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."
Oh no! the rats are eating each other.
this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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Okay I'll bite. I work in product management for capitalist software companies. Every single software product you use has trackers built in unless if you're hardcore FOSS.
Even if the company has no interest in selling your data, it's still really hard to learn about user behaviours in the real world in order to figure out what to build next. Many of these trackers are UX tools, much more than selling your data tools. My previous employer fully anonymized and aggregated usage data, but we can't necessarily say the same for other companies.
These trackers are the industry default and honestly, I don't know where we'd be without them. We use them to measure the success of what we build and to look for surprises/opportunities.
On that note, for products and websites that I like, I sometimes intentionally turn off my ad and privacy blockers for them (as long as it's not intrusive). It's hard to do our work without that data.
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I don't care if this app becomes the new norm, I ain't risking all that metadata. Fuck Facebook
Youtube has done it now. The internet fighting is on. Truly not able to see Youtube now with blockers.
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So much Threads panic, yet we're apparently willing to just believe whatever DuckDuckGo says, even though the company has a pretty terrible track record.
Go look at the permissions Threads is granted. Mine has Notifications and nothing else. Android won't let it have access to most of the information in that list.
"Known to collect" - this app is sending data back to Facebook and we've made some wild ass assumptions about what that data might be in order to scare you into getting all your friends to download our browser. Worked pretty well, huh.
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Well this fuckings sucks. Hard.
This is why I only ever access Facebook through FireFox Focus and use a fake name.