I wrote some words for ~ this week in security ~ about how social media giants (aka: ad tech companies!) track you around the web, even if you don't have an account or use their apps.
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I wrote some words for ~ this week in security ~ about how social media giants (aka: ad tech companies!) track you around the web, even if you don't have an account or use their apps. Follows from a brilliant column in the BBC about TikTok's use of website "pixels" to track people's browsing activity.
Sign up (or RSS) for the weekly newsletter, out Sundays. No email open or link click tracking! https://this.weekinsecurity.com
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I wrote some words for ~ this week in security ~ about how social media giants (aka: ad tech companies!) track you around the web, even if you don't have an account or use their apps. Follows from a brilliant column in the BBC about TikTok's use of website "pixels" to track people's browsing activity.
Sign up (or RSS) for the weekly newsletter, out Sundays. No email open or link click tracking! https://this.weekinsecurity.com
The good news is that hidden web tracking "pixels" are relatively easy to defeat. It's also why using an ad-blocker is one of my top pieces of security advice for anyone, as ad-blockers help to reduce surveillance and online tracking, while helping to keep you safer from malware.
Here's why: https://this.weekinsecurity.com/why-ad-blockers-are-a-top-security-and-privacy-defense-for-everyone/
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The good news is that hidden web tracking "pixels" are relatively easy to defeat. It's also why using an ad-blocker is one of my top pieces of security advice for anyone, as ad-blockers help to reduce surveillance and online tracking, while helping to keep you safer from malware.
Here's why: https://this.weekinsecurity.com/why-ad-blockers-are-a-top-security-and-privacy-defense-for-everyone/
@zackwhittaker Agreed, still this bothers me too
That doesn't mean that I will cease to use them tho.
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R relay@relay.an.exchange shared this topic
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I wrote some words for ~ this week in security ~ about how social media giants (aka: ad tech companies!) track you around the web, even if you don't have an account or use their apps. Follows from a brilliant column in the BBC about TikTok's use of website "pixels" to track people's browsing activity.
Sign up (or RSS) for the weekly newsletter, out Sundays. No email open or link click tracking! https://this.weekinsecurity.com
@zackwhittaker Perhaps your article suggests using lockdown mode on iOS, but I don’t know because the article doesn’t load in lockdown mode. Thought you might like to know.
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I wrote some words for ~ this week in security ~ about how social media giants (aka: ad tech companies!) track you around the web, even if you don't have an account or use their apps. Follows from a brilliant column in the BBC about TikTok's use of website "pixels" to track people's browsing activity.
Sign up (or RSS) for the weekly newsletter, out Sundays. No email open or link click tracking! https://this.weekinsecurity.com
@zackwhittaker This is a positive step but not a protection. TikTok, Meta and others have been using server-to-server tracking APIs for a while now, and you can't protect from that on the client
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I wrote some words for ~ this week in security ~ about how social media giants (aka: ad tech companies!) track you around the web, even if you don't have an account or use their apps. Follows from a brilliant column in the BBC about TikTok's use of website "pixels" to track people's browsing activity.
Sign up (or RSS) for the weekly newsletter, out Sundays. No email open or link click tracking! https://this.weekinsecurity.com
@zackwhittaker you can't just stop at eating just one evercookie zack
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@zackwhittaker Perhaps your article suggests using lockdown mode on iOS, but I don’t know because the article doesn’t load in lockdown mode. Thought you might like to know.
@mossmann @zackwhittaker loads for me with lockdown mode on. Maybe content blocker issue?
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R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topic
N nateb@mastodon.thenewoil.org shared this topic
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I wrote some words for ~ this week in security ~ about how social media giants (aka: ad tech companies!) track you around the web, even if you don't have an account or use their apps. Follows from a brilliant column in the BBC about TikTok's use of website "pixels" to track people's browsing activity.
Sign up (or RSS) for the weekly newsletter, out Sundays. No email open or link click tracking! https://this.weekinsecurity.com
@zackwhittaker Brilliant? It was dogshit journalism. A fucking terrible article, confused, and misleading, targeting only bytedance from a platform that itself has tracking pixels. I am glad you correct the record but the people who would most be misled are let's face it sadly not going to be disabused of the harmful misconceptions due to the reach disparity. Given the fact that the BBC are running pretty regular china-bad opeds I suspect that this is from our man in Havana. So is it even news.
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@zackwhittaker Brilliant? It was dogshit journalism. A fucking terrible article, confused, and misleading, targeting only bytedance from a platform that itself has tracking pixels. I am glad you correct the record but the people who would most be misled are let's face it sadly not going to be disabused of the harmful misconceptions due to the reach disparity. Given the fact that the BBC are running pretty regular china-bad opeds I suspect that this is from our man in Havana. So is it even news.
@zackwhittaker And don't get me wrong. China definitely bad and bytedance bad on a whole other level altogether pushing onqt (surprisingly) MAGA propaganda via their AI... but telling your ancient pre-internet relative that the Tiktok app itself (rather than the company via third party data sharing agreements) can track you even if you don't use it, is just unethical and ultimately counter productive technophobic scaremongering. Integrity is important, once you lose it... etc
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@zackwhittaker Brilliant? It was dogshit journalism. A fucking terrible article, confused, and misleading, targeting only bytedance from a platform that itself has tracking pixels. I am glad you correct the record but the people who would most be misled are let's face it sadly not going to be disabused of the harmful misconceptions due to the reach disparity. Given the fact that the BBC are running pretty regular china-bad opeds I suspect that this is from our man in Havana. So is it even news.
@zackwhittaker Today's China-bad article is not so terrible, might even be real.
Although a native speaker wouldn't say 'Ni hao', it's a real phrase book opening.
Is this a 'very Chinese time in your life'? Chinamaxxing trend boosts China's soft power
Chinamaxxing is adding more gloss to the recent flourish of Chinese soft power.
BBC News (www.bbc.co.uk)
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I wrote some words for ~ this week in security ~ about how social media giants (aka: ad tech companies!) track you around the web, even if you don't have an account or use their apps. Follows from a brilliant column in the BBC about TikTok's use of website "pixels" to track people's browsing activity.
Sign up (or RSS) for the weekly newsletter, out Sundays. No email open or link click tracking! https://this.weekinsecurity.com
@zackwhittaker I want to erase myself from the advertisers, and the more I plan how to approach this the more I think it's impossible.
I can file GDPR (right to be forgotten) but my internal profile will be kept based on anti-fraud loophole, and all what it would take to restore it is a thing like reCAPTCHA, that not only detects humans by mouse movements and click patterns -- they can identify you. Or any data point that would leak from 3rdparties, browser fingerprint, device ID, phone number -
@mossmann @zackwhittaker loads for me with lockdown mode on. Maybe content blocker issue?
@supernothing @zackwhittaker Ah, you're right. It loads for me in iOS lockdown mode too. Where it does not load for me is actually iPadOS with lockdown mode, tested with 18.7.3.
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R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic