
To opt out of Facebook’s tracking, I’m going to have to join Facebook - Jaruzel
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/open-letter-mark-zuckerberg-congress
======
rmsaksida
Some of the scripts loaded by Wired when you access this article:

>
> [http://ads.rubiconproject.com/header/11644.js](http://ads.rubiconproject.com/header/11644.js)

"Rubicon Project, the digital advertising infrastructure company, is on a
mission to automate buying and selling for the global online advertising
industry"

> [https://tags.bkrtx.com/js/bk-coretag.js](https://tags.bkrtx.com/js/bk-
> coretag.js)

"BlueKai is a cloud-based big data platform that enables companies to
personalize online, offline, and mobile marketing campaigns"

> [https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js](https://www.google-
> analytics.com/analytics.js)

"Google Analytics is a freemium web analytics service offered by Google that
tracks and reports website traffic."

>
> [http://b.scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js](http://b.scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js)

"Through our global research efforts, ScorecardResearch collects data that
assists companies around the world in providing products and services that
better meet the needs of consumers"

And of course:

>
> [http://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js](http://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js)

"Instagram is a photo and video-sharing social networking service owned by
Facebook, Inc"

>
> [http://connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js](http://connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js)

It's Facebook.

~~~
Mister_Snuggles
The Web has become unusable without uMatrix.

~~~
patrickbolle
"unusable" is a very extreme word for this.

~~~
bauerd
"Unusable for the privacy-aware" does the job

~~~
rmsaksida
Privacy issues aside, it has a noticeable effect on battery life.

~~~
Mister_Snuggles
Not to mention performance and usability.

I never bothered with uMatrix until I picked up a cheap computer to use while
traveling. Firefox was borderline unusable without it.

------
bencollier49
"Unless I go full tin-foil hat, you’ve basically left me with one option. To
opt out of Facebook’s tracking, I’m going to have to join Facebook"

Or just wait until May 25th and send them a GDPR Subject Access Request.
Seriously, Facebook's GDPR team must be having kittens.

~~~
smt88
I'm a US citizen and live in the US, but I'm going to tell FB that I live in
the EU and must be protected by GDPR. Hope it works!

~~~
kelchm
What about becoming an e-resident of Estonia?

~~~
osteele
“ Although e-residents receive government-issued digi- ID’s similar to those
of citizens, e-residency does not confer citizenship, tax residency,
residence, or right of entry to Estonia or to the European Union.” –
[https://e-resident.gov.ee/faqs/about-e-residency/#about-e-
re...](https://e-resident.gov.ee/faqs/about-e-residency/#about-e-residency)

------
christofosho
Is there ever going to be a way in this world today that one can simply not be
tracked? I feel that most every device you use will have some company or
another tracking you. I'd love if people could post some ideas around this.

I've done the (becoming) standard uBlock, uMatrix (which makes most sites
unusable until you tweak it), setting up "do not track" and "no cookies".
Using private browsing with TOR. It doesn't seem like any of this is enough to
prevent someone that seriously wants to track you.

So what are the next steps?

~~~
cocoa19
Some ideas:

\- Developing/using an open source, privacy minded smart phone. \- Use cash or
a vanilla debit card that doesn't track you. I was shocked that after I buy a
very very particular and specific item at Walmart, I see ads all the time. I
believe even Walmart is selling data to advertisers. \- Ask representatives to
improve privacy laws.

~~~
roryisok
Or an "outdated" platform like (pre-android) Blackberry or Windows Phone

~~~
seba_dos1
If you're going to run outdated platform, at least choose Maemo :P

------
eudora
What strikes me the most is how impotent many of us feel in resisting being
tracked and profiled so extensively.

------
Froyoh
I love this quote: "then you have made a desert and called it peace"

Originally from Tacitus: "To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false
titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

------
gtsteve
I see a lot of complaints about tracking but has anyone proposed an
alternative? These products have to be paid for somehow so how about a
subscription fee to not be tracked by them?

For example, I'm sure my search data is less to Google than Google is to me.
How much would you consider reasonable for their service? $50-100 per year
would seem reasonable to me - I'd pay that for an ad-free non-tracked
experience. This might actually be good for them, because I'd finally become
an Android user - my main concern is my privacy as I use the Android platform.

They could hire an independent company to regularly audit this and make a
report to prove that they are not tracking people who subscribe to the
service.

I'm sure there are flaws with this idea but is anyone actually discussing an
alternative to tracking? We simply cannot expect a company to offer any
product for free.

~~~
clouddrover
> _non-tracked experience_

You can use DuckDuckGo today to reduce your exposure to tracking:

[https://duckduckgo.com/](https://duckduckgo.com/)

~~~
gtsteve
I have tried DuckDuckGo in the past and it's pretty good but it doesn't quite
have the reach or relevance of Google, at least for the topics I tend to
search for.

But perhaps this is because Google tracks me. When I search for "private
variable" it knows I'm likely referring to C# as opposed to Java and shows an
appropriate result. When I search for "supermarket london" it knows I'm
referring to London, UK and not London in Canada.

So perhaps after thinking about it a bit more, what I want isn't feasible.

