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Facebook Businesses Privacy Politics

Senators Ask Zuckerberg To Explain Why Facebook Still Tracks Users' Location Even When They Have Asked it Not To (cnbc.com) 39

Posted by msmash from the tussle-continues dept.
Two senators are asking Facebook to "respect" users' decisions to keep their location data from the company. From a report: In a letter sent Tuesday, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to respond to questions about how the company collects location data through the new operating systems for Apple's iPhones and Google's Android. Both Google and Apple updated their operating systems earlier this year to give users more control and insight into which apps can access their location data. Anticipating those changes, Facebook released a blog post in September explaining that even if users opt out of letting Facebook collect their data, it could still determine users' locations in other ways, like through check-ins and users' internet connections.

"If a user has decided to limit Facebook's access to his or her location, Facebook should respect these privacy choices," the senators, members of the Judiciary Committee, wrote in the letter to Zuckerberg. "The language in the blog post, however, indicates that Facebook may continue to collect location data despite user preferences, even if the user is not engaging with the app, and Facebook is simply deducing the user's location from information about his or her internet connection. Given that most mobile devices are connected to the internet nearly all the time, whether through a cellular network or a Wi-Fi connection, this practice would allow Facebook to collect user location data almost constantly, irrespective of the user's privacy preferences. Users who have selected a restrictive location services option could reasonably be under the misimpression that their selection limits all of Facebook's efforts to extract location information."
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Senators Ask Zuckerberg To Explain Why Facebook Still Tracks Users' Location Even When They Have Asked it Not To More

Senators Ask Zuckerberg To Explain Why Facebook Still Tracks Users' Location Even When They Have Asked it Not To

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  • suzieq-2:~ betsuin$ cat /etc/hosts | grep face
    # localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
    127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com
    127.0.0.1 facebook.com
    127.0.0.1 login.facebook.com
    127.0.0.1 www.login.facebook.com
    127.0.0.1 static.ak.connect.facebook.com
    127.0.0.1 connect.facebook.net
    127.0.0.1 www.connect.facebook.net
    127.0.0.1 apps.facebook.com
    ::1 www.facebook.com
    ::1 facebook.com
    ::1 login.facebook.com
    ::1 www.login.facebook.com
    ::1 static.ak.connect.facebook.com
    ::1 connect.facebook.ne
    • Here's four more. There's probably a few more besides this.

      fb.com
      fb.me
      fbcdn.net
      fbsbx.com

      • I had to do this for my wife at the restaurant she runs (employees use office computer for Facebook when she isn't around and it's slow)

        It sure it wouldn't take too many addresses to make Facebook effectively unusable, but if you truly want to block Facebook, the list of hosts I used was huge!

        https://qz.com/1234502/how-to-block-facebook-all-the-urls-you-need-to-block-to-actually-stop-using-facebook/

        Even with that list I was able to get Facebook page impressions by googling various Facebook phrases, (seemed

        • The FB URLs also use HTTPS which complicates things when trying to filter / block it, and some browsers, which I think Chrome is one, do not use the system DNS and can bypass the hosts entries.

          Windows does support placing entries into the hosts file, it's located at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

          It's tricky to edit the hosts file in Windows 10, notepad or other editor needs to be run as an administrator.
          I have a few entries there to block ads that show up in the web mail client at outlook.com.

          • Thanks for this, yes that was the file I modified.
            I guess what surprised me was the fact that a domain like facebook.com being set to 0.0.0.0 wouldn't cover subdomain.facebook.com...

            I guess if I really thought about it, it does make sense... I guess in theory it might make sense for a sub domain to exist somewhere else. mycompany.com while images.mycompany.com might point to something associated with, but not managed by my company...(like a cloud service that hosts images for the site, ultimately being host

          • It's tricky to edit the hosts file in Windows 10, notepad or other editor needs to be run as an administrator.

            Just open notepad.exe in PowerShell which has admin permissions. Usually, however, I'm doing a hosts file edit on a relative's/friend's machine which needed a re/install. I take a list with me of edits to various things I typically do as a baseline and then stick a linux live USB bootable thumb drive in and boot it and edit from linux. It seems much faster than using win10's horrid UI especially in it's freshly-installed state of utter shit.

            I thought I might turn it into a BASH script, but honestly I don't

            • Gotta get them younger members into Lutris, it's actually pretty good, and seems to have a great community!

              Lutris has enabled me to game in Linux, I just still have that work life dependency keeping my main OS windows...

              Interestingly on the note of Lutris, success, at least on my part, involved using a distribution like Ubuntu with frequent very modern video driver releases, but still required a Docker container for an Arch setup to rebuild the run-time any time a game released a breaking patch (but at leas

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Khyber ( 864651 )

          "Also the office computer was windows, maybe /etc/hosts works a little differently?"

