

Disable Facebook Chat Seen Status - Chrome Extension - ladino
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-chat-privacy/gfpgaanechfneiboempkfjghninbibjn
extension is open source, it just blocks a simple connection to http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.facebook.com&#x2F;ajax&#x2F;mercury&#x2F;change_read_status.php
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deanclatworthy
OP: I'd advise you to be careful producing extensions which adjust facebook in
any way. The author of one of the most popular facebook extensions had his
account revoked as it's strictly against Facebook's ToS to adjust the page or
experience in any way: [http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2012/12/19/facebook-
bans-crea...](http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2012/12/19/facebook-bans-creator-
of-fb-purity-a-browser-add-on-that-lets-users-customize-the-site/)

~~~
ladino
extension is open source, it just blocks a simple connection to
[http://www.facebook.com/ajax/mercury/change_read_status.php](http://www.facebook.com/ajax/mercury/change_read_status.php)

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adventured
Unfortunately Facebook won't care about any of that in their determination
over whether to try to punish the op.

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ladino
are you from Facebook ;)

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gwu78
No need for a Chrome extension.

Just block the /ajax/mercury/mark_seen.php, change_read_status.php and
/ajax/messaging/typ.php URL's via your firewall ruleset.

The utility of a kernel space firewall is not limited to Facebook privacy.
It's very easy to stop mobile apps from "phoning home" using such a firewall.
Could users find this desirable?

Maybe there's a market for a pre-configured firewall you can carry in your
pocket? Think small PCB (say, RaspberryPi or something that could fit in an
Altoids tin) as a headless wifi gateway/firewall for your branded, infinitely
functional, graphical mobile device.

It might sit between the user's mobile device and the wifi access point and
redirect certain IP addresses (e.g., those for www.facebook.com) to a proxy
listening on localhost. The proxy can perform Layer 7 filtering.

tcpdump/ngrep running on the PCB could show the user what apps are phoning
home. The user could then choose to add them to the firewall.

Internet service subscribers with modest technical know-how routinely
configure and run wifi routers in their homes. Or someone does the config and
setup for them. Running a similar "router" in your pocket is not unfathomable.

Does privacy have value?

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swang
Curious why it needs access to all your websites? I thought you can do
wildcards in Chrome?

Edit: OK looked over the Chrome .crx file. Apparently it does the filtering
internally inside the script instead of declaring it in the manifest (or
wherever Chrome puts those settings now).

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ladino
i just reviewed the source code and it only blocks a simple connection to
/ajax/messaging/typ.php, /ajax/mercury/mark_seen.php, and
/ajax/mercury/change_read_status.php.

good catch to reduce permissions.

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thejosh
Oh, it probably will get an update where it can access anything after a lot of
users have installed it.

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antr
Regarding Facebook Chat:

Does anyone know why I need to "Turn Off Chat" every time I login to Facebook.
It is clearly designed to login automatically, Facebook doesn't respect the
user's wishes to remain "offline". It keeps logging in, as if they think my FB
web engagement is going to increase for being available to chat. As a result I
use FB less. Anybody knows why FB is becoming so unusable?

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sidmkp96
That means u r signed in from some other place, like your Smartphone, or some
IM client like Trillian etc, or u have Facebook Messenger installed on ur
phone, due to which u r always online when u sign-in.

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antr
I thought about this, but I don't have any FB app on my mobile, nor use an IM
client (except HipChat for work).

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sidmkp96
Did u use a IM Client like IMO by any chance? Because with IMO, even if u
remove it (while ur status was online from IMO client), u r still signed into
Facebuk. I eventually had to download it again, sign-in, changed my status to
offline. And since then, I haven't faced any issue.

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nakedrobot2
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14314213/no-
thanks.jpg](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14314213/no-thanks.jpg)

"access your data on all websites" "access your tabs and browsing activity"

NO THANK YOU!

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timdiggerm
Yes that is how extensions work

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bboyan
It adds an
[http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/webRequest.html#event...](http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/webRequest.html#event-
onBeforeRequest) handler that prevents requests to /ajax/messaging/typ.php,
/ajax/mercury/mark_seen.php, and /ajax/mercury/change_read_status.php.

Copy-pasta from some YouTube ad block extension.

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cliveowen
I wouldn't mind it if it actually worked as expected. I often go through the
tabs including that of facebook and people think I read the messages but
decided not to respond. I also really hate the blink (name) wrote a message on
the tab name. Facebook should get its shit together.

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cliveowen
I just realized that what I wrote sounds like it has been written by a
particularly slow-witted toddler. What I was trying to say is that I found
very distracting and annoying the whole "Johnny messaged you" blinking thing
while I'm reading something. Isn't it obvious that if I wanted to read
someone's messages I would be ON Facebook instead of reading another tab?

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gamegoblin
Is the purpose of the "seen" message to encourage people to keep a
conversation going (that they would otherwise have abandoned) out of guilt? If
someone knows that their friend knows that they have read their message, I
think that they are more likely to respond so that they don't seem like a bad
friend. I guess the goal would be to get people to stay on the site longer.

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blablabla123
The purpose of seen is IMHO to make FB messaging more reliable than other
service like text msgs or E-Mail.

Obviously there are many people that like to not give responses, including me
sometimes. But I guess that shouldn't make you change that behaviour?

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prometheuspk
It's seems very rude and arrogant to the other party in the conversation.

On the other hand when the 'seen' thing wasn't happening the other party could
at least think that you just haven't checked the message yet.

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rish404
Curious what exactly includes the "seen" feature? If I have 30 tabs opened in
my browser, facebook being one of them, does that mean every message would be
marked as "seen" even though I haven't visited that tab for hours? How does it
work on mobile? Do push notifications also count in the "seen" since I can see
and read the message on the lock screen itself.

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adventured
I believe it means it would never get marked as seen to the user on the other
end of the chat. That is, they would never know that you saw the chat text.

I assume it's interrupting or misleading whatever Facebook is using (focus?
mouse movement?) to determine whether you've seen the text in the chat box.

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madsravn
Why? Does it matter whether or not people can see if you have read their
message? I will answer your question when I have time, and if you're on my
friends list I guess you should know me well enough to know that.

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Kartificial
Facebook should implement a setting where you can disable this feature, so
others cannot see if you have read their message, but at the same time this
info is hidden for you as well.

~~~
ladino
yes, unfortunately the don't care and force you to always reply asap, when you
have read the message. otherwise it would be nicebook or fairbook ;)

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aaronjb
Nice, gonna try it now. I hate that damn thing, and was dismayed when I
couldn't disable it in Facebook's settings. Now if only I could do the same
for the app.

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mzf
Much more annoying feature is the sidebar, where all my contacts can see my
real time activity. Damn I don't like it at all.

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mike-cardwell
Anyone know of a Firefox equivalent?

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matiasb
It would be nice!

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linux_devil
Not a Facebook addict , don't mind such small settings.

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garethadams
The parent comment isn't relevant to me

