geekhack

geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: nubbinator on Fri, 25 April 2014, 23:07:10

Title: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: nubbinator on Fri, 25 April 2014, 23:07:10
I just logged into Facebook, something I do once a blue moon to see if someone I know has died, gotten knocked up, or has somehow surpassed me in awesomeness in life and what pops up?  An eBay ad asking if I was still looking at an MX8100. 

At this point I'm going, WTF dude, why are you two working together.  Then I swapped to, no truly, WTF, why do I have no anonymity anymore.

So the question is, how do you browse the web without all this ridiculous cookie tracking **** where everyone is up in your shiz?
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: Vibex on Fri, 25 April 2014, 23:11:49
I use Adblock Plus, Https Everywhere, Disconnect, duckduckgo, and a few other things I can't remember.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: codyeatworld on Fri, 25 April 2014, 23:12:19
Yeah the tracking has gone a little far imo by all the major companies.

You can use https://www.ghostery.com/en/
Theres also adblock, but then again, when you visit the smaller sites with ads, your not supporting them.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: nubbinator on Fri, 25 April 2014, 23:12:30
I use Adblock Plus, Https Everywhere, Disconnect, duckduckgo, and a few other things I can't remember.

I use AdBlock Plus, NoScript, Flashblock, and so on.

Yeah the tracking has gone a little far imo by all the major companies.

You can use https://www.ghostery.com/en/
Theres also adblock, but then again, when you visit the smaller sites with ads, your not supporting them.

Added
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: Novus on Fri, 25 April 2014, 23:17:36
Also need to use that DoNotTrackMe thingie
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: katushkin on Fri, 25 April 2014, 23:45:07
Only ever access facebook through incognito mode.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: Lain1911 on Sat, 26 April 2014, 00:09:28
Like when I don't have a youtube account but for some reason it shows me videos that I have watched, or someone I watched, or something I might watch, etc.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: smknjoe on Sat, 26 April 2014, 00:13:50
Iceweasel (a Firefox flavor) is pretty good out of the box. Chrome is the opposite.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: noisyturtle on Sat, 26 April 2014, 00:15:13
Iceweasel

I have a pizza here for a.... I.C Weiner
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: Novus on Sat, 26 April 2014, 00:18:25
Cookie
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: smknjoe on Sat, 26 April 2014, 00:19:04
...delivery for...Seymor Butts.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: Coreda on Sat, 26 April 2014, 06:42:34
The more unique your browser is the easier it is to identify you amongst the millions of tracked systems by these companies anyway. Just try going to Panopticlick (https://panopticlick.eff.org/) for the EFF's demo of just a fraction of the uniquely identifiable info your system leaks everywhere.

So-called 'super cookies' (entirely different from regular cookies) used to ID systems around the web are much more difficult to hide from, and can be designed to handle changes of a user's system over time. As it takes advantage of how unique your system is ironically using many such browser addons to disable certain things gives more bits of identifiable info. Still, such addons are effective at reducing/eliminating much of the tracking.

Frankly, just using the internet in general is hardly an anonymous activity. However the only worrying part of this is the linking of real names from sites you're a member of to online activity outside of those sites. That's where it can get uncomfortable, and where sites like Facebook have been called out in the past for sending back info about even logged out users as they move around the web wherever those 'Like this' buttons appear. It's the type of thing most aren't aware of.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: smknjoe on Sat, 26 April 2014, 16:46:28
Frankly, just using the internet in general is hardly an anonymous activity

Truer words have never been spoken.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: Alessandro on Sat, 26 April 2014, 17:27:44
Iceweasel

I have a pizza here for a.... I.C Weiner

Aww crud.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: daerid on Sat, 26 April 2014, 17:42:00
I'm still trying to figure out what the problem with all this stuff is. I guess I couldn't really care less if companies tracked what I did online.

I mean, who the heck cares if FB knows you were looking at an eBay listing, or serves an eBay ad that knows I was looking at that listing. Like... how is it actually a problem? Idunno... I guess I just got enough to worry about already
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: jakkdl on Sat, 26 April 2014, 19:03:49
I'm still trying to figure out what the problem with all this stuff is. I guess I couldn't really care less if companies tracked what I did online.

