Yes, how to tell Facebook?

Someone should invent a http header that lets you signal that you don't want to be tracked. It could be named something like DNT, for do-not-track. People could then set DNT=1 and websites such as Facebook would know not to track you...

That could work if:

- it was on by default. You shouldn't have to 'opt-out' of invasive surveillance.

- it was enforceable and backed by a vigilant regulator and credibly enforced legal deterrents. We're far beyond a 'pinky-promise' being enough.

>- it was on by default. You shouldn't have to 'opt-out' of invasive surveillance.

Conmppanies did not liked when IE did this but I think the solution would be simple, when you start the browser for the first time you will be asked if you want to get tracked or not, you will have 2 big buttons to chose.

Then FB. Google and others should ask the users to switch this because they want to track you on a different website and explain to the users why.

Yeah, I found it very disingenuous back then from Google to push against this. It could be a widely accepted standard by now, and it makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, as long as companies like big players as Facebook and Google ignore it, it won't succeed.

>How can you tell facebook to not track you without a facebook account?

That's the wrong question to ask. You shouldn't have to tell it not to track you. That shouldn't be able to do it, unless you explicitly tell them "hey you can track me."

Precisely. The Overton window for this topic seems to have shifted pretty far. The default position should be one of positive consent and assumed privacy. But then again, I think it’s all moot considering that Facebook’s existence is predicated on them collecting data. Asking them to do less of it is like asking a plant to stop photosynthesizing. That is to say: it’s their whole raison d’être, which means they won’t change it without a little encouragement from third parties.

If only. That battle seems to have been lost long ago, at least in the U.S.

Google, Criteo and other have long had a default opt-in policy for their retargeting products, etc.

You're the one in control of your browser. You know it's side effects when you load pages.

Internet had become an integral part of everyday life. This is like saying air pollution is not a problem, just don't breathe all the time.

Or is my sarcasm sensor not working this morning?

Your metaphor is incorrect.

Most people do not know these things.

How to tell Facebook that I don't want to be tracked?

By not having a fucking Facebook account! it seems to me that's actually the crux of that court decision.

A typical scenario: Your friends and acquaintances have your contact info stored on their mobile phones. Your phone number, an email address or two, maybe a photo and a birth-date so they don't forget to wish you happy birthday. They install Facebook/WhatsApp/Twitter, etc, all of which upload your personal data from the phones to their own servers without your knowledge or consent.

It's more complicated than deciding not to have a Facebook account, though that's a great first step.

Complicated? Remove this “feature” to start:

>all of which upload your personal data from the phones to their own servers without your knowledge or consent.

Our default legal position shouldn’t be one of accommodating a corporation’s existing market-acquisition practices over people’s privacy.

Are you seriously proposing to ban uploading pictures that contain other people to third parties computers without consent? That would go way beyond Facebook. Would I need to track down everyone in a picture before annexing it to a Yahoo e-mail?

I'd think the most pro-privacy reasonable approach would be to stop companies from identifying them beyond "someone who did not consent to being tracked".

How about not maintaining shadow profiles, not allow tagging nor allow facial recognition to be applied to third parties on uploaded photos?

Facebook has such incredible smart engineers that they can file patents to identify you based on the dust of your camera lens [1]. It should be a cinch to them not to track such third parties in any way, shape or form.

The problem was that they gave zero fucks about the privacy implication to third parties, which have nothing to do - and no business relationship with Facebook. It seems quite the opposite: That the go through great length to maintain shadow profiles and track everybody.

I really hope that the GDPR forces them to clean up their act.

https://gizmodo.com/facebook-knows-how-to-track-you-using-th...

I think he's really proposing regulations that limit how such data can be used once uploaded.

For instance, it could still be legal for Facebook to slurp your friend's address book (and your profile, indirectly), but the regulation could require them to discard and purge that information if they can't immediately match it to an account.

Yes, I'm aware of this (and thankfully have never been stupid enough to entrust my address book to any such service), but what I'm really looking forward to is how Facebook and their ilk will be dealing with shadow profiles in relation with the GDPR.

Since I'm not a member of their service there's no valid reason for them to maintain personally identifiable data about me. Let alone that they never asked for my permission and that I never, ever consented to their gobling up of my data and that of other non-members.

At least according to my understanding this is a very clear violation of the GDPR, which - if the courts agree - could cost them dearly.

I wonder how Facebook intends to deal with that. If I interprete the directive correctly they are obliged to delete all such data since storing, mainting and proecssing it clearly violates the law.

Interesting times...

All of the things listed aren't your personal data. It is data about you, but it is not your data.

It knows a lot about you without you having an account though. I’d suggest getting an EU passport might be a good first step.

To put it simply: tracking has to be opt-in only. GDPR actually sees about

They'll still track you without an account.

>Perhaps there should be a central clearinghouse for people who don't want to be tracked by certain sites. How can you tell facebook to not track you without a facebook account?

There should also be a central place for us to put our emails there so spammers won't spam us?If this seems a horrible idea then your suggestion is exactly the same.

The US Do Not Call registry for phones seems to be completely ineffective these days. An internet one is unlikely to work as well.

This is exactly the wrong approach. FB should not need to be told not to track people who aren't their users.

>Perhaps there should be a central clearinghouse for people who don't want to be tracked by certain sites.

This the most G. K. Chesterton-esque comment I have ever read on this site.

Poe's law may apply, but if you're actually being serious, "Let's build a list tracking all the people who want to avoid tracking" first, probably wouldn't work, and second, is the surveillance equivalent of a "standards problem" [1]

[1]: https://xkcd.com/927/