
Guide to Retargeting Someone Else’s Website - slynn12
https://blog.repixel.co/2019/12/04/the-ultimate-guide-to-retargeting-someone-elses-website/
======
geofft
It seems to me that this is cross-site tracking of the sort forbidden by
WebKit (Safari)'s and Firefox's tracking prevention policies:

[https://webkit.org/tracking-prevention-policy/](https://webkit.org/tracking-
prevention-policy/)

[https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Anti_tracking_policy](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Anti_tracking_policy)

If Repixel can identify someone as a golfer with joint pain because they
visited a golfing website and an unrelated joint pain website, that sounds
like tracking an identifiable user across multiple first parties.

Should Safari and Firefox ban Repixel?

~~~
werds
they don't "ban" domains based on this policy. they just don't make their
cookies available to the cross origin requests as per the ITP browser changes:
[https://clearcode.cc/blog/intelligent-tracking-
prevention/#I...](https://clearcode.cc/blog/intelligent-tracking-
prevention/#ITP8)

so Firefox and Chrome are making changes which basically limit the
effectiveness of this technique.

~~~
slynn12
It's a Facebook approved app through and everything stays within Facebook's
ecosystem. Check it out: [https://blog.repixel.co/2019/07/01/facebook-and-
gdpr-complia...](https://blog.repixel.co/2019/07/01/facebook-and-gdpr-
compliance/)

~~~
geofft
Safari's tracking policy is in large part intended to protect users against
the Facebook ecosystem (even though, yes, it is not specific to Facebook or
any other domain and just establishes policies for technical behavior):
[https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/4/17427000/wwdc-apple-
safari...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/4/17427000/wwdc-apple-safari-
antitracking-facebook-like-share)

> _Cross-site tracking is tracking across multiple first party websites;
> tracking between websites and apps; or the retention, use, or sharing of
> data from that activity with parties other than the first party on which it
> was collected._

I think that having Facebook share tracking information with Repixel and in
turn with Repixel's customers counts as "sharing of data from that activity
with parties other than the first party on which it was collected," no?

~~~
slynn12
Where are you seeing that sentence that you quoted? I'm curious to take a
look. I don't see it in the verge article that you linked to. Apologies if I'm
missing something.

~~~
geofft
Sorry, that was unclear. That sentence is from the WebKit/Safari policy which
I linked earlier in the thread. (The _Verge_ article is a synthesis of the
stated policy and the fact that the WWDC presentation clearly had a screenshot
of blocking Facebook cookies.)

~~~
slynn12
All good, thanks for clarifying! I'll take a look tonight.

------
dredmorbius
I received the following email apparently sent by Repixel's CEO John Evans on
the 4th of December. I've already reported it to HN's moderators:

<quote>

Hi Edward,

I noticed you’re a big contributor on Hacker News and I was hoping to get an
article seen by the community. Would you be open to taking a look at a piece
of my content, and if you find it interesting, consider posting it? I would do
it myself but I think your karma points would give it an extra push. Happy to
return the favor if there’s anything I can do for you in return!

Best, John

</quote>

I'd have concerns about this firm's services, practices, and ethics.

~~~
lowdose
You are an influencer and these kind of approaches happen all the time. I
think this allowed networking behaviour.

~~~
dredmorbius
As a pseudonymous nym, quite literally the only stock I have are the facts and
reasoning I post, and my past record.

I'm not willing to compromise either.

------
dahdum
This “guide” is just an advertisement for their product.

~~~
paulgb
I think there is value in posting this sort of advertisement to HN, because it
reliably leads to a good discussion of how to subvert it as a user :)

------
flir
I assume this is something uBlock Origin will take care of for me?

~~~
slynn12
Yeah you'd be covered. This is another way of retargeting, and as far as I
understand, you'd be opted out globally.

------
superasn
I still don't get it. So I'm paying the site owner for the pixel and FB for
the ad?

~~~
slynn12
It's kind of like display advertising, but less spammy because it works in the
background. Instead of reaching the site owner's audience through a banner on
their site, you pay them to tag their visitors (through their Facebook pixel)
and reach their audience on Facebook/Instagram.

