cross-posted from: https://social.fossware.space/post/123876

In the few short hours since I started using #Threads, #DuckDuckGo has already blocked over 200 data tracking attempts. These include things like “headphone status” and “screen density.”

Trackers, trackers and ol’ Zucc’s roboface galore.

  • danAEnglish
    13·
    1 year ago

    I mean… many of those are reasonable? I don’t see how checking the available device memory, screen resolution, screen rotation, etc are bad since the app could use them to improve the experience. Lower RAM = don’t preload as many posts, lower screen resolution = load smaller images, etc. all of which need to send flags to the server (a smaller number of posts to load, the max dimensions of images to return, etc)

    • sapient [they/them]@infosec.pubEnglish
      41·
      1 year ago

      This is obviously not the case when your client could just directly request things within it’s resource limits.

      Seriously, why would you give Meta the benefit of the doubt? These are just more datapoints to profile and analyze users.

      • danAEnglish
        11·
        1 year ago

        These are just more datapoints to profile and analyze users.

        I’m just being realistic. Seeing it in DuckDuckGo just means the app has requested that data - they don’t actually know exactly how it’s used. Just seeing that the data is loaded by the app doesn’t mean anything. So far, nobody has actually been able to prove that any of this data is used for profiling users. Analyzing network traffic isn’t too difficult so there’d likely be proof by now if it was actually happening (like Wireshark captures).

        • sapient [they/them]@infosec.pubEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Profiling happens on the server end, but the unique identification can happen either on the server end or the client end or both.

          And it’s Meta. Their entire organisation is dedicated to manipulation, data collection, etc. - hell, they might do the profiling inside the app and only send results. What’s “realistic” is expecting them to spy on you, not giving an organisation like them any benefit of the doubt!

        • pup_atlas@pawb.socialEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          There is, how do you think Cambridge Analytica did it. They’ve literally already been sued over this, it’s been confirmed they are collecting and using this data against users.

          • danAEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            Cambridge Analytica violated the developer terms of service and scraped data via the Graph API, which was free to use. That’s why the API is extremely locked down now. https://upvote.au/comment/105473