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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) In

by 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.
- akie 7y ago
  Agreed, even with all of the above I had about 15 or so sites in that Facebook list. I suspect it's because I was logged in to Facebook on my phone's browser for a while. Not sure why I even did that...
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
StavrosK 7y ago
Those are good, but they don't work for what the GP is talking about. I'm seeing games/apps associated with my FB account even though I never logged in to FB with them or gave them any info. I literally just opened the app and that activity was associated with my FB account. I have no idea how they're doing this, since they didn't even request storage access (or I didn't give it). Can any Android developer here chime in on how an app can figure out my Facebook ID even though I don't even have Facebook installed on my phone and didn't give any sort of credential or access to the app?
- monort 7y ago
  I think they cross-reference Android Advertising ID in their SDK. Have you ever logged to Facebook from your phone? https://developers.facebook.com/docs/app-ads/targeting/mobile-advertiser-ids/ https://developers.facebook.com/docs/app-ads/targeting/mobil...
  - StavrosK 7y ago
    I have, either in the browser or in Swipe (a third-party app). I've never logged in to or installed the Facebook app or Messenger.
    - zentiggr 7y ago
      Then FB left behind tracking data, and there's your link. Sigh.
      - StavrosK 7y ago
        How? It was running in a browser.
        cmwright 7y ago
        Once you've logged into facebook from the device, they likely created a device fingerprint for your device: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_fingerprint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_fingerprint . This would allow them to identify you even without a cookie or ad id to correlate against.
tristador 7y ago
I thought Google Analytics had a decent privacy policy that would prevent Google from doing anything with GA data. But I remember some fuzzy wording like "your data" which could simply mean that Google considers GA data to be their data. Has anyone done a good deep dive on what Google actually does with GA data?

by akie 7y ago

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.

akie 7y ago
Agreed, even with all of the above I had about 15 or so sites in that Facebook list. I suspect it's because I was logged in to Facebook on my phone's browser for a while. Not sure why I even did that...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

StavrosK 7y ago

Those are good, but they don't work for what the GP is talking about. I'm seeing games/apps associated with my FB account even though I never logged in to FB with them or gave them any info. I literally just opened the app and that activity was associated with my FB account. I have no idea how they're doing this, since they didn't even request storage access (or I didn't give it). Can any Android developer here chime in on how an app can figure out my Facebook ID even though I don't even have Facebook installed on my phone and didn't give any sort of credential or access to the app?

monort 7y ago
I think they cross-reference Android Advertising ID in their SDK. Have you ever logged to Facebook from your phone? https://developers.facebook.com/docs/app-ads/targeting/mobile-advertiser-ids/ https://developers.facebook.com/docs/app-ads/targeting/mobil...
- StavrosK 7y ago
  I have, either in the browser or in Swipe (a third-party app). I've never logged in to or installed the Facebook app or Messenger.
  - zentiggr 7y ago
    Then FB left behind tracking data, and there's your link. Sigh.
    - StavrosK 7y ago
      How? It was running in a browser.
      - cmwright 7y ago
        Once you've logged into facebook from the device, they likely created a device fingerprint for your device: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_fingerprint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_fingerprint . This would allow them to identify you even without a cookie or ad id to correlate against.

tristador 7y ago

I thought Google Analytics had a decent privacy policy that would prevent Google from doing anything with GA data. But I remember some fuzzy wording like "your data" which could simply mean that Google considers GA data to be their data. Has anyone done a good deep dive on what Google actually does with GA data?