24 ms·

Off-Facebook activity

710 points by bigbaguette 7y ago

wukerplank 7y ago
Wow that's creepy. It lists apps where a) I didn't use FB login/signup and b) used a different email address to sign up. How do they cross-reference that to me? Hand how can I prevent that outside of their tools (which I assume still violate my privacy)?
- randomchars 7y ago
  I think they either: - use Facebook pixel tracking on the site. - hand over all of their user's email addresses to use for audience building. Or most likely both. Creepy stuff indeed.
  - edf13 7y ago
    Yep - all of above.... 690 App/Sites for me! Not overly surprising really
  - StavrosK 7y ago
    I use uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger on my desktop and phone, as well as Blokada, and yet Facebook still had a bunch of app activity even though I never ever sign in to stuff using FB (or even gave the apps my email or any other piece of personal data). I literally just opened the app, granted no permissions, used it a bit, and Facebook associated it with my account. What the fuck.
    - the_snooze 7y ago
      They could be associating you server-side using persistent identifiers on your phone. For example, if an app has the Facebook SDK, it could send your IMEI to Facebook. Then, if you have a first-party Facebook app like Messenger, that too can send your IMEI to Facebook and link it back to your Facebook account.
- hobofan 7y ago
  I'm pretty sure that 95% from the activity that is listed for me comes from the Facebook tracking pixel, that every website has to embed if they want to (effectively) advertise on Facebook.
- subaru_shoe 7y ago
  For starters you can delete your facebook account .
  - wukerplank 7y ago
    Fair point!
  - avh02 7y ago
    I don't think that'd really be true, since they'd just have it stored in the background without you having a FB account (and wouldn't have the ability to see how bad it is) not saying that's worth having an account though.
  - crashbunny 7y ago
    does that stop facebook from collecting data about you? I didn't think it did, and because you don't have an account it's not, or at least wasn't possible to control any privacy settings.
    - smichel17 7y ago
      Technically, no. Legally, it means you haven't accepted their terms of service, so if/when (I hope) the political privacy landscape changes, it'll be more likely that you can sue, report a violation, request deletion, (or maybe they'd even preemptively delete it to cover their tracks / come into compliance with new laws).
    - Corrado 7y ago
      That's an interesting thought. I've removed (deleted?) my Facebook account several months ago. Maybe I should have kept it around in order to manage it.
  - fretn 7y ago
    which I did a couple of years ago. Now I have no idea what they know about me. I use adblock and friends, but I wonder how much data about me they still manage to gather
  - 7y ago
- akie 7y ago
  What you can do to prevent this is: 1) Install https://www.eff.org/privacybadger https://www.eff.org/privacybadger to prevent trackers from being loaded 2) Install https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-autodelete/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-autode... to delete any cookies you might have accepted after a week time or so, which prevents the infinite gobbling-up of your data after innocently accepting a cookie once 3) Install the Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon containers to "separate" your browsing with these sites from the rest of your browsing. Links: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-cont... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/twitter-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/twitter-conta... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-contai... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/amazon-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/amazon-contai... Also, if you are creeped out by this, just imagine the amount of data Google has on you. I'm convinced they have way more, just by virtue of every website having Google Analytics installed.
  - crashbunny 7y ago
    Even before firefox containers, I used a dedicated profile for facebook only as well as using privacy badger and ublock origin. Facebook still collected data about me from external sites. I think mainly through my phone, possibly through linking phone number or email addresses.
  - adriand 7y ago
    I found a mere four items in my activity list, all from several months ago, probably when I mistakenly used the wrong container or had uBlock turned off. It's nice to see all my anti-tracking software is working!
  - cmroanirgo 7y ago
    I use Firefox Containers to limit and logged in FB activity to that & never log in using FB other than FB website itself. I have no FB apps (including WhatsApp). I've been running uMatrix for a few months. My firefox tracking-prevention (similar to EFF's one, but probably not as good) is always using maximum privacy settings. I still have a few sites appear... AND for websites I've never even visited (that I'm aware of, & I'm the only user of this machine) There seems to be some serious fingerprinting going on, more than simple cookies.
- fyfy18 7y ago
  As an EU "customer" I'm rather surprised by this. There are services that I've signed up to since GDPR came into effect which I didn't get explicitly consent to do this. For example my business bank. Why would I give them permission to share data with my personal Facebook account? I will be digging into this more.
  - xg15 7y ago
    Sounds like the activities view could be some good evidence to give to a data protection commissioner.
- stiray 7y ago
  By far the worst thing are android phone applications (not only FB official app). They have their spyware bundled and can slurp from you the data which are normally unaccessible by web browser, from phone number, imei, mail addresses to all your contacts and there is almost nothing you can do except installing vpn based firewall (like NetGuard) and block all access and add permissions one by one for each url. This should just be illegal.
  - throwawaylolx 7y ago
    How can phone apps with no permissions get my phone number? > except installing vpn based firewall So they can send the data instead?
    - stiray 7y ago
      From your friends :) Or you will allow it. To use it. On the other side you can at least control that the common advertisers wont get it (like fb). For everything else get root and xposed + xprivacy. But for most users that is too much. I just gave the easiest advice. I am running microg lineage, xprivacy lua and netguard. But I wonder was this as advice worth the letters used? ;) Will someone go trough the trouble to use it? To replace the rom, install everything, run everything in block mode and allow only what is really needed, like connection to my own mail server? My own ssh tunnel? Probably not. And then comes the master villan, google. How many will remove that one from the phone? Waste of words, right? Anyway even netguard is far better than nothing, most apps dont need their own servers. And the largest data slurpers are known. For fb just block all fb domains.
- joshspankit 7y ago
  Other commenters seem to have missed what you’re really saying here. I’m on iPhone, and see apps listed where: - I’ve never logged in on the web - I’ve never clicked to open a link in a browser on-device - Used a phone number to sign up that’s not associated with my fb account - Didn’t use email at all
- cpv 7y ago
  Some chat apps (like Viber and others) have Facebook SDK integrated in them, without any direct Facebook functionality people would use. Discovered after using NetgGuard, and seeing who is calling home, and not only home. (Why viber is making requests to graph.facebook.com anyway?) Duolingo is a nice app for learning new languages, yet it might be using the same sdk, since it likes to call facebook.com domain. Netflix is a good streaming service, but it has some option somewhere, which allows them to share data with others, and enabled by default. And yes, it's present in fb activity. The list can go on... There are developers who integrate dozens of SDKs, without any specific purpose for users, and not knowing what is happening. We need something like PrivacyBadger/ublockorigin for phones/laptops/routers/homes/cars. It's getting more than creepy. And why would Facebook allow third-parties/businesses upload into FB info they have on their customers... PS: analysis of how a simple menstrual tracking app is leaking data about the owner https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10693-no_body_s_business_but_mine_a_dive_into_menstruation_apps https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10693-no_body_s_business_but_min...
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
m1 7y ago
A bit weird that my Monzo seems to be sending data to Facebook?
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  Could you say more or provide a screenshot? I’m very curious and concerned about this.
  - m1 7y ago
    It just says <number> interactions were received from Monzo.
  - peteretep 7y ago
    For Revolut, I have many many entries like: ID 894103617218109 Event CUSTOM Received on 13 November 2019 at 09:51 The only event is "CUSTOM".
    - benhurmarcel 7y ago
      I use Revolut but my page is empty. I imagine it's because I don't have the Facebook nor Messenger apps installed on my phone.
      - petargyurov 7y ago
        Same here. I suspect most of the commenters on this post that are confused about how their data got acquired have the FB app and/or Messenger installed on their phones. I also suspect that soon Whatsapp will be doing the same sinister activity tracking once they go ahead with their plan to introduce ads later this year.
- pirocks 7y ago
  As far as I can tell almost every bank with an app is sending your email/advertising id/name/etc. to Facebook(+ other surveillance companies).
chrisjamesc 7y ago
If you want to disable facebook tracking out of facebook in the future, it's possible on this link: https://www.facebook.com/off_facebook_activity/future_activity https://www.facebook.com/off_facebook_activity/future_activi... EDIT: the link doesn't seem to work, so you can click on "Manage Future Activity" => "Manage Future Activity" in the popup => Disable "Future Off-Facebook Activity"
- jannes 7y ago
  You might not want to disable this completely, because it can be a useful tool to identify data leaks (similar to Troy Hunt's haveibeenpwned.com). My off-Facebook activity had zero entries and I want to keep it that way. If they ever associate something with me I want to be alerted to the fact.
  - dabbledash 7y ago
    Mine had exactly one entry. And I won’t be doing business with that company anymore. No way am I disabling this. It’s too useful.
- Vinnl 7y ago
  One warning it gives me: > We will still receive future activities from companies and organisations you visit. These might be used for analytics and to improve our advertising systems, but will not be connected to your account. (Translated from Dutch because for some reason Facebook figured I'd want this particular message in Dutch.)
  - bobsoap 7y ago
    Extrapolation: "Account" here means the Facebook account created by you and visible to you; probably distinct from "Profile" in their lingo, which is all the data they have on you, of which most is invisible to you. If this is true, that's not an opt-out for data collection, just a choice to keep that info from showing in your account while merrily continuing to build your profile.
  - joshspankit 7y ago
kpozin 7y ago
In my profile, they managed to obtain a `PURCHASE` event from Macy's -- for an in-person purchase at a physical store. Macy's has my email address and certainly linked it to my credit card number, but this is nonetheless seriously creepy. I just tried to change my email address on Facebook and discovered that they canonicalize plus and dot variations in gmail.com addresses, and thus claim that the new email address is already associated with an account. Ended up having to create a completely new email alias on my own domain.
- fabiandesimone 7y ago
  This is likely based on an Offline Conversion which advertisers can bulk upload to FB
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- hatenberg 7y ago
  Google has long bought credit card transactions and so probably have dozens of others. The root cause is that they are allowed to be sold
  - chippy 7y ago
    are credit cards different from debit cards in this regard? Do some credit cards not sell your transactions?
    - LeifCarrotson 7y ago
      No, if it's data they can collect it's data they can sell. Can't sell cash transactions yet!
      - Shish2k 7y ago
        Unless you use a loyalty card at the same time ;)
      - 7y ago
wrdalex 7y ago
Revolut is sending data to them, too. 202 interactions for my account.
- klausjensen 7y ago
  That one surprised me as well.
  - Kiro 7y ago
    Why is it surprising?
    - wrdalex 7y ago
      Because Revolut is the only fintech/banking app that is actually on the list. I do have other 3 banking applications installed on my phone that I regularly use + N26 (another fintech) -- none of these are in the data sharing list.
- wasmitnetzen 7y ago
  And the last date they received information about me according to Facebook is the last date I used the app. Revolut mentions "Analytics providers" in their privacy policy as companies they are sharing my data with.
  - wrdalex 7y ago
    For me it seems there is a 3-day difference between the last time I've used the app (today) and the last time they shared data with facebook.
    - throwawaylolx 7y ago
      >The summary doesn't contain your most recent activity. It may take a few days for your activity to show in your off-Facebook activity. The dates in your activity summary are when we received the activity. https://www.facebook.com/help/2207256696182627 https://www.facebook.com/help/2207256696182627
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
jannes 7y ago
My off-facebook activity was empty. That's encouraging, because it looks like my countermeasures have been working: - Fingerprinting resistance in Firefox (privacy.resistFingerprinting = true) - First-party isolation in Firefox (privacy.firstparty.isolate = true) - Blocking third-party cookies in Firefox (network.cookie.cookieBehavior = 1) - Firefox container when I need to login to ad/tracking companies (Facebook, Google) - uBlock Origin - Cookie AutoDelete - PiHole on my home network
- onreact 7y ago
  I don't think they will tell you the whole truth. It's just like with Google history you can "delete". They have the data stored for the authorities anyway. They are required to do it by law (Patriot Act etc.)