          Browsers bypass HOSTs by default now days and use their own DNS.

    • Re:Facebook to Lo (Score:4, Informative)

      by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @07:23PM (#59433036)

      Here's a link to a list of about 900 Facebook domains, including those for Instagram and WhatsApp created in 2018 (in hosts file format).

      All the URLs you need to block to *actually* stop using Facebook [qz.com]

  • they track users and non-users alike. it is just that non-users do not have a way way to just say no. even if facebook abides by the users wishes.

    I doubt any website stops tracking. the other day I was on a website, they asked me for my location, I said no. a few minutes later, got an ad from a store in my area.

  • My zoomer brain cannot comprehend, but I know it's their fault!
    • Depending on what permissions the app gets (I don't use Facebook, so I don't know) if they can see wireless network ssid + Mac address (bot ones you are and aren't connected to) they can fairly reliably figure out your location in most populated areas, since databases of that info are pretty comprehensive these days.
    • Because you or other users may have previously used a connection through that IP address when the GPS was enabled, or perhaps you or they were connected through that IP address when providing your physical address to a website, for example, when doing online shopping and having goods shipped to your home, etc. There are many, many ways that your IP address is linked to your physical location.

      • If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?

        Of course not; since those are still evil creatures you will still be modded down. To be modded up you need to be an elf or a hobbit.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Strill ( 6019874 )

      They know which ISP you're connecting through, and the IP addresses which belong to your ISP are public knowledge. So they can generally track what city you're in by observing your IP address, although it's not terribly accurate.

      • "Not terribly accurate" is an understatement sometimes. Anybody using my IP address to get my location is going to be wrong by about 130 miles. That means I'm somewhere in a circle with a little over 58,000 square miles area. Go ahead, try to guess where I am from just that!
    • Geolocation by IP address is a Real Thing, you know. With the right level of access you could even get it down to what street you live on. If they have access to your ISP, they could get your exact address.

  • Dear Senators... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SirAstral ( 1349985 ) on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @06:52PM (#59432888)

    Unless you are going to do something about it, shut your pie holes and go back to your lobbyists... of which likely include Facebook. Please get off your freshly painted & fake high horses and either find a way to charge Facebook with criminal violations of their terms of service just like you would a citizen hacking facebook or create some laws that will criminally punish facebook for doing what they are doing.

    Oh an be sure to tell your voters that this is why you have no respect for them, why they are so easily taken advantage of, and how they deserve exactly what they get for continuing to use a service well known for its privacy violations. We are long past this issue to the point where the problem is the people using this service, if they like having their privacy raped then that is their problem...

    How about you instead go and look at google making deals with corporations to take peoples medical data and exposing it and their personal information online? There is a situation that could use your "valuable" attention.

    • Unless you are going to do something about it, shut your pie holes and go back to your lobbyists...

      That is precisely what they are doing sending the letters in the first place. They send the letters about privacy, people think they are doing something productive, Facebook then knows they need to increase the political contributions to their campaigns.

      Its actually a very refined process.

    • You do understand that two senators cannot make something a law, right?

    • Unless you are going to do something about it, shut your pie holes and go back to your lobbyists

      Of course they will not do anything about it. They know that and so does Zuckerberg and this is all just theater.
      If I were him and they asked me that I'd hold up a picture of my house(s) and say this is why. I flew here on my own personal 747. I'm putting a runway in my back yard with a tunnel from my house so I can board the jet from underground in case it is windy next time I come testify.

  • what are you gonna do, stop him? You'd have to vote for pro consumer politicians. And those ones usually come with strings attached, like being economically & socially progressive.
  • Which is why I do NOT have facebook on any of my portable devices and never will.

  • Zuck: "Because the Flux Capacitor needs to cross reference the matrix transformation hyper-visor reflection reduction multitronic bypass filter."

  • Because they can. Because Zuck doesn't have enough money yet.

  • Aside from some networking-related apps, why would an app be allowed to know the device's SSID in the first place?

    SSID geo-mapping is a well-known and effective technique for determining device location. Apple and Google are not unaware of this, and to whatever extent they claim to care about privacy this loophole should have been sewn shut long ago.

  • Fuck Facebook! And fuck the Zuck!

  • Why donâ(TM)t they just do their jobs and pass a law?

  • "Facebook released a blog post in September explaining that even if users opt out of letting Facebook collect their data, it could still determine users' locations in other ways, like through check-ins and users' internet connections."

    so you can't really opt-out, i requested to NOT collect my data, but they'll still do it anyway.

  • "Because it makes us money."

  • This is why each app should be isolated and the user decides what the app can access and if the app refuse to function without some kind of access like location then the operating system can give the app fake data that looks real. This should be standard on all phones! Sadly the makers also have apps so it is not happening.

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