9 ms·

DigitalOcean user portal loads twenty third-party trackers

69 points by kimi 6y ago

jarym 6y ago
The automated 'please open a ticket' response is hilarious. We need to start calling behaviour like this out - or just blackhole these DNS servers.
- orangepanda 6y ago
  Its the equivalent of "open a pull request" when you dont care, and know the other person doesnt care enough to do anything about it.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- Hamcha 6y ago
  I've had a really unpleasant experience with DO a few years ago. A full ticket of 5+ mails and each one of them felt like it was picked from a list after reading a couple keywords from my issue. They did of course not solve the problem in the end, but not before someone actually replied not understanding the context at all (can't blame them) and using a condescending tone to me.
spzb 6y ago
I've just logged in to my DigitalOcean account and, while Privacy Badger does block a load of connections, I don't see any for Google Ads or Facebook. Most of the ones I do see are for CDNs.
- kemonocode 6y ago
  Just did the same, and likewise here. I wonder if it's just a product of A/B testing or, more alarmingly, that person has malware injecting ads into any websites they browse which then Privacy Badger proceeds to block.
  - kimi 6y ago
    Don't think so. The list looks pretty legit (was posted separately).
  - spzb 6y ago
    Are you in the EU by any chance? Just wondering if it’s a GDPR thing
- MacsHeadroom 6y ago
  CDNs are server side trackers. Even when not serving up browser side tracking code that makes yet more requests (which they often do), they're collecting location and other data based on response times and headers. Google's gv2 beacons, newrelic, cloudflare, etc. This is why tools like decrentral-eyes exists. Unfortunately, tools like actually introduce additional unique identifiers. Even with Javascript disabled, web fonts are tracking you. Even with javascript and web fonts disabled, images and CSS are tracking you. Even first-party images and CSS track you, even over VPNs and Tor. First class web experiences that can't track are only possible by routing all traffic through a trusted remote privacy-by-design pre-caching hash table, like via a trusted IPFS node. Then you also need to only transact with the non-web (e.g. server hosting) service over a routeless protocol. The latter requires the service to support non-custodial routeless protocols for payment and control. This is something dApps do well. It sounds complicated, but every Web3.0 (not to be confused with Web3.js) service already supports this by necessity, even in outdated browsers, simply by choosing a trusted node and updating your browser or device's DNS and proxy settings. No additional software required.
darrenwestall 6y ago
In order to exclude your current customers from your retargeting adverts, you can include the tracking inside your app and then exclude from your audience on FB, Google, Quora etc anyone that has visited logged in URLs. That way you’re only spending money retargeting website visitors who aren’t already customers. We do this at Paiger for this very reason, and I imagine DO is the same. Edit: 20 is extreme though.
- silviogutierrez 6y ago
  Couldn't just upload email/username hashes to the platform? I believe Facebook lookalike audiences work this way. I'm sure it can be automated.
  - darrenwestall 6y ago
    In B2B, users don’t have the same email for Facebook usually.
chris_wot 6y ago
Wow, super bone headed response. Please open a support ticket? Go to hell, just stop tracking your business customers! How many times are Digital Ocean going to make the same stupid mistakes when being called out over outrageous behaviour? They aren’t the biggest player in town and if they continue doing this sort of shit, it will always remain this way.
traveler01 6y ago
Only twenty? Look at Bluehost lol...
bzb6 6y ago
Not using an ad blocker and complaining about this is like not using a condom and complaining about an itchy crotch.
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
  You shouldn't need an ad blocker to get acceptable behavior, especially when you're already paying the company in question.
quaffapint 6y ago
It always amazes me that 40+% of my traffic is being blocked via Pi-Hole. Then there is still ublock origin on top of that. Most of it is trackers (vs ads).

69 points by kimi 6y ago

The automated 'please open a ticket' response is hilarious. We need to start calling behaviour like this out - or just blackhole these DNS servers.

orangepanda 6y ago
Its the equivalent of "open a pull request" when you dont care, and know the other person doesnt care enough to do anything about it.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Hamcha 6y ago
I've had a really unpleasant experience with DO a few years ago. A full ticket of 5+ mails and each one of them felt like it was picked from a list after reading a couple keywords from my issue. They did of course not solve the problem in the end, but not before someone actually replied not understanding the context at all (can't blame them) and using a condescending tone to me.

spzb 6y ago

I've just logged in to my DigitalOcean account and, while Privacy Badger does block a load of connections, I don't see any for Google Ads or Facebook. Most of the ones I do see are for CDNs.

kemonocode 6y ago
Just did the same, and likewise here. I wonder if it's just a product of A/B testing or, more alarmingly, that person has malware injecting ads into any websites they browse which then Privacy Badger proceeds to block.
- kimi 6y ago
  Don't think so. The list looks pretty legit (was posted separately).
- spzb 6y ago
  Are you in the EU by any chance? Just wondering if it’s a GDPR thing
MacsHeadroom 6y ago
CDNs are server side trackers. Even when not serving up browser side tracking code that makes yet more requests (which they often do), they're collecting location and other data based on response times and headers. Google's gv2 beacons, newrelic, cloudflare, etc. This is why tools like decrentral-eyes exists. Unfortunately, tools like actually introduce additional unique identifiers. Even with Javascript disabled, web fonts are tracking you. Even with javascript and web fonts disabled, images and CSS are tracking you. Even first-party images and CSS track you, even over VPNs and Tor. First class web experiences that can't track are only possible by routing all traffic through a trusted remote privacy-by-design pre-caching hash table, like via a trusted IPFS node. Then you also need to only transact with the non-web (e.g. server hosting) service over a routeless protocol. The latter requires the service to support non-custodial routeless protocols for payment and control. This is something dApps do well. It sounds complicated, but every Web3.0 (not to be confused with Web3.js) service already supports this by necessity, even in outdated browsers, simply by choosing a trusted node and updating your browser or device's DNS and proxy settings. No additional software required.

darrenwestall 6y ago

In order to exclude your current customers from your retargeting adverts, you can include the tracking inside your app and then exclude from your audience on FB, Google, Quora etc anyone that has visited logged in URLs. That way you’re only spending money retargeting website visitors who aren’t already customers. We do this at Paiger for this very reason, and I imagine DO is the same. Edit: 20 is extreme though.

silviogutierrez 6y ago
Couldn't just upload email/username hashes to the platform? I believe Facebook lookalike audiences work this way. I'm sure it can be automated.
- darrenwestall 6y ago
  In B2B, users don’t have the same email for Facebook usually.

chris_wot 6y ago

Wow, super bone headed response. Please open a support ticket? Go to hell, just stop tracking your business customers! How many times are Digital Ocean going to make the same stupid mistakes when being called out over outrageous behaviour? They aren’t the biggest player in town and if they continue doing this sort of shit, it will always remain this way.

traveler01 6y ago

Only twenty? Look at Bluehost lol...

bzb6 6y ago

Not using an ad blocker and complaining about this is like not using a condom and complaining about an itchy crotch.

yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
You shouldn't need an ad blocker to get acceptable behavior, especially when you're already paying the company in question.

quaffapint 6y ago

It always amazes me that 40+% of my traffic is being blocked via Pi-Hole. Then there is still ublock origin on top of that. Most of it is trackers (vs ads).