  - throwawaylolx 7y ago
    > I don't think they will tell you the whole truth. This is true: >We receive more details and activity than what appears in your off-Facebook activity. For technical and accuracy reasons, we don’t show all the activity we’ve received. This includes things like information we’ve received when you’re not logged into Facebook, or when we can’t confirm that you’ve previously used Facebook on that device. We also don’t show details like the item you’ve added to your shopping cart. https://www.facebook.com/help/2207256696182627 https://www.facebook.com/help/2207256696182627
    - jannes 7y ago
      Thanks for that link. Looks like the infamous "ghost profiles" are officially confirmed now. I wish they would show the ghost profiles as well, but since it's not linked with 100% confidence they are probably not allowing it because it could be a privacy violation if it turns out that the link was incorrect (i.e. they showed a ghost profile to the wrong user).
      - gvjddbnvdrbv 7y ago
Infinitesimus 7y ago
Apparently Blind made the list. So much for 'anonymous'
pmlnr 7y ago
"just must log in to read this" Can someone please share it?
- cmroanirgo 7y ago
  It's a page for people with an account at FB that lists the 3rd party websites that have given information to FB. > Off-Facebook activity includes information that businesses and organisations share with us about your interactions with them, such as visiting their apps or websites. It's creepy. > We receive more details and activity than what appears here. For technical and accuracy reasons, this list doesn't show all of the activity that we've received. Activity that is not shown includes information that we've received when you're not logged in to Facebook, or when we can't confirm that you've previously used Facebook on that device. It also includes details such as the item that you added to your shopping basket.
alien1993 7y ago
Seems like most of my data they got from apps on my Android phone, there was even an app that I just installed, opened and uninstalled in less then a minute without even logging in or anything. How can I block them in the future?
- rkachowski 7y ago
  set the "limit ad tracking" feature on your phone at the os level and the advertising id will become unavailable to everything. On Android this is Settings > Privacy > Advanced > Opt out
CreepyLife 7y ago
If Google and Facebook is ready to "show" these data, I wonder what and how much data they are hiding.
- WA 7y ago
  Good point. I also wonder what the motivation behind this tool is. Furthermore, I don't understand how any of this is GDPR-compliant.
  - sumedh 7y ago
    > Good point. I also wonder what the motivation behind this tool is. Probably to tell regulators and politicians that "transparency is in our dna" we design tools to help users know who is interacting with their data
  - rypskar 7y ago
    INAL but will guess it is to make facebook GDPR-compliant. They show the data they have about us, but don't know if the apps that send the data to fb have used opt-in to enable sending data to fb. Maybe time to start writing emails to the companies who have uploaded our information without consent?
pjc50 7y ago
Hmm. I have no website activity listed - but seemingly every single Android game and a few other apps is sending "activity" to FB, despite me never using any feature to associate the two. This sounds like: https://privacyinternational.org/report/2647/how-apps-android-share-data-facebook-report https://privacyinternational.org/report/2647/how-apps-androi... Any sensible way of stopping this?
- afandian 7y ago
  Realise that you don't really need those android apps, or the google or facebook account. The utility and entertainment you get is half of surveillance capitalism ecosystem, and the other half is that they compile all this information about you. I know it sounds preachy and it's not a conclusion most people will like. But, like fasting, going without something you like but don't really need does help you focus on what you really do need.
  - pjc50 7y ago
    I don't actually care all that much and I like my luxuries. Do I "need" the Google account? No. Do I want to tell every person and business currently using it that I've changed email? Also no, that's a huge amount of work. Likewise for facebook, which is now down to once-a-day-ish use for coordination with a specific group of people whom I do not want to do the work of moving all of them off Facebook too.
    - afandian 7y ago
      Yeah, I make similar trade-offs. The sunk cost of a few TV shows purchses keep me from closing my Google account. But I won't let it anywhere near my phone. I think the process of honestly asking the question is more useful than the actual answer. Life & society is full of compromises.
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  Blocking the entire Facebook ASN at the firewall/network level stops this. Google is a bit more tricky as they also have GCP so you can’t block their ASN without also blocking innocent services.
feintruled 7y ago
Deliveroo has evidently been sending them all my orders. Or at least, there are as many 'interactions' as I have made orders. I don't log in via my Facebook so that is an unwelcome surprise.
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  Yeah that is insane especially for a paid product.
- lprd 7y ago
  Same here. I had to recollect if I even signed up with Facebook. After checking my Deliveroo settings, it seems that my FB account isn't even connected. This is insane...
  - culturestate 7y ago
    Do you use the same e-mail address for both Deliveroo and Facebook? If so, that could be how they matched you. Facebook lets businesses create custom retargeting audiences[1] from existing customers, and you can (obviously) include interaction data in order to segment e.g. frequent customers from occasional customers. 1. https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1472206006327390 https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1472206006327390
    - feintruled 7y ago
      I suppose that would explain it. I can't see what Deliveroo get out of it though, and how they might expect Facebook to have a better handle on what sort of food I would order and how often as opposed to Deliveroo themselves, who know. I wonder if they have plans for service expansion into "Deliveroo but for X" and want to see what their customers are into. Or perhaps they want to see if I am two-timing them with Just Eat! Funny, I now remember reading a post from someone claiming that if they ordered an online grocery shop off a company that was not their usual, like magic a voucher would appear from their original company. I assumed this was coincidence, but this is the exact mechanism that such a thing could happen. Of course this could also just be a manifestation of the trend of companies desiring data for data's sake, and a load of deliveroo managers are sitting in a meeting somewhere looking at a graph showing an intersection of people who are into retro computing and also like burritos and trying to brainstorm some strategy off such trivia.
dannyr 7y ago
Man I feel hopeless. I have not connected my Facebook account for over 90% of these sites/apps but they still sent my data to Facebook.
- StavrosK 7y ago
  Same here. At least you can just turn it off on this page, and hopefully that will do something.
  - dannyr 7y ago
    Is is too late to change my email address on Facebook? I'm assuming Facebook keeps a history of my email addresses that it can still associate it to my account. Another option is to change all my email address at these sites.
    - StavrosK 7y ago
      It's not even that (though it might be part of it), I use a different email address per site (sitename@mydomain.com).
    - jasonjayr 7y ago
      I have an address unique to facebook, and they still managed to associate it with some stores.
    - throwawaylolx 7y ago
      >I'm assuming Facebook keeps a history of my email addresses that it can still associate it to my account. This is true: if you download your Facebook information file, you'll see it stores all the previous emails as well as all the previous IPs used.
- afandian 7y ago
  Do you have the option to stop using those sites or using those vendors? At least now you have more data on the externalities of using each service.
kjakm 7y ago
What are the best ways to protect against this kind of tracking? I would argue it's probably better to keep a Facebook account so you can see what they're tracking and work to prevent it. In my browser I'm running uBlock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere, and Privacy Badger. I'm guessing those will help quite a lot. However on an iPhone what can I do (as that's where a lot of this data seems to be coming from)?
- jannes 7y ago
  Keep in mind that Facebook probably has a few unique identifiers from you apart from browser cookies: - Email address - Cell phone number (even if you only used it for 2FA) - Credit card number (if you ever made a donation via Facebook or bought digital currency in a Facebook game) - Advertising ID of your mobile device (can be reset in Android as well as iOS) In order to avoid tracking, you have to make sure that none of these are known to Facebook and to other companies.
SCdF 7y ago
There is nothing on this page I was not aware of and intentionally linked (e.g. Strava). So does this mean I am successfully stopping them from tracking websites I visit via tracking pixels / IP mapping / whatever other nefarious shit they do, or are they just not showing this information here?
gingerlime 7y ago
Is it just me, or is there no way to download activity details? I click on an activity, then there's a few examples and a link to download, but this leads to a generic "Download your information" page and I cannot see an entry for the app or off-facebook specifically... How can I block it? some apps are on my iPhone, but I don't have the Facebook app on it (I do have messenger), and only used the apps on the phone. Aren't they isolated in some way?
- orhanhh 7y ago
  For downloading the data there is an option to download "Ads and Businesses" under "Information About You". I just downloaded it, and it includes all data that was shared. However, the data only shows the source, timestamp and activity ID. The actual event data is not included..
padraic7a 7y ago
One thing I'm not clear on - when I click on Coinbase (just one example) I see the following under 'What you can do'; - View coinbase.com - Turn off future activity from coinbase.com - Give feedback about this activity Does 'turn off' mean they won't share this information again, or that I won't be told about it again?
- lioeters 7y ago
  I believe the vague wording is intentional, so they can just stop displaying it to you, while continuing to collect the data. It's like how "delete account" works.
  - loxs 7y ago
    It's not that vague, if you do click to disable you are taken to page that words it quite directly.
    - lioeters 7y ago
      OK, maybe "misleading" is more suitable.. :)
robteix 7y ago
Literally the first result in the list of companies that shared data about me with FB is my pharmacy. My pharmacy! That's just... wrong.
xyby 7y ago
I am in Europe, so by law (GDPR) I have the right to make them delete all of this data. How do I do so? Also, I never consented to this being collected. How can their practice of collecting this type of data be GDPR compliant?
- wasmitnetzen 7y ago
  You can disable to storage of this data on the linked page. But I'd recommend going to the source: Read the privacy policy of each party delivering data and check if they mention it. I already sent a mail to the DPO of an app provider which shows up in this list and doesn't mentions Facebook in their privacy policy.
  - xyby 7y ago
    Even if the app had it in their privacy policy, that would not mean it is legal to send your data to Facebook. GDPR requires the users consent to do so. Having a statement in a privacy policy is imho not enough to qualify as consent.
- papln 7y ago
  I'm not anyone's lawyer. These are questions, not answers: GDPR is about collecting data from you, right? If Site X is sending data about you to Facebook, perhaps that's an issue with Site X's GDPR compliance, not Facebook's?
Santosh83 7y ago
I apparently have no records of off-Facebook activity. This is probably because of blocking all 3rd-party cookies and enabling the blocking of social media trackers in both uBlock as well as that built into Firefox.
Hoasi 7y ago
> You must log in to continue. Nah, I will pass.
- croon 7y ago
  I couldn't open the link either. I have only the URL to go on, but the irony is... glaring.
Jaruzel 7y ago
I don't use Facebook, but I do use Messenger as I have a couple of close family members who refuse to use anything else. I've just logged into Facebook (which has no history as I've purged it[1]), and still there are 5 apps sharing my activity with Facebook. These 5 apps are all on my phone, so I guess Messenger is also sharing back to FB. :( --- [1] Shameless plug: https://github.com/Jaruzel/DeleteFacebookActivity https://github.com/Jaruzel/DeleteFacebookActivity [Cross-posted from the other thread]
eivarv 7y ago
I can't believe that this stuff is acceptible, or even legal. The fact that you're tracked off-Facebook (for instance), even if you're not logged in or on Facebook is not just creepy, but borderline abusive.
- vinaypai 7y ago
  Congratulations, of all the people who have responded with outrage on this thread, you are the only person I've found that has a website listed that DOESN'T run Google Analytics or some other third party analytics platform.
  - eivarv 7y ago
    Thanks, but what value does your appeal to people's hypocracy bring to this discussion?
    - vinaypai 7y ago
      https://xkcd.com/386/ https://xkcd.com/386/
      - eivarv 7y ago
        Point is, though, someone being hypocritical doesn't make their argument wrong - claiming that it does is a fallacy [0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque
tallgiraffe 7y ago
In case of Facebook, one has to wonder, is this a move towards consumer privacy, or a way for Facebook to clear cache so they could build a more up to date profile of you.
milankragujevic 7y ago
Apparently my website is complicit in this... I'm disgusted with and ashamed of myself. https://i.imgur.com/Wz7O8HU.png https://i.imgur.com/Wz7O8HU.png Edit: typo complacenet to complicit, thanks Zarel.
- Zarel 7y ago
  (I think you wanted to use "complicit") Please update us as to how this happened!
  - milankragujevic 7y ago
