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Facebook users are apparently broadcasting the fact that they are typing to their conversation partners, why should you ignore that information? If you don't li

Facebook users are apparently broadcasting the fact that they are typing to their conversation partners, why should you ignore that information? If you don't like that, disable that feature, or complain to Facebook if it is not something you can disable yourself (or don't use Facebook). It can't hurt to raise some awareness of what you are invisibly broadcasting in terms of data on-line. (I always liked how this feature could be disabled in Gaim and Pidgin.)

thomasahle 10y ago
I suppose it would be even easier to make a script that blocks facebook from sending this information? Does it already exist?
- MasterScrat 10y ago
  Yes, "Facebook™ Chat Privacy" Chrome extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-chat-privacy/gfpgaanechfneiboempkfjghninbibjn?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-chat-priv...
  - ryanmonroe 10y ago
    Anyone else get an error when trying to add this extension? >Package is invalid. Details: 'Could not load background script 'tracksy/tracksy.js'.'.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- mfoy_ 10y ago
  There's always the tried and true method: Type your message in notepad, then copy and paste it into wherever when ready.
- askafriend 10y ago
  There's one called Facebook Unseen that works well. It's a Chrome extension that gives you a toggle.
dasyatidprime 10y ago
Well, firstly, because they are not in a similar position to yours with regard to this fact unless they are of a similar attitude and skill for promoting these transmissions to human-side visibility. (If you know that they do have the same attitude as the one you expressed, then the "you know they're okay with it" exception applies.) There are a lot of things people "broadcast" in the physical world which are socially expected to be politely ignored as well. Put another way, your statement makes perfect sense if you assume all software is actually a User-Agent in the traditional, ideal sense. But this isn't so, because even programmers don't generally have the spare cycles to rewrite everything they come in contact with, and non-programmers have an even more vanishingly small chance to do anything about it. Agency in the digital world is inevitably shaped by other people's decisions as represented in software, and social agency is shaped by how that software presents itself not just to you but to the people you're communicating with through it. When the state of the software doesn't exactly match the state as visible to the participants, the latter state prevails in a social context, and it's the responsibility of a polite conversation partner to not mess around behind the curtain unless you already know you're welcome.

thomasahle 10y ago

I suppose it would be even easier to make a script that blocks facebook from sending this information? Does it already exist?

MasterScrat 10y ago
Yes, "Facebook™ Chat Privacy" Chrome extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-chat-privacy/gfpgaanechfneiboempkfjghninbibjn?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-chat-priv...
- ryanmonroe 10y ago
  Anyone else get an error when trying to add this extension? >Package is invalid. Details: 'Could not load background script 'tracksy/tracksy.js'.'.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
mfoy_ 10y ago
There's always the tried and true method: Type your message in notepad, then copy and paste it into wherever when ready.
askafriend 10y ago
There's one called Facebook Unseen that works well. It's a Chrome extension that gives you a toggle.

dasyatidprime 10y ago

Well, firstly, because they are not in a similar position to yours with regard to this fact unless they are of a similar attitude and skill for promoting these transmissions to human-side visibility. (If you know that they do have the same attitude as the one you expressed, then the "you know they're okay with it" exception applies.) There are a lot of things people "broadcast" in the physical world which are socially expected to be politely ignored as well. Put another way, your statement makes perfect sense if you assume all software is actually a User-Agent in the traditional, ideal sense. But this isn't so, because even programmers don't generally have the spare cycles to rewrite everything they come in contact with, and non-programmers have an even more vanishingly small chance to do anything about it. Agency in the digital world is inevitably shaped by other people's decisions as represented in software, and social agency is shaped by how that software presents itself not just to you but to the people you're communicating with through it. When the state of the software doesn't exactly match the state as visible to the participants, the latter state prevails in a social context, and it's the responsibility of a polite conversation partner to not mess around behind the curtain unless you already know you're welcome.