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Comment by toodlebunions | Hacker News Reader

Facebook knows everything. One option is to not use Facebook

No, it's not.

Not using Facebook is kind of like people who refuse to use gmail... in the end it doesn't matter because every time you email someone who uses gmail, they get the conversation anyway through the other end of the link.

To avoid Facebook's surveillance network, you have to not use Facebook AND only interact ONLY with people who don't use Facebook.

Best of luck!

Yes it is. I only execute 1st-party JS. I do interact with people on FB, just not through FB.

Escaping gmail is also possible.

Scenario #1: Exactly as above; your physician uploads his contacts to FB. Congratulations, FB has now linked your email address as a relationship to your physician. You didn't execute any code or interact with FB in any way.

Scenario #2: You are at a party and someone takes a photo of your group, and tags you in the photo. Congratulations, your name, photo, and a link to the person who posted the photo are now on FB without your consent and possibly without your knowledge. Again, you had no personal interaction with FB.

Scenario #3: You email someone at xyzcorp.com. XYZCorp uses gmail for their email hosting. Congratulations, gmail has now linked you to XYZCorp. Here also, you had no intentional interaction directly with Gmail.

The ways in which the likes of Gmail and FB build their social graph are many and varied. Don't underestimate them.

But the aim of these social graphs is for them to sell you junk you don't want. The graphs are useless if you got adblock and JS disabled. Good luck throwing crap at me via the web when I basically neuter your site's DOM too.

Scenarios #1 and #3 allow a 3rd party with access to the graph to send you e-mail related to the Physician (#1), and XYZCorp (#3)... and that is with a single edge. The graphs are not useless.

What if I flag the email as spam? And go as far to block your list of domains which you use to make solicitations? The funny thing is I don't actually do that but it seems GMail has gotten too good at its job to where the only solicitations I get are the ones I actively pursue. I'm not faulting them for using social graphs, I'm just saying that at some point that their utility is subjective to such a point to be a kind of solipsism. Sure you know who I am but what if I never read the email? Sure you know my doctor but what if I only use them as a rubber stamp for my medications and maybe check my health once a year? How do you get your marketing shim in there to wedge my wallet open? I can't see how it works maybe because I'm the extreme case here of a hard customer.

I don't use Facebook or WhatsApp, That's not a helpful option - they have all my contacts from the other side of the contact, because almost none of my acquaintances cares.

If you're calling them acquaintances, why do you even care?

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