In the few short hours since I started using #Threads, #DuckDuckGo has already blocked over 200 data tracking attempts. These include things like "headphone status" and "screen density."
We need a third party app.
this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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That seems so unnecessary. Why do they want to interfere with screen density??
Screen density is usually needed to work out the resolution of images to load. A high-DPI ("Retina") screen uses higher-resolution images than a low-DPI screen.
opposite really... Notice "Screen Resolution" is on that list as a separate item as well...
Screen Density would tell you roughly how big the screen actually is. If you have a 4k panel... but it's only 6 inches, you can probably serve up a 720p image instead of the full 4k one and the user won't notice the difference since you'd have to hold the screen an inch away to see anything different.
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Okay I'll bite. I work in product management for capitalist software companies. Every single software product you use has trackers built in unless if you're hardcore FOSS.
Even if the company has no interest in selling your data, it's still really hard to learn about user behaviours in the real world in order to figure out what to build next. Many of these trackers are UX tools, much more than selling your data tools. My previous employer fully anonymized and aggregated usage data, but we can't necessarily say the same for other companies.
These trackers are the industry default and honestly, I don't know where we'd be without them. We use them to measure the success of what we build and to look for surprises/opportunities.
On that note, for products and websites that I like, I sometimes intentionally turn off my ad and privacy blockers for them (as long as it's not intrusive). It's hard to do our work without that data.
Obviously there's a difference between UX analytics and data collection the data vacuuming Facebook does.
Say you can justify each piece of data collected via a UX element. Someone said in the comments: low battery, charger ad. Where do you draw the line between data for the product vs data for profit? You don't. It's all embedded in the idea of "the product".
This is a company that sells ads AND data. They collect everything. Consumers don't seem to care. Tiktok is still popular. People see this post and will still download Threads.
It's important for people to understand the industry justification behind data collection and why it's so widespread across the industry so we can have this conversation about what "too much data" actually means. Serving me relevant ads like places near me for food? I guess that's a feature. A face aging app that we train to feed a military database of faces to track down deserters? Not so much.
that sells ads AND data
Companies like Google and Facebook don't sell data. That's a common misconception. Having data that other companies don't have is what makes the companies valuable, so it doesn't make business sense to sell it. What they do is allow advertisers to target people using that data. Advertisers never actually see the data, nor the exact users their ad reached, just aggregate metrics.
Don't they have partnership agreements and secondary products that repackages their data as insights? (I'm thinking Cambridge Analytica.) It's not a direct sale, per se.
Repackaged data in the form of other products is one way to do it.
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This is why I use Privacy Badger
Not only does it show you what and where it blocks, but you can also whitelist blocking in case you play browser games.
I've been using Chrome with Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin for eons, now. Listening to youtube playlists without getting interrupted by ads is a real treat...
You'd LOVE Sponsor Block then.
It uses AI to cut out all sponsorships from within YouTube videos. Anything AI misses, the users can cut out.
So no more Raid Shadow Legends or Nord VPN interruptions. Just pure entertainment!
Is it AI based? I thought people add their own time segments with a label. I know I can turn the feature on to do that using Revanced.
Orientation? Why would Facebook need to know if my phone is gay? Jk, I know they really want to know my phone's political orientation. Joke's on them, my phone voted for Megatron.
This is what I got after 5 minutes.
I understand getting location because the big companies have country specific websites that have different pricing and products but why boot time?
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People here complaining about Threads and TikTok (Chinese owned) being the defacto social network for an entire generation over there without outrage, and when it's outrage about it people just say "at least is not the US" what kind of defense is that?
I usually don't like these types of comments but here we go: Because in TikTok america bad memes are really popular. And TikTok is owned by the Chinese. What a coincidence.I don't understand how TikTok is being defended here, its basically propaganda.Wasn't there a case of like a huuge amount of videos critizising the chinese goverment removed?
Woah dude don't get racial
I'm so tired can you re explain what you trying to say
200 in a few hours sounds like a lot (well, it is) but is small compared to some apps I use. Revolut tried to make tens of thousands of requests in an hour last time I looked! I expect that particular app is coded badly so when it gets rejected it just endlessly tries to repeat the request.
I highly recommend everyone installs something like the DuckDuckGo android app because it blocks tracking attempts in all apps. It's a bit horrifying to see how often, how much, and what type of data all our apps are requesting.
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How do I get duckduckgo to block tracking attempts?
Okay I think I have it. I just installed the duckduckgo app and enabled the tracking protection in settings. And right now I am shocked. The amount of tracking attempts in the last 30 minutes has been mind boggling. 300 attempts and counting! Is this normal?
I enabled it just now and got a massive list from opening the memrise app. In total, 212 so far over 3 apps. I've been using ddg for ages, I never really gave a second thought to the optional features. Thanks to everyone who's been posting screenshots of it!
Edit:
Droplets is literally a kid's app.
Is this the ddg browser? Are you seeing what it blocks through the browser or does it somehow block on the phone outside the browser like firewalls?
That’s insane, well I know one thing. This is making me want to go download the DuckDuckGo browser.
Shill🤖
What’s your preferred private search engine?
A public Searxng instance is a great way to get some privacy back. We can run searches against multiple engines and settings stay in the local browser. Image searches can be proxied as well if the particular instance allows for it.
Enjoy!
That's your fault for using threads
You got a good point. I minimized my usege of Facebook to the ~~minimum~~ maximum.
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Delete them? Just dont install the damn app, stop using facebook!