Facebook admits it does track non-users, for their own good

[timosman]

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/0...ing_non_users/

17 Apr 2018

Facebook's apology-and-explanation machine grinds on, with The Social Network™ posting detail on one of its most controversial activities – how it tracks people who don't use Facebook.

The company explained that the post is a partial response to questions CEO Mark Zuckerberg was unable to answer during his senate and Congressional hearings.

It's no real surprise that someone using their Facebook Login to sign in to other sites is tracked, but the post by product management director David Baser goes into (a little) detail on other tracking activities – some of which have been known to the outside world for some time, occasionally denied by Facebook, and apparently mysteries only to Zuck.

When non-Facebook sites add a “Like” button (a social plugin, in Baser's terminology), visitors to those sites are tracked: Facebook gets their IP address, browser and OS fingerprint, and visited site.

If that sounds a bit like the datr cookie dating from 2011, you wouldn't be far wrong.

Facebook denied non-user tracking until 2015, at which time it emphasised that it was only gathering non-users' interactions with Facebook users. That explanation didn't satisfy everyone, which was why The Social Network™ was told to quit tracking Belgians who haven't signed on earlier this year.

Baser gave a pinky-promise that this kind of non-user tracking is all about functionality: “knowing your IP address allows us to send the Like button to your browser and helps us show it in your language. Cookies and device identifiers help us determine whether you’re logged in, which makes it easier to share content or use Facebook to log into another app.”

Then there's the tracking that advertisers perform on behalf of the news-groomer: “An advertiser can choose to add the Facebook Pixel, some computer code, to their site. This allows us to give advertisers stats about how many people are responding to their ads — even if they saw the ad on a different device — without us sharing anyone’s personal information.”

In other words, it's data-gathering for advertisers, rather than for Facebook: an advertiser who plants the Facebook Pixel on their site gets an easy way to identify someone who bought something, so they can “reach this customer again by using a Custom Audience.”

Have you ever wondered why advertisers think you're a perpetual customer for a product you just bought? Wonder no more (we're aware that the Tweet below relates to Amazon, but you get the picture).

Facebook Analytics and Facebook Audience Network are the other key items in today's mea non culpa.

Facebook Analytics, the post said, “gives websites and apps data about how they are used”, with IP addresses offering geolocation, browser/OS fingerprints (developer information, promise!), and cookies dishing up “aggregated demographic information” about site visitors or app users.

The Facebook Audience Network links non-Facebook sites and apps to Facebook advertisers, and honestly, The Social Network™ only needs all that data it gathers for technical reasons like making sure the ads display correctly (fingerprints again), to encourage victims visitors to sign up to Facebook, and to hammer people with ads for similar products to the advertiser they viewed/clicked on.

If you don't like all this, it's your fault: you didn't use Facebook's preference menus (until recently hidden as if it were “in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'”) to manage your news and advertising management.

Neither of which, of course, will be as effective as just blocking Facebook's cookies. ®

[Aratus]

Let's face it, when three or four people utilize the same computer, and there is
darn little in common concerning hobbies etc... the composite profile creates a
a highly unique but fictional hypothetical individual. Marketing then is inventive.

[timosman]

Let's face it, when three or four people utilize the same computer,

Is this 1995?

[Aratus]

Is this 1995?

Or even in 2005

Or even in 2015

Or even in 2025

Same thing applies...

[timosman]

Or even in 2005

Or even in 2015

Or even in 2025

Same thing applies...

I don't know anybody who shares computers. It is like sharing underwear.

[Aratus]

I don't know anybody who shares computers. It is like sharing underwear.

Dude, you never had a stern father who'd be frugal in the extreme, all the while
going on how he had survived the Great Depression. You always assume you'll be
in a situation where you can buy any gizmo or gadget your lil ole heart desires!!!
You have no idea why many of the rural folks do vote for Rand Paul in Kentucky.

[timosman]

You have no idea why many of the rural folks do vote for Rand Paul in Kentucky.

From the same computer?

[Aratus]

From the same computer?

Okay... Maybe they all are not on the same public library computer system...nor
are from families that have extremely tight budgets. I think you like to talk like
you are always around money, but face it, odds are your options are like my own.

[timosman]

Okay... Maybe they all are not on the same public library computer system...nor
are from families that have extremely tight budgets. I think you like to talk like
you are always around money, but face it, odds are your options are like my own.

[Aratus]

let's modify Mr Bacon... Political money buys a good servant,
as it corrupts further someone who is a not quite so bad master...

[tod evans]

I don't know anybody who shares computers. It is like sharing underwear.

My son uses my 'puter.

[DamianTV]

Who gave Facebook permission to track you at work? Your employer? Or Facebook?

How about shared computers at work?

----

Fingerprinting user data goes WAY beyond the outdated concept of cookies, although cookies are still used extensively. The new techniques can pretty well identify individuals, even when they use the same computer, based on what you type, the way you type (called "type cadence"), how you move the mouse, etc. Basic things, such as when certain websites are looked at can be used to differentiate one individual from another when using the same computer.

That is all of it true, unless, you dont even let your computer talk to anything facebook puts out. Period. That means block the $#@!ers in the firewall. Use adblockers, facebook blockers, plugins, hosts files, what ever it takes.

