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Comment by gaius | Hacker News Reader

If a person logs out of Facebook, and Facebook continues to track them anyway, then that’s clearly violating consent, and there was a meeting where someone said “we need a way to track people who explicitly do not want to be tracked” and everyone in the room nodded.

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Facebook tracks everyone, every time. Tracks users and non users. Tracks even people trying to avoid that company.

For example, the infamous pixel code.

  <!-- Facebook Pixel Code -->
			<script>
			!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
			n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
			n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
			t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
			document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');
			fbq('init', '477623695968553' );			fbq('track', 'PageView');

			</script>
			<noscript><img height="1" width="1" style="display:none"
			src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=477623695968553&ev=PageView&noscript=1"
			/></noscript>
			<!-- DO NOT MODIFY -->
			<!-- End Facebook Pixel Code -->

In diaspora* you own your data. You don’t sign over rights to a corporation or other interest who could use it. https://diasporafoundation.org

Written in ruby, difficult to install. Have a look at the install requirements.

Like all ruby apps you need a full build environment and tons of dependencies, and if by chance a specific gem fails to compile you are toast in dependency hell.

Given the goal of the project an easier to install and use stack would have helped them.

I installed it a couple of weeks ago to see if it might be a fit for a volunteer org I am part of.

It is not difficult to install. What is wrong with Ruby? I like Ruby.

I was underwhelmed with what Diaspora actually is though.

These aren't user issues, though!

All users have to do is go to https://podupti.me/ and pick a pod.

That's what I did a few weeks ago and I have begun drawing my friends over to it. Every few days I go on facebook and talk about what I've figured out about diaspora.

I've also begun posting my hobby content on diaspora first, then facebook a few days later. When I post on diaspora, I post the invitation to see it on diaspora.

Listening to Zuck's weaseling yesterday I felt vindicated.

The server requirements seems quite easy to install (a server, a database, the ruby/gem stuff, and git).

Not sure how well the package manager works with the long list of gems - https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/blob/develop/Gemfile

I have NoScript set to blacklist any JS from any Facebook domain. Breaking half the internet by default is worth it to neuter this invasive tracking.

NoScript doesn't stop the tracking. See the noscript tags in the html example of the post you replied to.

Oh, that is dastardly, I didn't see that. I also have every FB domain set to null in my hosts file, but I think it's time to extend that to my internal DNS too!

This is one of the reasons I really like uMatrix. In addition to giving really fine-grained controls over what you load (by type of asset, by domain given current domain), it gives you really great visibility into what a webpage is doing, and where it's sending data. I have mine set up to act like NoScript by default -- to block first-party JS.

You end up noticing some surprising things. For example, yesterday I read an article (http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/10/how-to-build-a-low-te...) from Low-Tech Magazine, about how to build a "low-tech internet" (an article I really liked, BTW). Happily, the page loaded just fine without any JavaScript, but I still noticed in my uMatrix panel that the page was trying to load various assets from 20-some domains, about half of which uMatrix recognizes as tracking domains. A little disconcerting for a site called Low-Tech Magazine.

Appropriately, the very site this article is sourced from, The Guardian, readily derided Facebook for its invasive tracking aspects. Another link on HN then pointed out that The Guardian themselves spread data out to 56 tracking services.

Que sera.

I'm currently blocking these domains using uBlock:

    cdninstagram.com
    facebook.com
    facebook.net
    fb.com
    fb.me
    fbcdn.com
    fbcdn.net
    fbsbx.com
    instagram.com
    m.me
    messenger.com
    tfbnw.net
    whatsapp.com

Which sites is that on? When webmasters use Facebook comments or authentication that gets inserted?

All websites where the webmaster wants to leverage Facebook's ads and retargeting. So probably half the websites out there.

Facebook even tracks people who aren't Facebook members. It can build profiles on people who aren't members to learn more about people it can identify and suggest ads/products they might be interested in too.

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