cross-posted from: https://social.fossware.space/post/123876
In the few short hours since I started using #Threads, #DuckDuckGo has already blocked over 200 data tracking attempts. These include things like “headphone status” and “screen density.”
Trackers, trackers and ol’ Zucc’s roboface galore.
And on iOS
Does iOS block all that shit when you don’t allow that tracking pop up that iPhones have?
Some, like location can be blocked and same for health & fitness. You can also tell iOS to not allow an app to track you but I don’t think that blocks everything. But say you allow access to “all photos” that means they can parse the exif data from all your photos and have map of everywhere they were taken.
This is nuts. Why would anyone let this through knowingly? I fight so hard to at least make as hard as possible for these assholes to collect info on me. People just this shit and agree to all of that without batting an eye.
Search history… Really?
“Other data” that it doesn’t specify. What’s next, my shoe size and sleep schedule?
if it has access to health it likely has sleep schedule already
No, this doesn’t mean that they have access to your Apple Health data
he’s literally collecting device orientation data for whatever reason
The reason is device fingerprinting to track you with
It’s probably more meaningful to ask at this point what data can he collects that he’s not collecting.
Well, there are multiple apps that can extrapolate your blood pressure from finger pulse. So he’s missing a market there.
It asks for access to Health and Fitness info.
Because to find the needle in the haystack, you first need a haystack. Until you know which needle you want to use, you need loads of haystacks which could have the needle in it you need.
Also, hoarders gotta hoard. (and bastards collect all they can get away with, and more, lots more)
Yeah, they probably don’t need all of that info right now, but you never knew when something suddently becomes valuable. Also, the more data they have, the easier to identify you without any trackers like cookies.
Basically something like this:
“The algorithm suggests people who have their phone in landscape more than 28% of the time are more likely to vote for party A. Convincing them not to vote for party A is hard, so we’ll convince them there’s no point voting or make it harder for them to vote, by targeting these users with ads which make them question if their vote matters.”
Don’t worry. Some bright marketing genius will market the ability to change voting preferences by making people only use their phone in landscape orientation.
Surely, a cage match must take place to put an end to Zuckingberg reign.
No wonder the app is not available in Europe, there is no way that list passes GDPR :P
I was honestly wondering what this app is cause I haven’t heard of it.
I wonder if this is why the site just shows up as a blank screen for me?
Ars Technica just covered this too.
Edit: link
Christ on a bike, does it want my gym locker combination as well?
Stop giving them ideas
No but it needs access to your front camera so it can record your face before and after using threads. They want to see if their engagement algorithms made you mad so then they can tell it’s working
Jfc man, thanks for the hot tip on the ddg tracker protection! I’ve been using ddg for a while now on the phone and have out some effort into curating apps so most of what I have is private/secure/open source, but I still have a bunch of things like the Netflix app that I know are sketchy. I’ve just gone through every app I have and confirmed things like Jerboa, VLC, antenna pod, etc are all free of trackers. The real fun surorises though were my bank app and my state government services app, which are each on about 45 tracking attempts across 36 categories. The services one even uses two seperste tracker companies. That’s super fun!
Fuck I’m glad I have this ddg add on now :D
Damn duckduckgo app protection is great! I’d never heard about it, installed and turned on now. Good call-out, thank you.
I encourage others to look this up too!
I got it running yesterday after seeing this thread. No noticeable difference to me, very noticeable difference to the online leech companies. I’m a happy camper
How does it work on mobile?
It’s working great. 36 hours in and more than 33,000 tracking attempts blocked. It’s mind boggling
And worst offenders are places I wouldn’t have expected, like the docusign app, and being scraped by companies I’ve never heard of like comScore and bugsnag
What I mean is do zi download an app or is it a browser I use.
Oh ya you download the browser app, then turn on app tracker blocking in settings. I couldn’t find it at first, but just googled it and the first answer worked. So all ya need is the duckduckgo app. At least, on Android
Thank you I will do that.
Hi there, and thanks for trying Threads!
While this may look alarming, it’s nothing to be concerned about. Sometimes “privacy” focused browsers and apps can be a little overzealous.
We are taking our mandate to be a responsible member of the fediverse seriously, and part of that is building trust. We have no intention of abusing your data, nor the trust you place in us.
Thanks for helping us blaze this trail together!