Now, after all of that, there is one company beyond the shadow of a doubt far more dangerous and invasive that facebook, and that is Google. Wordpress is now owned by google, and amounts to about one third of the websites on the internet, relating to blogs and what not. With Google owning a highly disproportionate volume of the content on the web, their ability to track individual users is insane. WP is only a small part of the problem. People who insist on using "services" such as Google Analytics are as disrespectful to their own customers privacy as google itself is.

It gets even worse. Other very popular Google tools such as Google APIs like AJAX are equally dangerous to privacy. And in total, probably half of websites out there try to use these "tools" that Google pushes out and corners the marketplace. Face it, Googles only real goal is to make your customers their customers. Tracking users across many websites allows Google to show ads, prior to sending new customers to their websites, to other more favored websites, like Amazon. Have a Lawnmower Repair Shop? Did people find you on Google? You just told Google who your customers were, so the next time that person gets on, they are gonna be shown ads for Lawnmowers on Amazon, not your website.

But to stay relevant, you need to PAY the beasts to even have permission to compete in search rankings. Your website is expected to automatically use Googles "free" WordPress related data, or be structured in such a way that Googlebot (web crawler, one of the originals) indexes your website in a way that satisfies Google. Even then, you still have to pay Google to even be found. How is that not telling Google "Yes please take all my customers and send them to Amazon", while everyone clamors about "how easy" Amazon is to buy everything. Google and Amazon and Microsoft and Facebook all work together to shut down the mom and pop stores and services in place of slave wage labor by unskilled idiots who can do nothing but utter "have you been to our website" between drooling on themselves and trying to do minimum effort just to not get fired.

The price of surrendering all this data to facebook and google and microsoft is that everything directs you away from mom and pop shops, and local businesses, and puts all the money of a few companies that manipulate the way you find information. Information is a Key Tier in the Monopoly of Power in Belief. And Belief, Money, and Violence are used to control ALL men. And yes, Google is even getting paid to do research for the military. You are literally paying them to kill you and lie to you.

$#@! Facebook and Google and the whole lot of the Technocracy.

[VIDEODROME]

Will we see ads for Bacon now?

[dannno]

This is pretty entertaining, AF you should at least try and watch 16:00-21:00 where he talks about the cultish HR departments.

[timosman]

This is pretty entertaining, AF you should at least try and watch 16:00-21:00 where he talks about the cultish HR departments.

Where are the diversity stats for HR departments?

[dannno]

Where are the diversity stats for HR departments?

High score.

70% women, 25% gay men, 5% trans.

[timosman]

High score.

70% women, 25% gay men, 5% trans.

It looks like more work needs to be done.

[DamianTV]

Will we see ads for Bacon now?

Its less about the product, people and data are the products. What is more important is who sells that bacon. Is it bacon for a local small market store, or is it Amazon bacon?

The result of Targeted Advertising is to destroy smaller businesses by stealing their customers.

[angelatc]

From the same computer?

It's shocking to find out that there are a lot of households that still have only 1 computer?

[angelatc]

I don't care. I like targeted advertising.

I hate the fact that almost nobody cared when we found out that the government was doing the exact same thing.

[angelatc]

Its less about the product, people and data are the products. What is more important is who sells that bacon. Is it bacon for a local small market store, or is it Amazon bacon?

The result of Targeted Advertising is to destroy smaller businesses by stealing their customers.

I own a small store. The innovation that led to targeted advertising is a God-send to me, because it allows me to spend a minimal amount of money while targeting a very specific audience.

[dannno]

I don't care. I like targeted advertising.

Ya I don't really mind it too much either. I was looking for something the other day, decided to hold off, turns out you can buy the same thing for 1/3rd of the price and I only found out when the ads started popping up.

[Swordsmyth]

Facebook Moves 1.5 Billion Users' Data Out Of Europe To Circumvent New Privacy Law

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-20/facebook-moves-15-billion-users-data-out-europe-circumvent-new-privacy-law

[heavenlyboy34]

I don't care. I like targeted advertising.

I hate the fact that almost nobody cared when we found out that the government was doing the exact same thing.

+rep

[DamianTV]

I own a small store. The innovation that led to targeted advertising is a God-send to me, because it allows me to spend a minimal amount of money while targeting a very specific audience.

Its a two way street.

I dont like making choices for others. Im also not fond of trying to limit anyones choices, which includes both you and your customers. It should be beyond the scope of my ability or authority to make those decisions.

The trouble is, there is very little option to opt out for people. The default is to be tracked and targeted. Most people do not know how to block ads. They rely on add ons and extensions to do that for them. Sadly, many of the Ad Blockers are forms of Malware (link underlined). People are becoming desperate to block these ads because of various reasons, a big one is being tracked. But I do understand your point that there are advantages to it.

These big companies never operate as "Opt In". I just hate it when big companies demand to track all their customers. Not you specifically so dont take it personal, I mean like Walmart or Target. When their petty employees demand to track me, thats when I walk out the door and dont ever come back, because they think they have a Right to make those choices for me. They dont, no more than I can tell you how to run your business. If you have something I am looking for and the price is reasonable, I would buy something from your store. Demand that I like you on Facebook or you'll charge me more (also, not you, apartments here do this), Im out the door and wont come back. That to me is beyond the scope of simple transactions.