Meet 'Link History,' Facebook's New Way To Track the Websites You Visit (gizmodo.com) 17
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Facebook recently rolled out a new "Link History" setting that creates a special repository of all the links you click on in the Facebook mobile app. Users can opt-out, but Link History is turned on by default, and the data is used for targeted ads. The company pitches Link History as a useful tool for consumers "with your browsing activity saved in one place," rather than another way to keep tabs on your behavior. With the new setting you'll "never lose a link again," Facebook says in a pop-up encouraging users to consent to the new tracking method. The company goes on to mention that "When you allow link history, we may use your information to improve your ads across Meta technologies."
Facebook promises to delete the Link History it's created for you within 90 days if you turn the setting off. According to a Facebook help page, Link History isn't available everywhere. The company says it's rolling out globally "over time." This is a privacy improvement in some ways, but the setting raises more questions than it answers. Meta has always kept track of the links you click on, and this is the first time users have had any visibility or control over this corner of the company's internet spying apparatus. In other words, Meta is just asking users for permission for a category of tracking that it's been using for over a decade. Beyond that, there are a number of ways this setting might give users an illusion of privacy that Meta isn't offering. "The Link History doesn't mention anything about the invasive ways Facebook monitors what you're doing once you visit a webpage," notes Gizmodo's Thomas Germain. "It seems the setting only affects Meta's record of the fact that you clicked a link in the first place. Furthermore, Meta links everything you do on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and its other products. Unlike several of Facebook's other privacy settings, Link History doesn't say that it affects any of Meta's other apps, leaving you with the data harvesting status quo on other parts of Mark Zuckerberg's empire."
"Link History also creates a confusing new regime that establishes privacy settings that don't apply if you access Facebook outside of the Facebook app. If you log in to Facebook on a computer or a mobile browser instead, Link History doesn't protect you. In fact, you can't see the Link History page at all if you're looking at Facebook on your laptop."
Facebook promises to delete the Link History it's created for you within 90 days if you turn the setting off. According to a Facebook help page, Link History isn't available everywhere. The company says it's rolling out globally "over time." This is a privacy improvement in some ways, but the setting raises more questions than it answers. Meta has always kept track of the links you click on, and this is the first time users have had any visibility or control over this corner of the company's internet spying apparatus. In other words, Meta is just asking users for permission for a category of tracking that it's been using for over a decade. Beyond that, there are a number of ways this setting might give users an illusion of privacy that Meta isn't offering. "The Link History doesn't mention anything about the invasive ways Facebook monitors what you're doing once you visit a webpage," notes Gizmodo's Thomas Germain. "It seems the setting only affects Meta's record of the fact that you clicked a link in the first place. Furthermore, Meta links everything you do on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and its other products. Unlike several of Facebook's other privacy settings, Link History doesn't say that it affects any of Meta's other apps, leaving you with the data harvesting status quo on other parts of Mark Zuckerberg's empire."
"Link History also creates a confusing new regime that establishes privacy settings that don't apply if you access Facebook outside of the Facebook app. If you log in to Facebook on a computer or a mobile browser instead, Link History doesn't protect you. In fact, you can't see the Link History page at all if you're looking at Facebook on your laptop."
the app? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is anyone here dumb enough to let Facebook's app run on their phone after the shit their apps have done in the past? If so, turn in your geek card immediately.
Re:the app? (Score:4, Informative)
Is anyone here dumb enough to let Facebook's app run on their phone after the shit their apps have done in the past? If so, turn in your geek card immediately.
No one here is dumb enough, but we all know people who are and likely have them in our family, so it is none the less worth understanding.
Re: (Score:2)
We have dedicated old phones per app.
Nobody would be silly enough to run a sketchy app on an important device.
WiFi tethering is key. As is a Batman utility belt.
Just make a browser and be done. (Score:2)
So you replace the browser for viewing content, then add the "history" you didn't have as-if it's new. Are you going to work on a wheel next?
Re: (Score:2)
So you replace the browser for viewing content, then add the "history" you didn't have as-if it's new. Are you going to work on a wheel next?
That's not until after they figure out how to make that doughy yeasty thing into thin pieces, rather than a big ball.
Well now... (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Facebook promises to delete the Link History it's created for you within 90 days if you turn the setting off.
So there's actually two settings, on (the default), and mostly-on, which can be set via a menu item in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard".
Re: (Score:2)
90 days? (Score:5, Insightful)
What kind of slowass system takes 90 days to delete records?
Oh that's right, one where they don't actually want to delete it and are only doing this for regulatory reasons or optics.
Re:90 days? (Score:4, Insightful)
A monthly search (Score:2)
Having the Facebook applet installed is dumb but nearly everyone has it: Facebook Messages is still a thing.
So, a monthly activity will be searching for "abortion clinics in Alabama/Kentucky". (Aside: May not live in Alabama or Kentucky.)
So Facebook/Meta wants respect for installing a history service that they deleted.
Re: (Score:2)
Having the Facebook applet installed is dumb but nearly everyone has it: Facebook Messages is still a thing.
https://mbasic.facebook.com/ [facebook.com]
Clicking a link in the Facebook app is cancer (Score:2)
Facebook has such capture on its users that it bundles its own browser within the Facebook app. It doesn't matter if you run Firefox Mobile with noscript, adblock, and a million other tools to help stop tracking, when you click on a link in Facebook it opens from within Facebook.
I highly recommend people do it every so often just to remind themselves of what a pathetic slow invasive shitshow the internet has become without adblockers, and so we don't forget why these various plugins for our favourite browse
I need more (Score:2)
I need an app to track what underwear I go to bed with every night. Zuck, are you listening??
Re: (Score:2)
Zuck would be too late. Google Smart Underwear. It exists. Why? I'm not sure. But it exists.