3 ms·

You can't meaningfully opt out of Facebook/Google/etc. They're embedded in tons of websites, and your friends will almost certainly give your information to tho

You can't meaningfully opt out of Facebook/Google/etc. They're embedded in tons of websites, and your friends will almost certainly give your information to those companies.

andy_ppp 8y ago
And they fingerprint and track you regardless of you having an account!
efsavage 8y ago
You can block trackers pretty easily, or just not visit those websites. You'll probably be a happier person if you just don't visit foo.com than spending any portion of your brief time on Earth trying to trick an ML model into thinking you're a single mother from Lithuania. Also, if your friend gives someone else information about you, do you expect that you should be able to control it? I'm pretty sure many of the details of my life appear in other people's emails, voicemails, journals, etc. that will never have a "forget me" button. I'm mainly suggesting that there are lots of ways to improve this situation, from market forces to legislation, and it's sad to see people wasting time on things that won't work.
- JohnFen 8y ago
  > You can block trackers pretty easily, or just not visit those websites. And since they're buying data from non-internet data brokers such as credit card companies, retailers that track you in their stores, etc., blocking the trackers and avoiding the websites doesn't actually stop the spying. To stop them from spying on you pretty much requires that you stop engaging in large swaths of real-world society.
ams6110 8y ago
You can choose to not use Facebook and Google services, and you can use ad/tracker blocking browser plugins, and null their domains in your /etc/hosts file. That would deny about 98% of their activity as far as you are concerned. You can't really control what your friends are telling them about you though. Personally, I've just about opted out of the entire internet except for work, email, and a few web sites that I read regularly. The flotsam is just too thick to be worth the bother.

You can't meaningfully opt out of Facebook/Google/etc. They're embedded in tons of websites, and your friends will almost certainly give your information to those companies.

andy_ppp 8y ago

And they fingerprint and track you regardless of you having an account!

efsavage 8y ago

You can block trackers pretty easily, or just not visit those websites. You'll probably be a happier person if you just don't visit foo.com than spending any portion of your brief time on Earth trying to trick an ML model into thinking you're a single mother from Lithuania. Also, if your friend gives someone else information about you, do you expect that you should be able to control it? I'm pretty sure many of the details of my life appear in other people's emails, voicemails, journals, etc. that will never have a "forget me" button. I'm mainly suggesting that there are lots of ways to improve this situation, from market forces to legislation, and it's sad to see people wasting time on things that won't work.

JohnFen 8y ago
> You can block trackers pretty easily, or just not visit those websites. And since they're buying data from non-internet data brokers such as credit card companies, retailers that track you in their stores, etc., blocking the trackers and avoiding the websites doesn't actually stop the spying. To stop them from spying on you pretty much requires that you stop engaging in large swaths of real-world society.

ams6110 8y ago

You can choose to not use Facebook and Google services, and you can use ad/tracker blocking browser plugins, and null their domains in your /etc/hosts file. That would deny about 98% of their activity as far as you are concerned. You can't really control what your friends are telling them about you though. Personally, I've just about opted out of the entire internet except for work, email, and a few web sites that I read regularly. The flotsam is just too thick to be worth the bother.