Country, last name, and state. As well as my location directly basically. Nothing to be concerned about. Sure. Not at all. I’m not being sarcastic guys. We can totally trust a stranger who asks us where we live and know nothing about them.
Get fucked.
*Get zucked.
It’s a joke account
System volume? Lmaooooo wtf
They are clearly deciding if they need to start producing hearing aids
Potentially, and Ive also seen it used for ads. The first time Spotify noticed me mute my system and paused the ad, I became enraged. Its’s a step too far. Luckily with external speakers I can just mute at the speaker level instead.
if you’re on Android just use xManager
That’s like that Black Mirror episode where the people are required to keep their eyes open and focused on the screen for everything
If you’re using Spotify on Windows, consider installing a system ad blocker like Adguard for Windows and route Spotify traffic through it. It will strip the ads.
If you’re using Spotify on Android, consider installing the app through X-Manager, which will give you an ad-free experience.
This was at work a few years ago. I don’t use windows at home. But thank you for providing those recommendations. Hopefully a fellow Lemming will find them useful!
Facebook I’m only comfortable using inside a browser for this reason, and not with Chrome either. Something proper like Firefox that can block third party cookies and run it in a container automatically so it can’t follow you around. I need to contain the filth.
What kind of addon do you use to contain the tracking cookies on Firefox? I’d really like to get it too.
There is also this official extension. IIRC, this also makes sure that all the meta owned sites are not able to interact with other sites, but can work fine with each other. It also makes sure that any links leading to their sites also only open in the container, maybe also sanitized to remove the tracker from original link. The last part I am not sure, as I might be confusing it with a different extension. But if you are using any of the Meta sites, I would recommend it.
It’s built into Firefox! You don’t need one.
Click on the shield icon in the upper left (on Desktop) and from there you can get into your tracking protection settings. It also has a dashboard showing what has been blocked. Categories are social media, tracking cookies, tracking content, fingerprinting, and cryptominers. Facebook containers are also built into Firefox on desktop. That feature is called Container Tabs and is in settings also.
On Firefox for Android, you go to the three dots thing -> Settings -> Enhanced Tracking Protection.
Most browsers today have something like this built-in because it’s such a problem, except Chrome, because Google is an ad company first and would be shooting their own foot.
I wouldn’t even type fa in by Firefox without the Facebook containers extension. And yeah, chrome can jam it
This will completely empty out Twitter. It’s just like that scene on Godzilla when both monsters are fighting and the science dude just says to “let them fight”.
Yeah, kinda. The crowd that cares move to Mastodon, that crowd that chases moves to Threads.
Now, there is still value in Twitter as long as content creators and companies post there. When we see companies pull out and content creators en masse setting up shop somewhere else the end is coming. Huge communites that depend on being huge rarely if ever can return from a real downwards spiral.
You’re already seeing a lot of the celebrities and brands move over. I imagine their replies being filled with normal people rather than the blue check crypto nerds is a pretty big draw.
I just cannot fathom why people would see the shortest that Musk has made of Twitter and think the best solution is to go to a clone made by Zuckerberg. Have they learned nothing?
Because fundamentally, people really don’t care about all that much. They want a simple social network that’s vaguely pleasant to use, has the people and content they’re looking for, and otherwise stays out of their way. They certainly don’t care about Musk’s random crusade du jour against the evil woke libs.
Nor do they particularly care about targeted advertising so long as it remains vaguely unobtrusive and their data isn’t constantly leaked in ways that directly harm them. Zuck, for all his many flaws, is smart enough to know that the single biggest thing he can do is to largely stay out of the way.
Because people just submit it. He doesn’t know why. They just trust him. Dumb Fucks.
Worse. No one trusts Zuckerberg, they just all figure nothing bad will happen. “He’s got everyone’s data anyway.” They don’t think.
People are Lazy.
Not just lazy. Wilfully ignorant and, dare I say, largely stupid as well.
99% of times “stupidity” is just a lack of information, interest and prospective who let people don’t see how someone else problem could very well become “their” problem too given enough time.
Whatever gives them their low quality tier content with the least friction no doubt
You know the answer.
Damn, just straight up stealing other people’s content. Very cool
Original post: https://writing.exchange/@kreig/110664764474921792
Original poster: https://writing.exchange/@kreig
Full spy mode