    I think I have a pixel on there for some reason? I don't recall why I put it there. It really does hurt when you see how awful your own behaviour is, i.e. by spying on users. I'm sorry everyone!
- Jupe 7y ago
  You mean you didn't know this would happen by adding something (script, tracker, pixel, etc.) to your site, or you don't have a root cause as to why your own site is sending data to FB?
  - milankragujevic 7y ago
    I didn't assume that Facebook would explicitly connect this information with the visitors in this way. I don't remember WHY I added the pixel but I did add it. I need to get rid of these things, and Disqus. I was probably trying to do some research on visitor demographics, which presumably failed.
    - Jupe 7y ago
      Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying. I'm working on a site rn, and hope to make it "ad-ethical" (if such a thing is possible any more).
    - KajMagnus 7y ago
      > I need to get rid of these things, and Disqus There're open source track free comments: https://www.discourse.org/ https://www.discourse.org/ https://commento.io/ https://commento.io/ https://www.talkyard.io/blog-comments https://www.talkyard.io/blog-comments All of them are equally ads and tracking free, and have optional paid hosting services (if you don't want to self host). I'm developing the last one, Talkyard.
Nextgrid 7y ago
It would be good to name and shame every vendor that shares data with Facebook and have them in a searchable list, so people can check before engaging with them.
joshspankit 7y ago
Anyone else thrown off that “Download Activity Details” (which seems to be the only way you can find out what interaction was sent) leads to the main Download Your Information page, and not to anything specific to that app or that interaction?
thegeekbin 7y ago
Clearly I need to step it up. I was (unsurprisingly) surprised at what I've observed they've managed to correlate. I run standard pi-hole, resist fingerprinting, and normally go through a VPN (mainly because I'm on public wifi half the time when travelling). I haven't logged into facebook in about four years, just did it for the first time today to see what's been correlated. Aside the mountain of irrelevant notifications, here's what I've observed in this report that's concerning. 1. Albeit some data has been correlated properly (banking applications which is scary on it's own part it's sending data to facebook, imgur, Xbox, my telco provider, and a few misc blogs I've visited a handful of times per year), it's correlated a significant amount of data that may not belong to me (good thing, I suppose?) 2. Why the heck are banking applications sending data to Facebook as "CUSTOM", with no context? For example, RBC bank in Canada sends "CUSTOM" data (haven't been with them for over two years, but all interacts labelled CUSTOM) and Facebook will not give any more context on the exact data it received. Little scummy, Facebook. Well, time to sweep this up and resist tracking more. Let's see how it works this time round.
- monkeynotes 7y ago
  When you say `interact[s]` you mean interactions right? Not interact transfers?
- xfalcox 7y ago
  You will want to use Firefox containers in order to isolate the Facebook cookie into a container to limit this.
  - ocdtrekkie 7y ago
    I use Facebook container and most of the sites reporting should've never even seen my Facebook account. However, many of these sites have my email address. I highly suspect they're correlating data without knowing my Facebook account itself.
    - untog 7y ago
      They definitely do for advertising, at least. You can click “why am I seeing this” it’ll tell you as much.
throwawaylolx 7y ago
Is there an equivalent Off-Facebook for Google?
- dutchCourage 7y ago
  There is, and it's equally creepy: https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity
  - throwawaylolx 7y ago
    This is only information related to Google services or approved third-party apps, no? I was hoping there was a service showing what apps communicated with my Goolge account without any explicit notification or permission.
    - papln 7y ago
      Here's what Google says. Ask your lawyer if you want to know what it means. https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/54068?p=web_app_activity https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/54068?p=web_app_... When Web & App Activity is on, you can include additional activity like: * Sites and apps that partner with Google to show ads * Sites and apps that use Google services, including data that apps share with Google * Your Chrome browsing history
deleted 7y ago
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avip 7y ago
I was asked to "sign in" to "facebook" therefore I have no idea what this post is about. (seriously, concerned citizens should consider browsing fb incognito and never stay signed-in)
- AlexandrB 7y ago
  I agree with this advice. I treat facebook.com like a warez site from the 90s: actively hostile. So far only off-site activity tracking came from AirBnB.
Doctor_Fegg 7y ago
Four days before the UK general election, Facebook apparently "received activity" relating to me from an anonymous, icon-less organisation with a cryptic name, who appear to be completely un-googleable. Well, that's reassuring.
- gatherhunterer 7y ago
  Nice FUD there. > icon-less organisation with a cryptic name Oh my god what if they're foreign? Isn't it terrifying to think about foreigners? Better take that fear into the voting booth with you.
  - Doctor_Fegg 7y ago
    Er, what? Where did I mention anything about them being foreign?
- apetresc 7y ago
  I honestly can't tell what you're trying to insinuate. What exactly is this nefarious activity log doing that relates to the general election?
chinathrow 7y ago
That's so funny that they come up with this page these days. "We receive Jane's off-Facebook activity and we save it with her Facebook account. The activity is saved as "visited the Clothes and Shoes website" and "made a purchase"." I downloaded my data before, and never have I seen what exactly the listed companies sent to FB. I have a list of just a few companies (mainly by using a different email address for FB only) but still, I have no idea what these companies sent to FB about me. Edit: I found the data now - it's now available for export.
stonedge 7y ago
Allegedly, I ditched my Facebook account years ago. Not just deactivated but delete, though I don’t really believe it. Is there anyway to see what’s in this (or to see if my account really is gone) without accidentally re-upping?
- hughes 7y ago
  I had deactivated my account about a year ago. I tried logging in to view this page, and it reactivated everything immediately. Also, it has clearly been linking a vast quantity of off-facebook activity despite my account being deactivated.
  - hellofunk 7y ago
    Facebook provides two different options, one is deactivation and the other one is deleting. They are not the same thing. If you merely deactivated it, then your account never was deleted.
- metachris 7y ago
  Depending on your location, but you could do a GDPR Data Subject Request (DSR)
  - Nextgrid 7y ago
    Facebook doesn't really comply with the GDPR. The data displayed on this new page wasn't part of their data export and I'm sure is still not part of it. Here's an example to what extents they will go in order to not give you what you're entitled to by law: https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/ https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/ In fact, if they were GDPR compliant, they wouldn't be collecting this data in the first place.
- zrobotics 7y ago
  I had followed a guide in ~2010 to delete my account (since the magic incantations to delete your account at that point were really obscure). I was told via email that my account would be deleted a certain amount of time (90 days IIRC); I got curious in 2015 and logged back in. I was not terribly surprised to find that I could log back into the account and all my old data was still there. They may actually delete accounts now, but this certainly hasn't always been true.
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code4tee 7y ago
Clearly they’ve come to the realization that they either do this voluntarily or future regulation will force them to do it. The beginning of the end of hyper-targeted online advertising has started.
qu4ku 7y ago
Nowhere to hide. Just a few days ago I wanted to research some nasty disease and I used brave on TOR to watch some stuff about it on YT. First thing after I opened FB was a clinical laboratory tests adv.
ivyirwin 7y ago
My first reaction to this was to be creeped out. Even being in the industry how did all of these sites (560) have data about me that they were willingly sending to Facebook without my permission. And while I have a Facebook account, I am not a Facebook user – as in I've logged in twice in the last year to see a neighborhood post or the like. But then I went from creeped out to oh shit as sites I run were on the list. The way Facebook puts it, these businesses are actively sharing data with Facebook for the businesses benefit. But as a developer who has been asked to put a pixel on a site many times, I have to rethink the data exchange here. Obviously the sites are not getting the benefit that Facebook is receiving from everyone piping in data – often unknowingly.
- papln 7y ago
  > Obviously the sites are not getting the benefit How is that obvious? Surely sites would eventually stop going through the extra effort to maintain trackers if they didn't get a benefit?
king_magic 7y ago
Real nice that there is no bulk turn-off feature. Giant pain to click through a few hundred sites to block future activity. But I suppose that's the point, right? To make it as difficult as possible for users to block this kind of oh-shit creepy behavior.
- loxs 7y ago
  There is not turn-off at all. If you read carefully you will see that they will still collect the data, just that they "promise" won't assign it to you. Yeah right :)
heinrichhartman 7y ago
What is this? I only get a login prompt. I don't have a fb account. Would s/o mind explaining what this is all about.
nerdjon 7y ago
The fact that they have information about apps that I specifically chose to not link to facebook for variety of reasons... Including one specific app that they have 356 interactions from that I really do not want associated with my facebook account. Looks like I am going to be spending the next couple of days digging through the report I just generated. When this is all server side is the only option to make an email that is only for facebook and hope they can't link data any other way?
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  The fault is half on Facebook but also half on the providers & services sending the data to Facebook. The Facebook SDK or tracking pixel doesn't magically embed itself into apps or websites, it's still up to the developer to include this. I suggest stopping doing business with that vendor and letting them know why.
vinaypai 7y ago
I realize this is an unpopular opinion around here... but can anyone explain how they have actually been harmed by this? Like for real not in abstract notions of "creepiness" or whatever. I, for one with Facebook actually figured how to do something useful with that data and not be that raw sewage stream that basically led to stop logging in.
- elicash 7y ago
  My particular issues are different from most people here. The biggest impact, for me, is that the dominance of Google and Facebook based on having access to this data for the general population has led to worse advertising revenue for the news industry and some of my favorite websites. That has caused some of them to rely on memberships and paywalls. I also don't appreciate that the money that they've accrued due to their dominance as a result of data like this has led to undue political influence. That comes at the expense, I believe, of voters (and I'm one of them). I don't think that power is healthy for a democracy, generally. I believe this about non-tech companies, too, so I wouldn't suggest anybody just pick on this industry. This isn't to say that I'm not concerned about privacy. It's only to say that IF YOU AREN'T, then there are other reasons to root for people to have transparency around how their data gets passed around.
  - vinaypai 7y ago
    I for one much prefer paywalls. I'd rather be the customer than the product.
    - elicash 7y ago
      My issue isn't that I don't want to pay the paywall -- it's that because people broadly don't prefer paywalls that relying on them rather than a thriving online ad business means they can't hire more reporters, video people, data folks, etc. So at the end of the day, it means I don't get to enjoy as much quality content from the publications that I love. In my view, I end up with the best content when advertisers aren't going to one or two central places for their ad buys online. I'm actually an advertiser, myself (as just one part of my job). And I certainly know how my own buying practices have shifted over the past 14 years to now be 100% focused on FB/Google. Some of the Google money trickles down to other publications, and certainly this makes my job easier, but I don't think it's a good thing as somebody who also loves reading online.
HelloFellowDevs 7y ago
Kinda surprised how many interactions I've had tracked from my visits to Home Depot, I've only recently started stopping by there in the past year or so. What data could they have possibly even used? Sell me more cardboard moving boxes? Plant supplies?
- Jupe 7y ago
  You'd be surprised... Both are multi-billion-dollar industries: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/cardboard-box-container-market https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/cardboar... https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/nursery-garden-stores-industry/ https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-repo...
- RandallBrown 7y ago
  I imagine they use the information of what you bought in the store to target ads for things you might want. If you went there to buy moving boxes, they might show you ads for paint or other things someone who just moved might want.
DannyB2 7y ago
I clicked the link and was told I needed to log into Facebook to continue. Is it necessary to have a FB account in order to read TFA?
- Lewton 7y ago
  It's not an article, it's a link to an overview of all the "off-facebook activity" data that facebook has gathered on your (the logged in) profile
kirillzubovsky 7y ago
When is Facebook's next investor call? The number of newly active users (who showed up for this) is going through the roof!
deleted 7y ago
