4 ms·

Help Us Investigate Facebook Pixel Tracking

24 points by tech_timc 5y ago

marginalia_nu 5y ago
- dang 5y ago
  "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - marginalia_nu 5y ago
    I absolutely do think the dissonance of Mozilla's talking and actions need to be discussed in this context. They position themselves as pro-privacy and anti-tracking, but ship tracking add-ons (like this one), have telemetry that is nearly impossible to disable in their web browser, and beyond that, have the ability to push arbitrary code or configuration changes to your browser without consent or notice (including, apparently, re-enabling telemetry once disabled).
    - dang 5y ago
      Sure, it's fine to discuss that in a substantive way.
    - commoner 5y ago
      Mozilla Rally is not preloaded on Firefox. Users who want to participate in this study about Facebook's pixel tracking can opt in by installing the add-on and entering the study. Users who don't want to participate don't need to do anything to stay out of the study. Defending Facebook's pervasive tracking of users and non-users across the web by pointing the finger at Mozilla's use of telemetry and automatic updates is not very persuasive, primarily because it's not even a defense of Facebook, which performs tracking on a much, much greater scale than Mozilla and most other companies.
      - marginalia_nu 5y ago
        > Mozilla Rally is not preloaded on Firefox. Users who want to participate in this study about Facebook's pixel tracking can opt in by installing the add-on and entering the study. Users who don't want to participate don't need to do anything to stay out of the study. Well, right now it isn't, probably. But what is actually running on Firefox is only an illusory choice. They could absolutely deploy it without my knowledge or will. The same way they can reverse my rejection of their telemetry. > Defending Facebook's pervasive tracking of users and non-users across the web by pointing the finger at Mozilla's use of telemetry and automatic updates is not very persuasive, primarily because it's not even a defense of Facebook, which performs tracking on a much, much greater scale than Mozilla and most other companies. I'm not defending Facebook, I'm saying neither should be doing what they are doing. I'm only looking at what these organizations are doing, I don't care about how they motivate it or how good they promise they are.

24 points by tech_timc 5y ago

marginalia_nu 5y ago

dang 5y ago
"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- marginalia_nu 5y ago
  I absolutely do think the dissonance of Mozilla's talking and actions need to be discussed in this context. They position themselves as pro-privacy and anti-tracking, but ship tracking add-ons (like this one), have telemetry that is nearly impossible to disable in their web browser, and beyond that, have the ability to push arbitrary code or configuration changes to your browser without consent or notice (including, apparently, re-enabling telemetry once disabled).
  - dang 5y ago
    Sure, it's fine to discuss that in a substantive way.
  - commoner 5y ago
    Mozilla Rally is not preloaded on Firefox. Users who want to participate in this study about Facebook's pixel tracking can opt in by installing the add-on and entering the study. Users who don't want to participate don't need to do anything to stay out of the study. Defending Facebook's pervasive tracking of users and non-users across the web by pointing the finger at Mozilla's use of telemetry and automatic updates is not very persuasive, primarily because it's not even a defense of Facebook, which performs tracking on a much, much greater scale than Mozilla and most other companies.
    - marginalia_nu 5y ago
      > Mozilla Rally is not preloaded on Firefox. Users who want to participate in this study about Facebook's pixel tracking can opt in by installing the add-on and entering the study. Users who don't want to participate don't need to do anything to stay out of the study. Well, right now it isn't, probably. But what is actually running on Firefox is only an illusory choice. They could absolutely deploy it without my knowledge or will. The same way they can reverse my rejection of their telemetry. > Defending Facebook's pervasive tracking of users and non-users across the web by pointing the finger at Mozilla's use of telemetry and automatic updates is not very persuasive, primarily because it's not even a defense of Facebook, which performs tracking on a much, much greater scale than Mozilla and most other companies. I'm not defending Facebook, I'm saying neither should be doing what they are doing. I'm only looking at what these organizations are doing, I don't care about how they motivate it or how good they promise they are.