~~~
peatmoss
Depending how long ago you used it, you might give it another go.

I spent a while trying and failing to use DDG reliably. Then I took a second
pass a bit later, the results were only a little worse than Google.

Then over time, I found myself using the !g command to double check DDG less
and less.

I did a !g search for the first time in several months yesterday, and laughed
when I saw how much _worse_ Google’s results were.

Try it for a month. You may find out that you’re just used to a particular way
of searching Google. Maybe DDG will offer you something better once you get a
little familiarity.

In particular, I find technical topic searches to be head-and-shoulders better
with DDG than Google.

~~~
gtsteve
OK you've convinced me. I'll give it another shot.

Edit: I just actually forgot how to list a directory in C# so I ran my first
query:

[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=c%23+list+directory&atb=v112-5_y&i...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=c%23+list+directory&atb=v112-5_y&ia=qa)

It has a code sample right at the top. That's one better than Google right
there!

------
joejerryronnie
Face it y'all, privacy is dead. Sure, GDPR and the current FB outrage will
result in some new rules, legislation, etc. Perhaps we'll all have to opt-in
for certain data tracking activities. Maybe the way our personal data flies
around the internet will be a little less obfuscated. But we live in a digital
world and it's very easy to track every packet of data we send and receive.
And because we can do it, eventually we will do it. The new standards we setup
may give us a false sense of control but, over time, apathy and convenience
will lead us back to about where we're at now.

~~~
cmsj
Agreed. Privacy is dead simply because privacy is something that other people
give you, and the web has very very clearly indicated that it, as a whole, has
no interest in giving us privacy.

All that leaves is secrecy, so we'll have to live with running blockers of
various kinds, in a shitty arms race with the web people who want all the data
they can get their grubby little hands on.

Fuck the web. It was one of the last truly successful open protocols from the
early era of the internet, and it's turned out to be one of the worst (not
just because of all the tracking, also because of the insane attitude of web
people that it should try and compete with native applications).

~~~
tatersolid
> also because of the insane attitude of web people that it should try and
> compete with native applications

To be clear, the cause of the rise of the “web application” was that there was
no other cross-platform, automatically updating, mostly standardized and
stable application platform available on every device.

Simple economics demand those features from an application platform, but
nothing else offered it. Not Java, Flash, QT, nor any of the mobile native app
platforms.

Web apps are the “least bad” solution that meet those critical requirements.
And they will never die because of it.

~~~
cmsj
The web barely offers the things you describe. The platforms vary so widely in
terms of display and input hardware, the standards change so much and are
implemented with enough quirks/incompleteness, that it's really not a stable
platform.

What you actually end up with are apps that are really hard to test, very
poorly integrated with 100% of the platforms they are used on, hard to find
and difficult to use if your connectivity isn't consistent.

And it's only going to get worse as WebAssembly really takes hold.

~~~
tatersolid
Web apps I wrote back in 1998-99 in Classic ASP are still in productive use at
a few companies.

The only real maintenance has been OS and SQL Server version upgrades.

How is that not “stable”?

------
telesilla
What are the best Chrome/Firefox tracker blockers for Facebook? I've been
using Facebook Disconnect:

Chrome: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disconnect-
faceboo...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disconnect-facebook-
pixel/nnkndeagapifodhlebifbgbonbfmlnfm)

For Firefox: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-
disc...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-disconnect/)

Safari: [https://disconnect.me/disconnect](https://disconnect.me/disconnect)

------
roryisok
I hate Facebook just as much as the next guy (hey, maybe more), but I suspect
Google analytics is present on a lot more sites than Facebook tracking. It's
cool right now to hate Facebook, which is why stories like this are getting
clicks.

People who opt out of it and then rant about it on the internet are kind of
like kids hiding in the bushes yelling "you can't see me!"

------
Bakary
The bigger question is why have we created a society where cynical
ruthlessness is not only adaptive, but also the object of repeated and
widespread praise.

------
linkmotif
Dear Mark,

I hate you because you’re rich and I’m not. Also, it’s the cool thing to do
right now, and I have to make money somehow, after all.

Sincerely,

The Bandwagon

------
musage
Just generally stop with the personality cult bullshit, both positive and
negative.

As much as I think the best thing that could happen to FB is to just vanish, I
can't "hate" this guy I never met who never ever seemed happy and now just
looks tired. I doubt the author does, either. So why lie about it? That's both
kinda pathetic and predictably unhelpful. It's not like the article doesn't
contain information, but that framing sucks.

There's a lot to be said about the actions and words of Facebook as a whole,
and of Mark Zuckerberg, but it does more harm than good if it's with the
intent to make it about Facebook and Zuckerberg, instead of those things no
matter who happens to do or say them, and _our_ responsibilities not just in
response, but in action rather than just reaction.