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Pxtl 7y ago
... wow. You know, you hear about tracking cookies but it's a whole other thing to see it staring you in the face. What's the most shocking is how small so many of these entries are. Like, there's a local children's day-camp and sports facility that I send my kids to on P.A. days on the list. And a local politician's page.
Pxtl 7y ago
... html/js allowing requests to domains other than the one in my URL bar was a mistake.
sequoia 7y ago
Can someone tell us non-Facebook users what this looks like?
- alpha_squared 7y ago
  From what I can gather (I'm in the same boat), it seems Facebook launched a portal for users to see what third-party services/activities they know about. One user here mentions an offline, in-store Macy's transaction appearing in that data; others mention streaming service data (Netflix, Hulu); one even mentions a reference to Blind, but not much detail on what type of data. Surely, Facebook must be collecting this on non-users as well who obviously have not agreed to their terms.
jmccorm 7y ago
NETFLIX. The regular "payment" records don't concern me but the "custom" records (as recent as last night) do. Is that viewing data or what is this? I've also got "custom" records from HULU, but the last one was in December. This isn't necessarily sinister... but it certainly raises some questions on what these streaming video companies are telling Facebook on a regular basis.
makecheck 7y ago
Be sure to find both settings: the one to clear activity up to now, and the separate one to ensure that future activity is not tracked either.
Andromeda88 7y ago
Emirates NBD Bank app and CAREEM app are sharing info with Facebook. It was very surprising to see ENBD in the list.
gjm11 7y ago
There's a little note saying that the list may not be complete. If you click that, they pop up an explanation, one of the bullet points in which says this: > We receive more details and activity than what appears here. For technical and accuracy reasons, this list doesn't show all of the activity that we've received. Activity that is not shown includes information that we've received when you're not logged in to Facebook, or when we can't confirm that you've previously used Facebook on that device. It also includes details such as the item that you added to your shopping basket. It seems to me that this gives them carte blanche to omit anything they feel like omitting.
cryptozeus 7y ago
Now imagine what google has on you.
s-skl 7y ago
fuing unbelievable that my photo to scan app on the phone is sending activity to Facebook!
cryptozeus 7y ago
Blind app send interactions to Facebook. This defies the whole point of blind app. This is so wrong on so many levels.
- dtrailin 7y ago
  This was the most shocking for me. How is Blind getting my FB info from the app? Is there a way to prevent this on Android?
Jupe 7y ago
Interestingly, none of the other "big brother" companies show up on my activity feed, even though I do use them. No Apple. No Amazon. No Google. No Netflix. Not even Microsoft. Anyone else?? Wow, this is beyond creepy.
fsflover 7y ago
"You have no available activity to show at this time." Qubes OS with disposable VMs helps!
dr-detroit 7y ago
You people all still use Facebook in 202? Yikes... hackernewsflash: You are the problem.
abright 7y ago
Ah, so disappointing that I need a Facebook account to read this. The joy of missing out.
CodiePetersen 7y ago
I deleted my Facebook a couple months ago. Now I wish I would have kept it just a little longer to see what they had on me. But in the end I still would have deleted it. Facebook clearly can't be trusted with my data. Idc what connections it gives me. They have shown time and time again that they will exploit the tiniest things to predict and manipulate your behavior. And apparently companies desperate for even slight up ticks in conversion rates will upload everything they know about you. No wonder Cambridge Analytica, AggregateIQ, and Robert Mercer had such an easy time compiling psychological profiles and categories of Americans and Brits. In the end, it's real simple. The human brain adjusts based on the environment and events around it. Id rather not have Zuckerberg, Dorsey, or anyone else they deem worthy, intentionally or otherwise playing around in my head.
- kcorey 7y ago
  It's still there. Try logging in. You might have to reset your password, but the bastard's haven't really deleted it.
  - netule 7y ago
    I tried this, but it only gives me the option to sign up. I think I deleted my account around two years ago, and it's seemingly really gone.
marknadal 7y ago
I don't understand. It says I completed a registration for a company I never signed up to. I did visit that company's restaurant that day, but I did not purchase anything. Are some companies auto-registering you?
novok 7y ago
Now we need a one click delete all data in account button, without 'deleting' the account, because 'deleting' your facebook account doesn't delete any of the data inside of it.
rypskar 7y ago
Also check https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=information_about_you&section_id=interacted#interacted https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=info... to see who has uploaded lists including your email or phone number to to facebook. Wonder what GDPR say about uploading this type of lists
neycoda 7y ago
I removed my Facebook info from my browser and phone, changed the info I had on there to be basically anonymized (except to people who know me), and then logged in with a different browser on both desktop and phone dedicated to just Facebook. Now they can't tell what websites I'm going to and don't have direct access to my photos and files etc.
nonbirithm 7y ago
I was surprised to see that Plex is sharing a bunch of interactions with Facebook despite me only signing in with email. They seem to just blindly correlate the email address with whatever Facebook account it points to. There is no mention of Facebook on their privacy page[1]. As a lifetime Plex Pass holder this has damaged my credibility with them. One of their employees says this is in error[2] so hopefully it will be fixed. I guess signing in with email is pretty much equivalent to contacting Facebook if this is possible to do. Besides that there are physical retailers that send data to Facebook even though I don't recall giving them any idea identifying info. I feel powerless since I rely on Messenger for communication with friends, who I've tried and failed to convince to switch elsewhere. [1] https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/privacy-preferences/ https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/privacy-preferences/ [2] https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-is-plex-sharing-my-activities-with-facebook/534222/5 https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-is-plex-sharing-my-activities-w...
- decko 7y ago
  I don't think it's be email (or at least not ONLY email). The page shows a company is sharing my data with Facebook and my email address is different from the one I use with that company.
- prophesi 7y ago
  Yeah, I was really surprised to see Plex in my friend's off-FB-activity list. I've been wanting to switch to Emby, but I already have a Plex lifetime membership, and it would be difficult to get friends to make the switch. I'm not liking Plex's direction with getting into the streaming business, along with this FB spyware mishap.
  - thekyle 7y ago
    > it would be difficult to get friends to make the switch Could you elaborate on why this is an issue? Plex doesn't really have network effects and is usually only managed by 1 person. Maybe you give your friends access to your instance? In which case it seems like they are in no position to complain.
theqult 7y ago
390 connected apps. And i never use facebook login
ben7799 7y ago
I feel like this stuff actually creeps me out more since I deleted my Facebook account. I didn't deactivate, I completely deleted. I'm near 100% sure they're still trying to track & sell me, but without an account I can't even see it.
- mcstafford 7y ago
  Back when I got rid of my account there wasn't an option to immediately delete an account. It first had to be deactivated, and would supposedly be deleted after a two-week cool-down period.
  - ben7799 7y ago
    Yes I went through that too. It was about 2 years ago. They sent me all the warnings that they were deleting anything. Do I believe them at all? Not really?
    - yason 7y ago
      I know people who have left Facebook and then much later come back, setting up a new account with new credentials and Facebook could still begin to suggest old friends and interests.
      - mrgreenfur 7y ago
        Isn't that because they can still match the friends side to the new data? They still have half of the matches and once you give them your half they will suggest the same stuff.
dbg31415 7y ago
Can someone post a screenshot for those of us with out Facebook accounts?
- collinmanderson 7y ago
  https://snipboard.io/H1KQ2r.jpg https://snipboard.io/H1KQ2r.jpg
allovernow 7y ago
So is there any way to find out what information FB has on you if you don't have an account?
Lammy 7y ago
The linked page displays nothing but "You must log in to continue" if you don't have a Facebook account. I searched around and found this news page that explains it: https://about.fb.com/news/2019/08/off-facebook-activity/ https://about.fb.com/news/2019/08/off-facebook-activity/
deleted 7y ago
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alasdair_ 7y ago
To me the thing that bothered me most was that a mental health site (Psychologytoday.com) that I used to find a therapist was passing the information on my searches to Facebook, presumably to aid in targeted advertising. Honestly, I think that health-related searches that are directly tied to a specific individual (especially without informed consent - I didn’t log in or receive any notice this was being done) should be covered by HIPPA just like any other personally identifiable health record. The other weird one was the huge amount of data my bank was sending. 20+ requests per session. I have no idea why they would do that.
- sizzle 7y ago
  This needs to be brought to the attention of legislators. Our digital health data needs to be protected like it is in a real world setting. I wonder what Google is doing with all those health related searches I'm making...
  - alasdair_ 7y ago
    I think a solution would be for people to own their own personally identifiable information, in much the same way that a celebrity can own their “likeness”. Unauthorized copying or use of this information could be simple copyright infringement, which is apparently criminal enough to involve the FBI if you are a movie studio with enough money spend on political donations.
- otterlicious 7y ago
  Thanks to this comment I noticed mine has a hospital: bannerhealth.com (8) The portal where I access my records is on a third-party vendor's domain and this is likely just from Like buttons on their public site. But I wouldn't be surprised to see the name of the specialist I saw (just to look up their phone number) or a condition they treated (the portal links to articles there) in those 8 entries. Haven't bothered to download my entire history just to see...yet.
DevKoala 7y ago
Is there a way to tell how Facebook is tracking you if you deleted your account?
yason 7y ago
I had a few - all of them from my Android apps and via Facebook business tools i.e. the vendors are actively pushing my data to Facebook. One utility app that I'm not surprised about, one that I'm a bit more surprised about but the interesting bit was G-Shock Connect (for the watch). I installed their app once, figured it doesn't properly do the only thing I needed it for (show battery charge level), and I went to uninstall it. How did it find itself on Facebook? The app wasn't given any permissions and I did not enter any personal information. The TOS did require giving consent to sending app and watch usage data but I didn't tick allowing that for marketing purposes nor was personal information mentioned, just identification data from the phone itself, operating system etc. The app must have obtained my phone number or email from the phone's personal data. Apparently that's possible even if I declined all explicit permissions. They might be able to find my Google email by using Android's AccountManager apis. Phone number might be possible but slightly tricky and I think I disconnected my phone number from Facebook way before installing their app. Interesting stuff - looks like everything should run in an anonymous container by default on phones, too. I hope we'll get there soon. Still, a lot of this is based on trust rather than technical countermeasures. Will you trust the vendor or not?
ArtDev 7y ago
These apps are from my phone which does not have the facebook app installed. They must be harvesting stuff on me from the Instagram and/or Whatapp permissions.
UncleSlacky 7y ago
Weirdly, FB thinks I've had dealings with Home Depot, which I've never visited (virtually or IRL). Nothing else, but then I use Ublock Origin, Privacy Badger, disconnect.me etc. as well as FB Purity. I also don't have a smartphone.
forgottenpass 7y ago
>We receive more details and activity than what appears here. For technical and accuracy reasons, this list doesn't show all the activity that we've received. Activity that is not shown includes information we've received when you're not logged into Facebook, or when we can't confirm that you've previously used Facebook on that device. So, basically all the information they have on me? I don't log in to facebook all that often. By not helping them survive me, they'll coyly pretend like they have less surveillance data tied to my account in their database than they do. I doubt they're going to purge those surveillance records "technical and accuracy" reasons.
ryanmarsh 7y ago
My payroll and accounting systems are talking to Facebook about me. Why? I have no idea.
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  Is it FreeAgent by any chance? I use it (but can't check as I don't have a Facebook account) and if it is that one then I will definitely be looking to switch away as this is unacceptable.
alinspired 7y ago
never installed facebook app on a phone, but multiple 3rd party apps on the phone report to facebook. For some reported apps i've never been logged in. looks like facebook knows my phone's "hardware id" from somewhere edit: good to know that uBlock blocked all web activity
khunkhun 7y ago
100033582091824
skytbest 7y ago
Did they take this down? It just goes to my Facebook home page

