Re: Facebook increasing tracking

Facebook increasing tracking (Score: 3, Interesting)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-10-15 10:02 (#QJ0M)

This is a good article explaining how Facebook is becoming even more intrusive, and how it might be violating current laws:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/10/internet-companies-confusing-consumers-profit

I'd say web browsers are to blame. They are built on the model of "trust everything", which is the source of so many problems. Popups and the blink tag are a thing of the past, because web browsers chose to eliminate them. They could just as easily eliminate most "web bugs" that allow user tracking and other annoyances. If privacy and security were primary considerations, instead of "Does this pixel show up EXACTLY where it was supposed to?" the web could be a far faster, safer, and more private place.

In the extreme case, imagine all web browsers only rendered basic HTML by default... If you want to accept cookies, load images, scripts, or 3rd party CSS on a given page, you just hit a toolbar button to do so, but otherwise you get the basic version (with placeholders) with no possibility of 3rd party tracking, no floating toolbars or overlay ads, no user-hostile scripts that disable right-clicking, etc. It would be slightly inonvenient for users, but has many advantages, and would be a strong incentive for sites to rely less on those web bugs.

Re: Facebook increasing tracking (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-10-15 20:53 (#QM26)

Interesting article.

You raise some good points, too. The problem I see with making browsers more focused on privacy and security is that so many websites would stop working with them. Hotmail, GMail, and so many others would become even more useless than they presently are, and people would just refuse to use them rather than demand that the website changes its policies.