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In order to make these decisions enforceable we need to collaborate with ISPs to anonymize traffic. Government action is necessary. I've contemplated far too

In order to make these decisions enforceable we need to collaborate with ISPs to anonymize traffic. Government action is necessary. I've contemplated far too long on this problem and there's no other solution. You can make them say that don't store your data, but that's pretty much always a lie. We can build browsers that reject cookies, but you can't get rid of your IP. All these services can simply track you through your IP. A significant change in networking infrastructure is required, and I'm hopeful that quite a few countries will resort to that soon for reasons of national security.

dpwm 9y ago
There are many situations, think university or corporate networks, where you cannot rely on the IP address for tracking. There are ISPs that don't have enough IP addresses for users so they many-to-one NAT them and most users won't even notice. Even behind an ISP or corporate NAT with cookies disabled, there are other ways of tracking. If JavaScript is enabled, browser fingerprinting can be very disturbing in its ability to single you out, depending on your configuration. More generally, I always found this obsession with tracking non-users one of the creepier aspects of Facebook when I finally used it circa 2011 - 2012. The amount of information it had about me that could only have come from web browsing before I had signed up, such as local takeaways and restaurants I had used, was impressive but unnerving.
- koolba 9y ago
  Less so on a corporate network ad the vast majority of the machines are running the exact same build, plugin sets, and usually hardware too.
shaki-dora 9y ago
What do mean? Isn’t this verdict a pretty good example of how the law actually is enforceable? For Facebook to lie in such a lawsuit would require hundreds of their employees being willing to lie under oath. It just doesn’t make sense, considering they would risk harsh criminal sanctions and have only their usual salary as an upside. As for IP-based tracking: if it were as effective as cookies, websites would use IPs and not cookies.
- John_KZ 9y ago
  >For Facebook to lie in such a lawsuit would require hundreds of their employees being willing to lie under oath. Actually it would only require a handful of people hiding the truth. Given how most of facebook's development is done in the US and not in Belgium, they won't even have to appear in court. Also IP-based tracking is very effective, and it's used alongside cookies. Nothing beats cookies with Javascript, but IP will do just fine, especially for companies like Facebook and Google who can track you on pretty much every click you take.

dpwm 9y ago

There are many situations, think university or corporate networks, where you cannot rely on the IP address for tracking. There are ISPs that don't have enough IP addresses for users so they many-to-one NAT them and most users won't even notice. Even behind an ISP or corporate NAT with cookies disabled, there are other ways of tracking. If JavaScript is enabled, browser fingerprinting can be very disturbing in its ability to single you out, depending on your configuration. More generally, I always found this obsession with tracking non-users one of the creepier aspects of Facebook when I finally used it circa 2011 - 2012. The amount of information it had about me that could only have come from web browsing before I had signed up, such as local takeaways and restaurants I had used, was impressive but unnerving.

koolba 9y ago
Less so on a corporate network ad the vast majority of the machines are running the exact same build, plugin sets, and usually hardware too.

shaki-dora 9y ago

What do mean? Isn’t this verdict a pretty good example of how the law actually is enforceable? For Facebook to lie in such a lawsuit would require hundreds of their employees being willing to lie under oath. It just doesn’t make sense, considering they would risk harsh criminal sanctions and have only their usual salary as an upside. As for IP-based tracking: if it were as effective as cookies, websites would use IPs and not cookies.

John_KZ 9y ago
>For Facebook to lie in such a lawsuit would require hundreds of their employees being willing to lie under oath. Actually it would only require a handful of people hiding the truth. Given how most of facebook's development is done in the US and not in Belgium, they won't even have to appear in court. Also IP-based tracking is very effective, and it's used alongside cookies. Nothing beats cookies with Javascript, but IP will do just fine, especially for companies like Facebook and Google who can track you on pretty much every click you take.