710 points by bigbaguette 7y ago

Wow that's creepy. It lists apps where a) I didn't use FB login/signup and b) used a different email address to sign up. How do they cross-reference that to me? Hand how can I prevent that outside of their tools (which I assume still violate my privacy)?

randomchars 7y ago
I think they either: - use Facebook pixel tracking on the site. - hand over all of their user's email addresses to use for audience building. Or most likely both. Creepy stuff indeed.
- edf13 7y ago
  Yep - all of above.... 690 App/Sites for me! Not overly surprising really
- StavrosK 7y ago
  I use uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger on my desktop and phone, as well as Blokada, and yet Facebook still had a bunch of app activity even though I never ever sign in to stuff using FB (or even gave the apps my email or any other piece of personal data). I literally just opened the app, granted no permissions, used it a bit, and Facebook associated it with my account. What the fuck.
  - the_snooze 7y ago
    They could be associating you server-side using persistent identifiers on your phone. For example, if an app has the Facebook SDK, it could send your IMEI to Facebook. Then, if you have a first-party Facebook app like Messenger, that too can send your IMEI to Facebook and link it back to your Facebook account.
hobofan 7y ago
I'm pretty sure that 95% from the activity that is listed for me comes from the Facebook tracking pixel, that every website has to embed if they want to (effectively) advertise on Facebook.
subaru_shoe 7y ago
For starters you can delete your facebook account .
- wukerplank 7y ago
  Fair point!
- avh02 7y ago
  I don't think that'd really be true, since they'd just have it stored in the background without you having a FB account (and wouldn't have the ability to see how bad it is) not saying that's worth having an account though.
- crashbunny 7y ago
  does that stop facebook from collecting data about you? I didn't think it did, and because you don't have an account it's not, or at least wasn't possible to control any privacy settings.
  - smichel17 7y ago
    Technically, no. Legally, it means you haven't accepted their terms of service, so if/when (I hope) the political privacy landscape changes, it'll be more likely that you can sue, report a violation, request deletion, (or maybe they'd even preemptively delete it to cover their tracks / come into compliance with new laws).
  - Corrado 7y ago
    That's an interesting thought. I've removed (deleted?) my Facebook account several months ago. Maybe I should have kept it around in order to manage it.
- fretn 7y ago
  which I did a couple of years ago. Now I have no idea what they know about me. I use adblock and friends, but I wonder how much data about me they still manage to gather
- 7y ago
akie 7y ago
What you can do to prevent this is: 1) Install https://www.eff.org/privacybadger https://www.eff.org/privacybadger to prevent trackers from being loaded 2) Install https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-autodelete/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-autode... to delete any cookies you might have accepted after a week time or so, which prevents the infinite gobbling-up of your data after innocently accepting a cookie once 3) Install the Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon containers to "separate" your browsing with these sites from the rest of your browsing. Links: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-cont... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/twitter-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/twitter-conta... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-contai... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/amazon-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/amazon-contai... Also, if you are creeped out by this, just imagine the amount of data Google has on you. I'm convinced they have way more, just by virtue of every website having Google Analytics installed.
- crashbunny 7y ago
  Even before firefox containers, I used a dedicated profile for facebook only as well as using privacy badger and ublock origin. Facebook still collected data about me from external sites. I think mainly through my phone, possibly through linking phone number or email addresses.
- adriand 7y ago
  I found a mere four items in my activity list, all from several months ago, probably when I mistakenly used the wrong container or had uBlock turned off. It's nice to see all my anti-tracking software is working!
- cmroanirgo 7y ago
  I use Firefox Containers to limit and logged in FB activity to that & never log in using FB other than FB website itself. I have no FB apps (including WhatsApp). I've been running uMatrix for a few months. My firefox tracking-prevention (similar to EFF's one, but probably not as good) is always using maximum privacy settings. I still have a few sites appear... AND for websites I've never even visited (that I'm aware of, & I'm the only user of this machine) There seems to be some serious fingerprinting going on, more than simple cookies.
fyfy18 7y ago
As an EU "customer" I'm rather surprised by this. There are services that I've signed up to since GDPR came into effect which I didn't get explicitly consent to do this. For example my business bank. Why would I give them permission to share data with my personal Facebook account? I will be digging into this more.
- xg15 7y ago
  Sounds like the activities view could be some good evidence to give to a data protection commissioner.
stiray 7y ago
By far the worst thing are android phone applications (not only FB official app). They have their spyware bundled and can slurp from you the data which are normally unaccessible by web browser, from phone number, imei, mail addresses to all your contacts and there is almost nothing you can do except installing vpn based firewall (like NetGuard) and block all access and add permissions one by one for each url. This should just be illegal.
- throwawaylolx 7y ago
  How can phone apps with no permissions get my phone number? > except installing vpn based firewall So they can send the data instead?
  - stiray 7y ago
    From your friends :) Or you will allow it. To use it. On the other side you can at least control that the common advertisers wont get it (like fb). For everything else get root and xposed + xprivacy. But for most users that is too much. I just gave the easiest advice. I am running microg lineage, xprivacy lua and netguard. But I wonder was this as advice worth the letters used? ;) Will someone go trough the trouble to use it? To replace the rom, install everything, run everything in block mode and allow only what is really needed, like connection to my own mail server? My own ssh tunnel? Probably not. And then comes the master villan, google. How many will remove that one from the phone? Waste of words, right? Anyway even netguard is far better than nothing, most apps dont need their own servers. And the largest data slurpers are known. For fb just block all fb domains.
joshspankit 7y ago
Other commenters seem to have missed what you’re really saying here. I’m on iPhone, and see apps listed where: - I’ve never logged in on the web - I’ve never clicked to open a link in a browser on-device - Used a phone number to sign up that’s not associated with my fb account - Didn’t use email at all
cpv 7y ago
Some chat apps (like Viber and others) have Facebook SDK integrated in them, without any direct Facebook functionality people would use. Discovered after using NetgGuard, and seeing who is calling home, and not only home. (Why viber is making requests to graph.facebook.com anyway?) Duolingo is a nice app for learning new languages, yet it might be using the same sdk, since it likes to call facebook.com domain. Netflix is a good streaming service, but it has some option somewhere, which allows them to share data with others, and enabled by default. And yes, it's present in fb activity. The list can go on... There are developers who integrate dozens of SDKs, without any specific purpose for users, and not knowing what is happening. We need something like PrivacyBadger/ublockorigin for phones/laptops/routers/homes/cars. It's getting more than creepy. And why would Facebook allow third-parties/businesses upload into FB info they have on their customers... PS: analysis of how a simple menstrual tracking app is leaking data about the owner https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10693-no_body_s_business_but_mine_a_dive_into_menstruation_apps https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10693-no_body_s_business_but_min...

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

m1 7y ago

A bit weird that my Monzo seems to be sending data to Facebook?

Nextgrid 7y ago
Could you say more or provide a screenshot? I’m very curious and concerned about this.
- m1 7y ago
  It just says <number> interactions were received from Monzo.
- peteretep 7y ago
  For Revolut, I have many many entries like: ID 894103617218109 Event CUSTOM Received on 13 November 2019 at 09:51 The only event is "CUSTOM".
  - benhurmarcel 7y ago
    I use Revolut but my page is empty. I imagine it's because I don't have the Facebook nor Messenger apps installed on my phone.
    - petargyurov 7y ago
      Same here. I suspect most of the commenters on this post that are confused about how their data got acquired have the FB app and/or Messenger installed on their phones. I also suspect that soon Whatsapp will be doing the same sinister activity tracking once they go ahead with their plan to introduce ads later this year.
pirocks 7y ago
As far as I can tell almost every bank with an app is sending your email/advertising id/name/etc. to Facebook(+ other surveillance companies).

chrisjamesc 7y ago

If you want to disable facebook tracking out of facebook in the future, it's possible on this link: https://www.facebook.com/off_facebook_activity/future_activity https://www.facebook.com/off_facebook_activity/future_activi... EDIT: the link doesn't seem to work, so you can click on "Manage Future Activity" => "Manage Future Activity" in the popup => Disable "Future Off-Facebook Activity"

jannes 7y ago
You might not want to disable this completely, because it can be a useful tool to identify data leaks (similar to Troy Hunt's haveibeenpwned.com). My off-Facebook activity had zero entries and I want to keep it that way. If they ever associate something with me I want to be alerted to the fact.
- dabbledash 7y ago
  Mine had exactly one entry. And I won’t be doing business with that company anymore. No way am I disabling this. It’s too useful.
Vinnl 7y ago
One warning it gives me: > We will still receive future activities from companies and organisations you visit. These might be used for analytics and to improve our advertising systems, but will not be connected to your account. (Translated from Dutch because for some reason Facebook figured I'd want this particular message in Dutch.)
- bobsoap 7y ago
  Extrapolation: "Account" here means the Facebook account created by you and visible to you; probably distinct from "Profile" in their lingo, which is all the data they have on you, of which most is invisible to you. If this is true, that's not an opt-out for data collection, just a choice to keep that info from showing in your account while merrily continuing to build your profile.
- joshspankit 7y ago

kpozin 7y ago

In my profile, they managed to obtain a `PURCHASE` event from Macy's -- for an in-person purchase at a physical store. Macy's has my email address and certainly linked it to my credit card number, but this is nonetheless seriously creepy. I just tried to change my email address on Facebook and discovered that they canonicalize plus and dot variations in gmail.com addresses, and thus claim that the new email address is already associated with an account. Ended up having to create a completely new email alias on my own domain.

fabiandesimone 7y ago
This is likely based on an Offline Conversion which advertisers can bulk upload to FB
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
hatenberg 7y ago
Google has long bought credit card transactions and so probably have dozens of others. The root cause is that they are allowed to be sold
- chippy 7y ago
  are credit cards different from debit cards in this regard? Do some credit cards not sell your transactions?
  - LeifCarrotson 7y ago
    No, if it's data they can collect it's data they can sell. Can't sell cash transactions yet!
    - Shish2k 7y ago
      Unless you use a loyalty card at the same time ;)
    - 7y ago

wrdalex 7y ago

Revolut is sending data to them, too. 202 interactions for my account.

klausjensen 7y ago
That one surprised me as well.
- Kiro 7y ago
  Why is it surprising?
  - wrdalex 7y ago
    Because Revolut is the only fintech/banking app that is actually on the list. I do have other 3 banking applications installed on my phone that I regularly use + N26 (another fintech) -- none of these are in the data sharing list.
wasmitnetzen 7y ago
And the last date they received information about me according to Facebook is the last date I used the app. Revolut mentions "Analytics providers" in their privacy policy as companies they are sharing my data with.
- wrdalex 7y ago
  For me it seems there is a 3-day difference between the last time I've used the app (today) and the last time they shared data with facebook.
  - throwawaylolx 7y ago
    >The summary doesn't contain your most recent activity. It may take a few days for your activity to show in your off-Facebook activity. The dates in your activity summary are when we received the activity. https://www.facebook.com/help/2207256696182627 https://www.facebook.com/help/2207256696182627

