nanog mailing list archives

Re: OT: Re: Facebook and other walled gardens


From: Michael Thomas <mike () mtcc com>
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2021 11:52:20 -0700


On 3/22/21 11:41 AM, William Herrin wrote:
On Mon, Mar 22, 2021 at 10:23 AM Andy Ringsmuth <andy () andyring com> wrote:
No. Use a communication method that is available globally, not proprietary and doesn’t require me to sell my soul to 
the devil simply to participate.
Hi Andy,

I refused to get a Facebook account until I was paid to. Now that I
have one, I wonder why I bothered. I isolate it in its own browser
profile so it can't snoop the rest of my web activity and I gave it an
alias email address that only they have. I mostly  control what
information I give them. I like having an effortless way to keep up
with my extended friends and family. In spite of that, I was surprised
how good a job Facebook did targeting ads to my interests -- the
knight hoodies were just too cool.

Air-gapping the browsers is certainly best, but Firefox has been really clamping down on super-cookies and the like. It will be interesting to see what the overall effect is.

My husband and friends have been having good laughs lately about some of the weird targeted ads they get. They are definitely not perfect. I use Facebook Purity and don't see their ads at all.

Mike


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