5 ms·
Do you have any evidence to say that this is the case other than speculation? It's also possible that they just changed the URL format. FWIW `pfbid` seems to be
by dom96 4y ago
Do you have any evidence to say that this is the case other than speculation? It's also possible that they just changed the URL format. FWIW `pfbid` seems to be a shortened version of "post fb id" so why would it include the "cl id"?
- drexlspivey 4y agowhat's the reason to change from the old format if that's all it does?
- aaomidi 4y agoMultiple other companies doing the same thing would point to a trend.
- isametry 4y agoRule #n of the internet: If Meta does anything which doesn't explicitly protect the privacy of users, you can safely assume that it harms the privacy of users.
- danijelb 4y agoI went to Vice's fb page, found the same post that OP linked to and checked the URL. The pfbid part is exactly the same to me. The URL by default has some additional params attached like __cft__ and __tn__, which can be stripped, and those are probably tracking-related. Based on this, I don't think that pfbid is connected to tracking
- tyingq 4y agoIf I were Meta, this is how I would implement this. First, get everyone used to the new opaque base64 encoded blob, by using it just like the previous numeric post id. Then, after all the initial speculation dies down, encode other stuff in it.
- tedmiston 4y agoAre you sure about that? It's not the same for me. OP: https://www.facebook.com/VICE/posts/pfbid02XdVziPTwhmPU9XzBqkRvU5o7NPXUicAJgVy8kf1a1W51hU7EmgMmCigo9rZWxCjDl https://www.facebook.com/VICE/posts/pfbid02XdVziPTwhmPU9XzBq... Me: https://www.facebook.com/VICE/posts/pfbid0TbuHEaGP2fLTRDFRTuv4Q1GtJGVfHX7Wx1gNtLoH1Bfbp9cFh6VUK4ACWjBBWsBql https://www.facebook.com/VICE/posts/pfbid0TbuHEaGP2fLTRDFRTu... There were also a bunch of other query params junk after that I omitted here for brevity.
- zo1 4y agoFacebook will Facebook, that's a given. But why aren't FB employees (anonymously) responding here and explaining how this "pfbid" thing can be circumvented or even what it contains? Where are the actual privacy activists that will do a grep through the FB sourcecode for pfbid and give us the scoop??
- zem 4y agoprobably takes a certain mentality to still be working at facebook and the people who cared enough to do this sort of thing left instead
- __derek__ 4y agoIt looks like one already explained what this is: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32119684 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32119684