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

jannes 7y ago

My off-facebook activity was empty. That's encouraging, because it looks like my countermeasures have been working: - Fingerprinting resistance in Firefox (privacy.resistFingerprinting = true) - First-party isolation in Firefox (privacy.firstparty.isolate = true) - Blocking third-party cookies in Firefox (network.cookie.cookieBehavior = 1) - Firefox container when I need to login to ad/tracking companies (Facebook, Google) - uBlock Origin - Cookie AutoDelete - PiHole on my home network

onreact 7y ago
I don't think they will tell you the whole truth. It's just like with Google history you can "delete". They have the data stored for the authorities anyway. They are required to do it by law (Patriot Act etc.)
- throwawaylolx 7y ago
  > I don't think they will tell you the whole truth. This is true: >We receive more details and activity than what appears in your off-Facebook activity. For technical and accuracy reasons, we don’t show all the activity we’ve received. This includes things like information we’ve received when you’re not logged into Facebook, or when we can’t confirm that you’ve previously used Facebook on that device. We also don’t show details like the item you’ve added to your shopping cart. https://www.facebook.com/help/2207256696182627 https://www.facebook.com/help/2207256696182627
  - jannes 7y ago
    Thanks for that link. Looks like the infamous "ghost profiles" are officially confirmed now. I wish they would show the ghost profiles as well, but since it's not linked with 100% confidence they are probably not allowing it because it could be a privacy violation if it turns out that the link was incorrect (i.e. they showed a ghost profile to the wrong user).
    - gvjddbnvdrbv 7y ago

Infinitesimus 7y ago

Apparently Blind made the list. So much for 'anonymous'

pmlnr 7y ago

"just must log in to read this" Can someone please share it?

cmroanirgo 7y ago
It's a page for people with an account at FB that lists the 3rd party websites that have given information to FB. > Off-Facebook activity includes information that businesses and organisations share with us about your interactions with them, such as visiting their apps or websites. It's creepy. > We receive more details and activity than what appears here. For technical and accuracy reasons, this list doesn't show all of the activity that we've received. Activity that is not shown includes information that we've received when you're not logged in to Facebook, or when we can't confirm that you've previously used Facebook on that device. It also includes details such as the item that you added to your shopping basket.

alien1993 7y ago

Seems like most of my data they got from apps on my Android phone, there was even an app that I just installed, opened and uninstalled in less then a minute without even logging in or anything. How can I block them in the future?

rkachowski 7y ago
set the "limit ad tracking" feature on your phone at the os level and the advertising id will become unavailable to everything. On Android this is Settings > Privacy > Advanced > Opt out

CreepyLife 7y ago

If Google and Facebook is ready to "show" these data, I wonder what and how much data they are hiding.

WA 7y ago
Good point. I also wonder what the motivation behind this tool is. Furthermore, I don't understand how any of this is GDPR-compliant.
- sumedh 7y ago
  > Good point. I also wonder what the motivation behind this tool is. Probably to tell regulators and politicians that "transparency is in our dna" we design tools to help users know who is interacting with their data
- rypskar 7y ago
  INAL but will guess it is to make facebook GDPR-compliant. They show the data they have about us, but don't know if the apps that send the data to fb have used opt-in to enable sending data to fb. Maybe time to start writing emails to the companies who have uploaded our information without consent?

pjc50 7y ago

Hmm. I have no website activity listed - but seemingly every single Android game and a few other apps is sending "activity" to FB, despite me never using any feature to associate the two. This sounds like: https://privacyinternational.org/report/2647/how-apps-android-share-data-facebook-report https://privacyinternational.org/report/2647/how-apps-androi... Any sensible way of stopping this?

afandian 7y ago
Realise that you don't really need those android apps, or the google or facebook account. The utility and entertainment you get is half of surveillance capitalism ecosystem, and the other half is that they compile all this information about you. I know it sounds preachy and it's not a conclusion most people will like. But, like fasting, going without something you like but don't really need does help you focus on what you really do need.
- pjc50 7y ago
  I don't actually care all that much and I like my luxuries. Do I "need" the Google account? No. Do I want to tell every person and business currently using it that I've changed email? Also no, that's a huge amount of work. Likewise for facebook, which is now down to once-a-day-ish use for coordination with a specific group of people whom I do not want to do the work of moving all of them off Facebook too.
  - afandian 7y ago
    Yeah, I make similar trade-offs. The sunk cost of a few TV shows purchses keep me from closing my Google account. But I won't let it anywhere near my phone. I think the process of honestly asking the question is more useful than the actual answer. Life & society is full of compromises.
Nextgrid 7y ago
Blocking the entire Facebook ASN at the firewall/network level stops this. Google is a bit more tricky as they also have GCP so you can’t block their ASN without also blocking innocent services.

feintruled 7y ago

Deliveroo has evidently been sending them all my orders. Or at least, there are as many 'interactions' as I have made orders. I don't log in via my Facebook so that is an unwelcome surprise.

Nextgrid 7y ago
Yeah that is insane especially for a paid product.
lprd 7y ago
Same here. I had to recollect if I even signed up with Facebook. After checking my Deliveroo settings, it seems that my FB account isn't even connected. This is insane...
- culturestate 7y ago
  Do you use the same e-mail address for both Deliveroo and Facebook? If so, that could be how they matched you. Facebook lets businesses create custom retargeting audiences[1] from existing customers, and you can (obviously) include interaction data in order to segment e.g. frequent customers from occasional customers. 1. https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1472206006327390 https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1472206006327390
  - feintruled 7y ago
    I suppose that would explain it. I can't see what Deliveroo get out of it though, and how they might expect Facebook to have a better handle on what sort of food I would order and how often as opposed to Deliveroo themselves, who know. I wonder if they have plans for service expansion into "Deliveroo but for X" and want to see what their customers are into. Or perhaps they want to see if I am two-timing them with Just Eat! Funny, I now remember reading a post from someone claiming that if they ordered an online grocery shop off a company that was not their usual, like magic a voucher would appear from their original company. I assumed this was coincidence, but this is the exact mechanism that such a thing could happen. Of course this could also just be a manifestation of the trend of companies desiring data for data's sake, and a load of deliveroo managers are sitting in a meeting somewhere looking at a graph showing an intersection of people who are into retro computing and also like burritos and trying to brainstorm some strategy off such trivia.

dannyr 7y ago

Man I feel hopeless. I have not connected my Facebook account for over 90% of these sites/apps but they still sent my data to Facebook.

StavrosK 7y ago
Same here. At least you can just turn it off on this page, and hopefully that will do something.
- dannyr 7y ago
  Is is too late to change my email address on Facebook? I'm assuming Facebook keeps a history of my email addresses that it can still associate it to my account. Another option is to change all my email address at these sites.
  - StavrosK 7y ago
    It's not even that (though it might be part of it), I use a different email address per site (sitename@mydomain.com).
  - jasonjayr 7y ago
    I have an address unique to facebook, and they still managed to associate it with some stores.
  - throwawaylolx 7y ago
    >I'm assuming Facebook keeps a history of my email addresses that it can still associate it to my account. This is true: if you download your Facebook information file, you'll see it stores all the previous emails as well as all the previous IPs used.
afandian 7y ago
Do you have the option to stop using those sites or using those vendors? At least now you have more data on the externalities of using each service.

kjakm 7y ago

What are the best ways to protect against this kind of tracking? I would argue it's probably better to keep a Facebook account so you can see what they're tracking and work to prevent it. In my browser I'm running uBlock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere, and Privacy Badger. I'm guessing those will help quite a lot. However on an iPhone what can I do (as that's where a lot of this data seems to be coming from)?

jannes 7y ago
Keep in mind that Facebook probably has a few unique identifiers from you apart from browser cookies: - Email address - Cell phone number (even if you only used it for 2FA) - Credit card number (if you ever made a donation via Facebook or bought digital currency in a Facebook game) - Advertising ID of your mobile device (can be reset in Android as well as iOS) In order to avoid tracking, you have to make sure that none of these are known to Facebook and to other companies.

SCdF 7y ago

There is nothing on this page I was not aware of and intentionally linked (e.g. Strava). So does this mean I am successfully stopping them from tracking websites I visit via tracking pixels / IP mapping / whatever other nefarious shit they do, or are they just not showing this information here?

gingerlime 7y ago

Is it just me, or is there no way to download activity details? I click on an activity, then there's a few examples and a link to download, but this leads to a generic "Download your information" page and I cannot see an entry for the app or off-facebook specifically... How can I block it? some apps are on my iPhone, but I don't have the Facebook app on it (I do have messenger), and only used the apps on the phone. Aren't they isolated in some way?

orhanhh 7y ago
For downloading the data there is an option to download "Ads and Businesses" under "Information About You". I just downloaded it, and it includes all data that was shared. However, the data only shows the source, timestamp and activity ID. The actual event data is not included..

padraic7a 7y ago

One thing I'm not clear on - when I click on Coinbase (just one example) I see the following under 'What you can do'; - View coinbase.com - Turn off future activity from coinbase.com - Give feedback about this activity Does 'turn off' mean they won't share this information again, or that I won't be told about it again?

lioeters 7y ago
I believe the vague wording is intentional, so they can just stop displaying it to you, while continuing to collect the data. It's like how "delete account" works.
- loxs 7y ago
  It's not that vague, if you do click to disable you are taken to page that words it quite directly.
  - lioeters 7y ago
    OK, maybe "misleading" is more suitable.. :)

robteix 7y ago

Literally the first result in the list of companies that shared data about me with FB is my pharmacy. My pharmacy! That's just... wrong.

xyby 7y ago

I am in Europe, so by law (GDPR) I have the right to make them delete all of this data. How do I do so? Also, I never consented to this being collected. How can their practice of collecting this type of data be GDPR compliant?

wasmitnetzen 7y ago
You can disable to storage of this data on the linked page. But I'd recommend going to the source: Read the privacy policy of each party delivering data and check if they mention it. I already sent a mail to the DPO of an app provider which shows up in this list and doesn't mentions Facebook in their privacy policy.
- xyby 7y ago
  Even if the app had it in their privacy policy, that would not mean it is legal to send your data to Facebook. GDPR requires the users consent to do so. Having a statement in a privacy policy is imho not enough to qualify as consent.
papln 7y ago
I'm not anyone's lawyer. These are questions, not answers: GDPR is about collecting data from you, right? If Site X is sending data about you to Facebook, perhaps that's an issue with Site X's GDPR compliance, not Facebook's?

Santosh83 7y ago

I apparently have no records of off-Facebook activity. This is probably because of blocking all 3rd-party cookies and enabling the blocking of social media trackers in both uBlock as well as that built into Firefox.

Hoasi 7y ago

> You must log in to continue. Nah, I will pass.

croon 7y ago
I couldn't open the link either. I have only the URL to go on, but the irony is... glaring.

Jaruzel 7y ago

I don't use Facebook, but I do use Messenger as I have a couple of close family members who refuse to use anything else. I've just logged into Facebook (which has no history as I've purged it[1]), and still there are 5 apps sharing my activity with Facebook. These 5 apps are all on my phone, so I guess Messenger is also sharing back to FB. :( --- [1] Shameless plug: https://github.com/Jaruzel/DeleteFacebookActivity https://github.com/Jaruzel/DeleteFacebookActivity [Cross-posted from the other thread]

eivarv 7y ago

I can't believe that this stuff is acceptible, or even legal. The fact that you're tracked off-Facebook (for instance), even if you're not logged in or on Facebook is not just creepy, but borderline abusive.

vinaypai 7y ago
Congratulations, of all the people who have responded with outrage on this thread, you are the only person I've found that has a website listed that DOESN'T run Google Analytics or some other third party analytics platform.
- eivarv 7y ago
  Thanks, but what value does your appeal to people's hypocracy bring to this discussion?
  - vinaypai 7y ago
    https://xkcd.com/386/ https://xkcd.com/386/
    - eivarv 7y ago
      Point is, though, someone being hypocritical doesn't make their argument wrong - claiming that it does is a fallacy [0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque

tallgiraffe 7y ago

In case of Facebook, one has to wonder, is this a move towards consumer privacy, or a way for Facebook to clear cache so they could build a more up to date profile of you.

milankragujevic 7y ago

Apparently my website is complicit in this... I'm disgusted with and ashamed of myself. https://i.imgur.com/Wz7O8HU.png https://i.imgur.com/Wz7O8HU.png Edit: typo complacenet to complicit, thanks Zarel.

