Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

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Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
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Meta could track your browser sessions even in incognito and link them with your real identity (www.zeropartydata.es)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

47 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Meta devised an ingenious system (“localhost tracking”) that bypassed Android’s sandbox protections to identify you while browsing on your mobile phone — even if you used a VPN, the browser’s incognito mode, and refused or deleted cookies in every session.

This is the process through which Meta (Facebook/Instagram) managed to link what you do in your browser (for example, visiting a news site or an online store) with your real identity (your Facebook or Instagram account), even if you never logged into your account through the browser or anything like that.

Meta accomplishes this through two invisible channels that exchange information:

(i) The Facebook or Instagram app running in the background on your phone, even when you’re not using it.

(ii) Meta’s tracking scripts (the now-pulled illegal brainchild uncovered last week), which operate inside your mobile web browser.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Be brave, do it. I just did it a few months ago. Just push the trigger and delete it. Let it go. They will of course keep the data, but at least not legally anymore.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

I haven't deleted it because there are a couple of people I might theoretically need to get in touch with at some point that I don't have contact with otherwise.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago

Fair enough.

I held on to this possibility for similar reasons for years, but after some honest self reflection I cannot say there would be anyone from my past life who is still important and I have no other means to contact, my Facebook bubble from 10 years ago and more is long dead, i.e. similarly inactive.

Maybe giving people an email address, phone number or username somewhere else via Facebook message before leaving for good could also be a solution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

You can still use a browser for that occasion. Meanwhile the app is doing things in the background.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago

I haven't had the app installed since I got my phone. I don't believe it was installed by default, or if it was I removed it immediately.