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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?

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...

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...