covert government monitoring programs are so well known you can find them on wikipedia.

Now consider they cross reference all of that with your family, friends, coworkers and so on...The point there to discover who might influence you, and who do you make choices to be around to develop an even deeper psychological profile.

But wait!...Smart TVs, phones, computers, etc., now have facial recognition technology, facial expression and body language tech, voice print analysis (stress, pith, tone, etc.) all focused around cataloging your moods, what causes you to act this way or that, and that is sent off elsewhere along with everything else to not only generate a map of you as a person...BUT...determine the best way to influence you subtly to do this, that, or the other...

It goes on and on...and ALL of what I just listed and more, is very old tech.

K2

 

[Foxbat]

In real life, if somebody started pinning badges to my jacket, I might take offence and punch them in the face. I’d like to know what the web browser equivalent is to punching badge pinners in the face(book).

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

In real life, if somebody started pinning badges to my jacket, I might take offence and punch them in the face. I’d like to know what the web browser equivalent is to punching badge pinners in the face(book).

That's the problem, we can stop them 'pinning badges' through the use of privacy conscious browsers and plug-ins, but we can't punch them in the face because they are faceless corporations. We could maybe stop using their services - bye-bye Facebook - but we can't get away from all of them. Google is a particularly good/bad/evil example because while we could stop using Google to search the web, a lot of sites rely on Google just to work. A lot of sites use things like Google analytics and Google APIs (remote code), and just don't work if Google is blocked. I know because I've tried.

DuckDuckGo has some useful/ interesting articles

Spread Privacy

The Official DuckDuckGo Blog

spreadprivacy.com

I particularly like this one

How to Quit Google: Alternatives That Protect Your Privacy

Minimize Google's invasive tracking with these alternatives for search, email, chat, and more.

spreadprivacy.com