Zarel 7y ago
(I think you wanted to use "complicit") Please update us as to how this happened!
- milankragujevic 7y ago
  I think I have a pixel on there for some reason? I don't recall why I put it there. It really does hurt when you see how awful your own behaviour is, i.e. by spying on users. I'm sorry everyone!
Jupe 7y ago
You mean you didn't know this would happen by adding something (script, tracker, pixel, etc.) to your site, or you don't have a root cause as to why your own site is sending data to FB?
- milankragujevic 7y ago
  I didn't assume that Facebook would explicitly connect this information with the visitors in this way. I don't remember WHY I added the pixel but I did add it. I need to get rid of these things, and Disqus. I was probably trying to do some research on visitor demographics, which presumably failed.
  - Jupe 7y ago
    Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying. I'm working on a site rn, and hope to make it "ad-ethical" (if such a thing is possible any more).
  - KajMagnus 7y ago
    > I need to get rid of these things, and Disqus There're open source track free comments: https://www.discourse.org/ https://www.discourse.org/ https://commento.io/ https://commento.io/ https://www.talkyard.io/blog-comments https://www.talkyard.io/blog-comments All of them are equally ads and tracking free, and have optional paid hosting services (if you don't want to self host). I'm developing the last one, Talkyard.

Nextgrid 7y ago

It would be good to name and shame every vendor that shares data with Facebook and have them in a searchable list, so people can check before engaging with them.

joshspankit 7y ago

Anyone else thrown off that “Download Activity Details” (which seems to be the only way you can find out what interaction was sent) leads to the main Download Your Information page, and not to anything specific to that app or that interaction?

thegeekbin 7y ago

Clearly I need to step it up. I was (unsurprisingly) surprised at what I've observed they've managed to correlate. I run standard pi-hole, resist fingerprinting, and normally go through a VPN (mainly because I'm on public wifi half the time when travelling). I haven't logged into facebook in about four years, just did it for the first time today to see what's been correlated. Aside the mountain of irrelevant notifications, here's what I've observed in this report that's concerning. 1. Albeit some data has been correlated properly (banking applications which is scary on it's own part it's sending data to facebook, imgur, Xbox, my telco provider, and a few misc blogs I've visited a handful of times per year), it's correlated a significant amount of data that may not belong to me (good thing, I suppose?) 2. Why the heck are banking applications sending data to Facebook as "CUSTOM", with no context? For example, RBC bank in Canada sends "CUSTOM" data (haven't been with them for over two years, but all interacts labelled CUSTOM) and Facebook will not give any more context on the exact data it received. Little scummy, Facebook. Well, time to sweep this up and resist tracking more. Let's see how it works this time round.

monkeynotes 7y ago
When you say `interact[s]` you mean interactions right? Not interact transfers?
xfalcox 7y ago
You will want to use Firefox containers in order to isolate the Facebook cookie into a container to limit this.
- ocdtrekkie 7y ago
  I use Facebook container and most of the sites reporting should've never even seen my Facebook account. However, many of these sites have my email address. I highly suspect they're correlating data without knowing my Facebook account itself.
  - untog 7y ago
    They definitely do for advertising, at least. You can click “why am I seeing this” it’ll tell you as much.

throwawaylolx 7y ago

Is there an equivalent Off-Facebook for Google?

dutchCourage 7y ago
There is, and it's equally creepy: https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity
- throwawaylolx 7y ago
  This is only information related to Google services or approved third-party apps, no? I was hoping there was a service showing what apps communicated with my Goolge account without any explicit notification or permission.
  - papln 7y ago
    Here's what Google says. Ask your lawyer if you want to know what it means. https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/54068?p=web_app_activity https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/54068?p=web_app_... When Web & App Activity is on, you can include additional activity like: * Sites and apps that partner with Google to show ads * Sites and apps that use Google services, including data that apps share with Google * Your Chrome browsing history

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

avip 7y ago

I was asked to "sign in" to "facebook" therefore I have no idea what this post is about. (seriously, concerned citizens should consider browsing fb incognito and never stay signed-in)

AlexandrB 7y ago
I agree with this advice. I treat facebook.com like a warez site from the 90s: actively hostile. So far only off-site activity tracking came from AirBnB.

Doctor_Fegg 7y ago

Four days before the UK general election, Facebook apparently "received activity" relating to me from an anonymous, icon-less organisation with a cryptic name, who appear to be completely un-googleable. Well, that's reassuring.

gatherhunterer 7y ago
Nice FUD there. > icon-less organisation with a cryptic name Oh my god what if they're foreign? Isn't it terrifying to think about foreigners? Better take that fear into the voting booth with you.
- Doctor_Fegg 7y ago
  Er, what? Where did I mention anything about them being foreign?
apetresc 7y ago
I honestly can't tell what you're trying to insinuate. What exactly is this nefarious activity log doing that relates to the general election?

chinathrow 7y ago

That's so funny that they come up with this page these days. "We receive Jane's off-Facebook activity and we save it with her Facebook account. The activity is saved as "visited the Clothes and Shoes website" and "made a purchase"." I downloaded my data before, and never have I seen what exactly the listed companies sent to FB. I have a list of just a few companies (mainly by using a different email address for FB only) but still, I have no idea what these companies sent to FB about me. Edit: I found the data now - it's now available for export.

stonedge 7y ago

Allegedly, I ditched my Facebook account years ago. Not just deactivated but delete, though I don’t really believe it. Is there anyway to see what’s in this (or to see if my account really is gone) without accidentally re-upping?

hughes 7y ago
I had deactivated my account about a year ago. I tried logging in to view this page, and it reactivated everything immediately. Also, it has clearly been linking a vast quantity of off-facebook activity despite my account being deactivated.
- hellofunk 7y ago
  Facebook provides two different options, one is deactivation and the other one is deleting. They are not the same thing. If you merely deactivated it, then your account never was deleted.
metachris 7y ago
Depending on your location, but you could do a GDPR Data Subject Request (DSR)
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  Facebook doesn't really comply with the GDPR. The data displayed on this new page wasn't part of their data export and I'm sure is still not part of it. Here's an example to what extents they will go in order to not give you what you're entitled to by law: https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/ https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/ In fact, if they were GDPR compliant, they wouldn't be collecting this data in the first place.
zrobotics 7y ago
I had followed a guide in ~2010 to delete my account (since the magic incantations to delete your account at that point were really obscure). I was told via email that my account would be deleted a certain amount of time (90 days IIRC); I got curious in 2015 and logged back in. I was not terribly surprised to find that I could log back into the account and all my old data was still there. They may actually delete accounts now, but this certainly hasn't always been true.

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code4tee 7y ago

Clearly they’ve come to the realization that they either do this voluntarily or future regulation will force them to do it. The beginning of the end of hyper-targeted online advertising has started.

qu4ku 7y ago

Nowhere to hide. Just a few days ago I wanted to research some nasty disease and I used brave on TOR to watch some stuff about it on YT. First thing after I opened FB was a clinical laboratory tests adv.

ivyirwin 7y ago

My first reaction to this was to be creeped out. Even being in the industry how did all of these sites (560) have data about me that they were willingly sending to Facebook without my permission. And while I have a Facebook account, I am not a Facebook user – as in I've logged in twice in the last year to see a neighborhood post or the like. But then I went from creeped out to oh shit as sites I run were on the list. The way Facebook puts it, these businesses are actively sharing data with Facebook for the businesses benefit. But as a developer who has been asked to put a pixel on a site many times, I have to rethink the data exchange here. Obviously the sites are not getting the benefit that Facebook is receiving from everyone piping in data – often unknowingly.

papln 7y ago
> Obviously the sites are not getting the benefit How is that obvious? Surely sites would eventually stop going through the extra effort to maintain trackers if they didn't get a benefit?

king_magic 7y ago

Real nice that there is no bulk turn-off feature. Giant pain to click through a few hundred sites to block future activity. But I suppose that's the point, right? To make it as difficult as possible for users to block this kind of oh-shit creepy behavior.

loxs 7y ago
There is not turn-off at all. If you read carefully you will see that they will still collect the data, just that they "promise" won't assign it to you. Yeah right :)

heinrichhartman 7y ago

What is this? I only get a login prompt. I don't have a fb account. Would s/o mind explaining what this is all about.

nerdjon 7y ago

The fact that they have information about apps that I specifically chose to not link to facebook for variety of reasons... Including one specific app that they have 356 interactions from that I really do not want associated with my facebook account. Looks like I am going to be spending the next couple of days digging through the report I just generated. When this is all server side is the only option to make an email that is only for facebook and hope they can't link data any other way?

Nextgrid 7y ago
The fault is half on Facebook but also half on the providers & services sending the data to Facebook. The Facebook SDK or tracking pixel doesn't magically embed itself into apps or websites, it's still up to the developer to include this. I suggest stopping doing business with that vendor and letting them know why.

vinaypai 7y ago

I realize this is an unpopular opinion around here... but can anyone explain how they have actually been harmed by this? Like for real not in abstract notions of "creepiness" or whatever. I, for one with Facebook actually figured how to do something useful with that data and not be that raw sewage stream that basically led to stop logging in.

elicash 7y ago
My particular issues are different from most people here. The biggest impact, for me, is that the dominance of Google and Facebook based on having access to this data for the general population has led to worse advertising revenue for the news industry and some of my favorite websites. That has caused some of them to rely on memberships and paywalls. I also don't appreciate that the money that they've accrued due to their dominance as a result of data like this has led to undue political influence. That comes at the expense, I believe, of voters (and I'm one of them). I don't think that power is healthy for a democracy, generally. I believe this about non-tech companies, too, so I wouldn't suggest anybody just pick on this industry. This isn't to say that I'm not concerned about privacy. It's only to say that IF YOU AREN'T, then there are other reasons to root for people to have transparency around how their data gets passed around.
- vinaypai 7y ago
  I for one much prefer paywalls. I'd rather be the customer than the product.
  - elicash 7y ago
    My issue isn't that I don't want to pay the paywall -- it's that because people broadly don't prefer paywalls that relying on them rather than a thriving online ad business means they can't hire more reporters, video people, data folks, etc. So at the end of the day, it means I don't get to enjoy as much quality content from the publications that I love. In my view, I end up with the best content when advertisers aren't going to one or two central places for their ad buys online. I'm actually an advertiser, myself (as just one part of my job). And I certainly know how my own buying practices have shifted over the past 14 years to now be 100% focused on FB/Google. Some of the Google money trickles down to other publications, and certainly this makes my job easier, but I don't think it's a good thing as somebody who also loves reading online.

HelloFellowDevs 7y ago

Kinda surprised how many interactions I've had tracked from my visits to Home Depot, I've only recently started stopping by there in the past year or so. What data could they have possibly even used? Sell me more cardboard moving boxes? Plant supplies?

Jupe 7y ago
You'd be surprised... Both are multi-billion-dollar industries: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/cardboard-box-container-market https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/cardboar... https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/nursery-garden-stores-industry/ https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-repo...
RandallBrown 7y ago
I imagine they use the information of what you bought in the store to target ads for things you might want. If you went there to buy moving boxes, they might show you ads for paint or other things someone who just moved might want.

DannyB2 7y ago

I clicked the link and was told I needed to log into Facebook to continue. Is it necessary to have a FB account in order to read TFA?

Lewton 7y ago
It's not an article, it's a link to an overview of all the "off-facebook activity" data that facebook has gathered on your (the logged in) profile

kirillzubovsky 7y ago

When is Facebook's next investor call? The number of newly active users (who showed up for this) is going through the roof!