I mean, who the heck cares if FB knows you were looking at an eBay listing, or serves an eBay ad that knows I was looking at that listing. Like... how is it actually a problem? Idunno... I guess I just got enough to worry about already

The day facebook etc is hacked, leaking that you have searched for pills against generic disease/googled for info on cancer inheritance, and your life insurance suddenly skyrockets with "no explanation".

Scenario might not apply to you, but it took me <30 secs to make up. I remember reading about a guy getting ads about baby accesories before his wife told him she were pregnant, but can't seem to find that story atm.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: smknjoe on Sat, 26 April 2014, 19:05:07
The problem is that most people expect privacy when they are in their private dwellings. It doesn't mean they have anything to hide. They just don't like the idea of some pervert watching them and then using whatever information they gain against them...now or in the future. It's a form of trespassing and voyeurism that would be punishable by fines or jail time if it happened in the physical world.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: fohat.digs on Sat, 26 April 2014, 22:22:31

I guess I couldn't really care less if companies tracked what I did online.


If you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide, right?

I recommend the book "The Filter Bubble" by Eli Pariser.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: eth0s on Sat, 26 April 2014, 22:34:17
I'm still trying to figure out what the problem with all this stuff is. I guess I couldn't really care less if companies tracked what I did online.

I mean, who the heck cares if FB knows you were looking at an eBay listing, or serves an eBay ad that knows I was looking at that listing. Like... how is it actually a problem? Idunno... I guess I just got enough to worry about already

Well, the problem is not FB, but FBI.  Someday you will accidentally click on something linked to terrorism.  And then you will get added to FBI watchlist.  Which is secret.  And off which you cannot get.  Ever.  Or never.  Anyway, yeah, getting penis enhancement ads is not so bad, but govt. spying is super bad.  And it's happening right now.  There, the NSA just read this.  And this.  No joke. 
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: Novus on Sat, 26 April 2014, 23:28:30
I don't have a Facebook HAH
 Jokes on you!!!!!!!
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: Input Nirvana on Sat, 26 April 2014, 23:32:41
I google "how to kill the prez" on a regular basis. I figger it keeps "them" on their toes.

Maybe if everybody did it a couple times we could have an informal type of DoD attack and bring their snooping system to a crashing halt.

P.S.- You may want to delete me from any of your contact lists. Just to be safe.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: Novus on Sat, 26 April 2014, 23:35:44
I google "how to kill the prez" on a regular basis. I figger it keeps "them" on their toes.

Maybe if everybody did it a couple times we could have an informal type of DoD attack and bring their snooping system to a crashing halt.

P.S.- You may want to delete me from any of your contact lists. Just to be safe.

Hue hue racist.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: davkol on Sun, 27 April 2014, 04:52:23
'I've Got Nothing to Hide' and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy (Daniel J. Solove) (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=998565)
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: physicsmajor on Fri, 16 May 2014, 20:02:13
Every data broker is selling your data to every other data broker.

Facebook also sells ad space, so Ebay could easily buy that and shove such an ad in your face - even without sharing info with Facebook.
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: strict on Fri, 16 May 2014, 23:32:18
Also need to use that DoNotTrackMe thingie

Your signature is beyond ridiculous. It's so bad it makes me want to turn off signatures globally.

Regarding the OP's point about targeted advertising, I am running Tomato on my router and use an ad/tracking/malware blocking script that relies on the pixelserv binary. It pretty much eliminates the need for any adblocking browser extensions and even blocks ads on browsers that don't support extensions (mobile safari, IE, etc). It even blocks ads in Cydia which is normally next to impossible.

Clean, Lean and Mean Adblocking - LinksysInfo.org (http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/script-clean-lean-and-mean-adblocking.68464/)
Title: Re: eBay and Facebook are watching.
Post by: lightsout714 on Sat, 17 May 2014, 00:37:14
Also need to use that DoNotTrackMe thingie

Your signature is beyond ridiculous. It's so bad it makes me want to turn off signatures globally.


Agreed lol, especially when its on the screen multiple times. I just blocked it with adblock.