Fed up with Facebook data slurping? Firefox has a cunning plan

[steve2470]

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/28/firefox_thinks_inside_the_box_for_facebook/

Sensing an opportunity in Facebook's squandering of public trust through its previously unrestrained giveaway of user data, Mozilla on Tuesday unveiled a defense against the social ad biz in the form of an add-on for Firefox called Facebook Container.

The Firefox add-on, as its name suggests, attempts to contain Facebook's tracking attempts, in an effort to provide refuge from the internet advertising panopticon.

Along similar lines, Mozilla last week said it would stop advertising on Facebook in an effort to encourage CEO Mark Zuckerberg to improve Facebook privacy settings. It also said it plans to implement a basic ad filter in Firefox later this year.

Mozilla began developing Containers for Firefox in 2016 and started deploying them last year. The technology provides a way to create contexts (tabs) in which browser-based data – cookies, indexedDB, localStorage, and cache – can be sandboxed.

[Freelancer]

1. Have the browser go to random sites continuously. Make a needlestack

They want our data. I say give it to them. Pour a river of useless data down their throats.

What we need is a browser that, in the background, generates a random trail of sites and stays there for random intervals of time. That would force facebook to determine which sites were gone to intentionally as opposed to the ones your browser visited randomly.

[duforsure]

2. What should happen

Another company will start up a more secure type of program to use other than Facebook, and that will vow to not allow data shopping or advertising by those for illegal purposes . Facebook's fall will be coming soon after they're exposed more.

[steve2470]

3. I wonder if people would actually pay, say, $1 or $2 a month for "no spying" Facebook ?

I know a lot of people would not, but as they say, if it's free, YOU'RE the product. At least with paying a small fee, you could be assured (hopefully) of no privacy violations.

[Chico Man]

4. Possibly

Plenty of folks pay for Spotify, Netflix, private GitHub, cloud data / photo storage, Amazon Prime, etc etc. I don’t think it will ever be as ubiquitous as FB was as it’s prime. In general, I think FB is going out of fashion.

[Chico Man]

5. Data slurping is the FB business model

Every user agrees to it when they sign up. It’s not some kind of public utility. I think it’s dying a slow death as the novelty of rabid social media fades away.

[Mike Niendorff]

6. Firefox + this add-on good solution

I am using Firefox with this add-on right now.

It's simple and works great. And if you want greater web privacy, there is a broader version also available (which I am also using, because it's a really good solution).

Recommended.


MDN

[Historic NY]

8. I just downloaded it...

[BadgerKid]

7. Didn't social media plugin blockers work?

It was said FB was profiling people using the presence of Like buttons on web pages. You didn't need to be logged in to FB. Those plugins were supposedly "hiding" those button so you couldn't be tracked.