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Pxtl 7y ago

... wow. You know, you hear about tracking cookies but it's a whole other thing to see it staring you in the face. What's the most shocking is how small so many of these entries are. Like, there's a local children's day-camp and sports facility that I send my kids to on P.A. days on the list. And a local politician's page.

Pxtl 7y ago

... html/js allowing requests to domains other than the one in my URL bar was a mistake.

sequoia 7y ago

Can someone tell us non-Facebook users what this looks like?

alpha_squared 7y ago
From what I can gather (I'm in the same boat), it seems Facebook launched a portal for users to see what third-party services/activities they know about. One user here mentions an offline, in-store Macy's transaction appearing in that data; others mention streaming service data (Netflix, Hulu); one even mentions a reference to Blind, but not much detail on what type of data. Surely, Facebook must be collecting this on non-users as well who obviously have not agreed to their terms.

jmccorm 7y ago

NETFLIX. The regular "payment" records don't concern me but the "custom" records (as recent as last night) do. Is that viewing data or what is this? I've also got "custom" records from HULU, but the last one was in December. This isn't necessarily sinister... but it certainly raises some questions on what these streaming video companies are telling Facebook on a regular basis.

makecheck 7y ago

Be sure to find both settings: the one to clear activity up to now, and the separate one to ensure that future activity is not tracked either.

Andromeda88 7y ago

Emirates NBD Bank app and CAREEM app are sharing info with Facebook. It was very surprising to see ENBD in the list.

gjm11 7y ago

There's a little note saying that the list may not be complete. If you click that, they pop up an explanation, one of the bullet points in which says this: > We receive more details and activity than what appears here. For technical and accuracy reasons, this list doesn't show all of the activity that we've received. Activity that is not shown includes information that we've received when you're not logged in to Facebook, or when we can't confirm that you've previously used Facebook on that device. It also includes details such as the item that you added to your shopping basket. It seems to me that this gives them carte blanche to omit anything they feel like omitting.

cryptozeus 7y ago

Now imagine what google has on you.

s-skl 7y ago

fuing unbelievable that my photo to scan app on the phone is sending activity to Facebook!

cryptozeus 7y ago

Blind app send interactions to Facebook. This defies the whole point of blind app. This is so wrong on so many levels.

dtrailin 7y ago
This was the most shocking for me. How is Blind getting my FB info from the app? Is there a way to prevent this on Android?

Jupe 7y ago

Interestingly, none of the other "big brother" companies show up on my activity feed, even though I do use them. No Apple. No Amazon. No Google. No Netflix. Not even Microsoft. Anyone else?? Wow, this is beyond creepy.

fsflover 7y ago

"You have no available activity to show at this time." Qubes OS with disposable VMs helps!

dr-detroit 7y ago

You people all still use Facebook in 202? Yikes... hackernewsflash: You are the problem.

abright 7y ago

Ah, so disappointing that I need a Facebook account to read this. The joy of missing out.

CodiePetersen 7y ago

I deleted my Facebook a couple months ago. Now I wish I would have kept it just a little longer to see what they had on me. But in the end I still would have deleted it. Facebook clearly can't be trusted with my data. Idc what connections it gives me. They have shown time and time again that they will exploit the tiniest things to predict and manipulate your behavior. And apparently companies desperate for even slight up ticks in conversion rates will upload everything they know about you. No wonder Cambridge Analytica, AggregateIQ, and Robert Mercer had such an easy time compiling psychological profiles and categories of Americans and Brits. In the end, it's real simple. The human brain adjusts based on the environment and events around it. Id rather not have Zuckerberg, Dorsey, or anyone else they deem worthy, intentionally or otherwise playing around in my head.

kcorey 7y ago
It's still there. Try logging in. You might have to reset your password, but the bastard's haven't really deleted it.
- netule 7y ago
  I tried this, but it only gives me the option to sign up. I think I deleted my account around two years ago, and it's seemingly really gone.

marknadal 7y ago

I don't understand. It says I completed a registration for a company I never signed up to. I did visit that company's restaurant that day, but I did not purchase anything. Are some companies auto-registering you?

novok 7y ago

Now we need a one click delete all data in account button, without 'deleting' the account, because 'deleting' your facebook account doesn't delete any of the data inside of it.

rypskar 7y ago

Also check https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=information_about_you&section_id=interacted#interacted https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=info... to see who has uploaded lists including your email or phone number to to facebook. Wonder what GDPR say about uploading this type of lists

neycoda 7y ago

I removed my Facebook info from my browser and phone, changed the info I had on there to be basically anonymized (except to people who know me), and then logged in with a different browser on both desktop and phone dedicated to just Facebook. Now they can't tell what websites I'm going to and don't have direct access to my photos and files etc.

nonbirithm 7y ago

I was surprised to see that Plex is sharing a bunch of interactions with Facebook despite me only signing in with email. They seem to just blindly correlate the email address with whatever Facebook account it points to. There is no mention of Facebook on their privacy page[1]. As a lifetime Plex Pass holder this has damaged my credibility with them. One of their employees says this is in error[2] so hopefully it will be fixed. I guess signing in with email is pretty much equivalent to contacting Facebook if this is possible to do. Besides that there are physical retailers that send data to Facebook even though I don't recall giving them any idea identifying info. I feel powerless since I rely on Messenger for communication with friends, who I've tried and failed to convince to switch elsewhere. [1] https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/privacy-preferences/ https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/privacy-preferences/ [2] https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-is-plex-sharing-my-activities-with-facebook/534222/5 https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-is-plex-sharing-my-activities-w...

decko 7y ago
I don't think it's be email (or at least not ONLY email). The page shows a company is sharing my data with Facebook and my email address is different from the one I use with that company.
prophesi 7y ago
Yeah, I was really surprised to see Plex in my friend's off-FB-activity list. I've been wanting to switch to Emby, but I already have a Plex lifetime membership, and it would be difficult to get friends to make the switch. I'm not liking Plex's direction with getting into the streaming business, along with this FB spyware mishap.
- thekyle 7y ago
  > it would be difficult to get friends to make the switch Could you elaborate on why this is an issue? Plex doesn't really have network effects and is usually only managed by 1 person. Maybe you give your friends access to your instance? In which case it seems like they are in no position to complain.

theqult 7y ago

390 connected apps. And i never use facebook login

ben7799 7y ago

I feel like this stuff actually creeps me out more since I deleted my Facebook account. I didn't deactivate, I completely deleted. I'm near 100% sure they're still trying to track & sell me, but without an account I can't even see it.

mcstafford 7y ago
Back when I got rid of my account there wasn't an option to immediately delete an account. It first had to be deactivated, and would supposedly be deleted after a two-week cool-down period.
- ben7799 7y ago
  Yes I went through that too. It was about 2 years ago. They sent me all the warnings that they were deleting anything. Do I believe them at all? Not really?
  - yason 7y ago
    I know people who have left Facebook and then much later come back, setting up a new account with new credentials and Facebook could still begin to suggest old friends and interests.
    - mrgreenfur 7y ago
      Isn't that because they can still match the friends side to the new data? They still have half of the matches and once you give them your half they will suggest the same stuff.

dbg31415 7y ago

Can someone post a screenshot for those of us with out Facebook accounts?

collinmanderson 7y ago
https://snipboard.io/H1KQ2r.jpg https://snipboard.io/H1KQ2r.jpg

allovernow 7y ago

So is there any way to find out what information FB has on you if you don't have an account?

Lammy 7y ago

The linked page displays nothing but "You must log in to continue" if you don't have a Facebook account. I searched around and found this news page that explains it: https://about.fb.com/news/2019/08/off-facebook-activity/ https://about.fb.com/news/2019/08/off-facebook-activity/

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alasdair_ 7y ago

To me the thing that bothered me most was that a mental health site (Psychologytoday.com) that I used to find a therapist was passing the information on my searches to Facebook, presumably to aid in targeted advertising. Honestly, I think that health-related searches that are directly tied to a specific individual (especially without informed consent - I didn’t log in or receive any notice this was being done) should be covered by HIPPA just like any other personally identifiable health record. The other weird one was the huge amount of data my bank was sending. 20+ requests per session. I have no idea why they would do that.

sizzle 7y ago
This needs to be brought to the attention of legislators. Our digital health data needs to be protected like it is in a real world setting. I wonder what Google is doing with all those health related searches I'm making...
- alasdair_ 7y ago
  I think a solution would be for people to own their own personally identifiable information, in much the same way that a celebrity can own their “likeness”. Unauthorized copying or use of this information could be simple copyright infringement, which is apparently criminal enough to involve the FBI if you are a movie studio with enough money spend on political donations.
otterlicious 7y ago
Thanks to this comment I noticed mine has a hospital: bannerhealth.com (8) The portal where I access my records is on a third-party vendor's domain and this is likely just from Like buttons on their public site. But I wouldn't be surprised to see the name of the specialist I saw (just to look up their phone number) or a condition they treated (the portal links to articles there) in those 8 entries. Haven't bothered to download my entire history just to see...yet.

DevKoala 7y ago

Is there a way to tell how Facebook is tracking you if you deleted your account?

yason 7y ago

I had a few - all of them from my Android apps and via Facebook business tools i.e. the vendors are actively pushing my data to Facebook. One utility app that I'm not surprised about, one that I'm a bit more surprised about but the interesting bit was G-Shock Connect (for the watch). I installed their app once, figured it doesn't properly do the only thing I needed it for (show battery charge level), and I went to uninstall it. How did it find itself on Facebook? The app wasn't given any permissions and I did not enter any personal information. The TOS did require giving consent to sending app and watch usage data but I didn't tick allowing that for marketing purposes nor was personal information mentioned, just identification data from the phone itself, operating system etc. The app must have obtained my phone number or email from the phone's personal data. Apparently that's possible even if I declined all explicit permissions. They might be able to find my Google email by using Android's AccountManager apis. Phone number might be possible but slightly tricky and I think I disconnected my phone number from Facebook way before installing their app. Interesting stuff - looks like everything should run in an anonymous container by default on phones, too. I hope we'll get there soon. Still, a lot of this is based on trust rather than technical countermeasures. Will you trust the vendor or not?

ArtDev 7y ago

These apps are from my phone which does not have the facebook app installed. They must be harvesting stuff on me from the Instagram and/or Whatapp permissions.

UncleSlacky 7y ago

Weirdly, FB thinks I've had dealings with Home Depot, which I've never visited (virtually or IRL). Nothing else, but then I use Ublock Origin, Privacy Badger, disconnect.me etc. as well as FB Purity. I also don't have a smartphone.

forgottenpass 7y ago

>We receive more details and activity than what appears here. For technical and accuracy reasons, this list doesn't show all the activity that we've received. Activity that is not shown includes information we've received when you're not logged into Facebook, or when we can't confirm that you've previously used Facebook on that device. So, basically all the information they have on me? I don't log in to facebook all that often. By not helping them survive me, they'll coyly pretend like they have less surveillance data tied to my account in their database than they do. I doubt they're going to purge those surveillance records "technical and accuracy" reasons.

ryanmarsh 7y ago

My payroll and accounting systems are talking to Facebook about me. Why? I have no idea.

Nextgrid 7y ago
Is it FreeAgent by any chance? I use it (but can't check as I don't have a Facebook account) and if it is that one then I will definitely be looking to switch away as this is unacceptable.

alinspired 7y ago

never installed facebook app on a phone, but multiple 3rd party apps on the phone report to facebook. For some reported apps i've never been logged in. looks like facebook knows my phone's "hardware id" from somewhere edit: good to know that uBlock blocked all web activity

khunkhun 7y ago

100033582091824

skytbest 7y ago

Did they take this down? It just goes to my Facebook home page