He said he wants to see the web like the average user and doesn’t want anything to change the default look.

I’m sure there are people who have similar reasons for allowing tracking.

A surprising number of sites have basic functionality, like showing content, not work if you have cookies turned off.

There are some shopping sites that don't even let you view items with cookies disabled: I understand needing them for purchases, but even Amazon allows for browsing without cookies.

Don't get em started on turning off JavaScript.

I have saved 2.5 hrs and saved others nearly an hour through my submissions.

[1] https://sponsor.ajay.app/

If you want to watch less YouTube, you can use uBlock element picker to remove everything but the search bar. My YouTube web interface is just that now, no recommendations, no nothing. Bliss.

1: Download UBlock origin: https://ublockorigin.com/

2: Open Youtube

3: Right click on any element in the page and click "block element". Do this for anything you don't want to see. If you make a mistake you can unblock it by deleting the line in the "filters" part of Ublock settings.

It can take some trial and error to get it working properly but once you do its so nice. I don't even have a sign in button anymore because I don't have a google account.

Edit: For maximum procrastination prevention you can even block those end card recommendations once a video finishes.

Youtube is also massively better with "enhancer for youtube" [1]. It's not FOSS I don't think but it is too good to not use.

[1] https://www.mrfdev.com/enhancer-for-youtube

I don’t think I’ll ever take this to heart, but I do turn on CPU and network throttling from time to time.

I only use my work computer for work and some very light and sparse HN browsing (via safari). I am signed in to chrome with my gsuite account from the company.

I feel that it doesn’t really matter if googling dev stuff or a random article is tracked, it might even be to my benefit in so far as I will be viewed as a dedicated and diligent employee thus raising my social credit score

What I've learned so far: don't click on ads you'd feel uncomfortable with seeing everywhere. The tracking industry must be such a waste of advertiser's money! If you like pretty pictures of horses in nature you can, with just a few clicks, get them to decorate almost the entire web with equestrianist landscape shots for you, without you ever spending a dime on, I don't know, saddle maintenance gadgets or whatever. I guess there are some advertisers for whom this isn't utterly broken, but they must be a rare reception. If you sell some supercar it's an essential part of the product that millions of small boys and poor men dream of driving one and it kind of makes sense to concave "the web" to show pictures to the dreamers, but that's a rather small market compared to the size of the tracking industry.

Ultimately I quit doing that and installed an ad blocker because I felt there wasn't really any point to knowing this. It's the same story on every commercial site, and there's nothing I could do about it anyway.

If you fear being "hacked" by an extension then there are lots of other options, like pihole, routers blocking ads, hosts files, etc.

I hope you are aware that billions are used on how to psychologically affect people with ads. Even if you don't click them (and especially if you do click those that make you feel good) you will still be bombarded by things made to affect you subconsciously.

That being said, I used to go to Facebook /just for the ads/ because they were always interesting. Now they kinda suck, dunno what happened in the last few years.

I'd argue theres good reason your brain is raising red flags when you are asked if you want to allow these manipulative processes to continue.

With due respect, and you are completely entitled to your preferences, leaks are very common and a big problem, often reported on HN.

Credulous people who believe that Facebook might start charging them to see photos of their grandchildren.

I think most people opting out of tracking is because they feel manipulated. Isn't it the ultimate reason of marketing after all?

There are no such people. Rather, there are only people who don't realize they have things to hide.

;)

But people around you may. Nad their information can be as easily gleaned from yours.

These companies aren't charities.

If the majority of these users are looking for privacy they probably wouldn't trust facebook with their data in the first place.

The reason seems to be the stats are not being properly counted by this company. Apple will need to confirm the numbers.

This assumes they know and care that they're being tracked. Once faced with a clear choice without any dark patterns, it's fairly obvious that most users will select no tracking, unless the (supposed or real) benefits of being tracked are also explained to them. With the default Facebook behavior, they simply aren't being reminded of it. Out of sight, out of mind.

It's been known forever that opt-in data collection is almost useless, because the overwhelming majority of users won't allow it if they have the choice, regardless of the expertise. In fact, it's the reason for the current state of things - the telemetry and tracking of all sorts are being forced by default in most of the software and services with no option to disable it.

A lot of people don't realize they track you across websites etc, even if it might seem obvious to us.

I use the Facebook website from time to time, which I accept is kind of duplicitous, knowing the data they gather from those sessions will be abused. But my browser is configured to disable everything Facebook on sites other than Facebook (comments, "social plugins" etc) so at least it's confined and done explicitly by me, with my knowledge.

Because that's exactly what it says...

Consider "Would you like to improve FB experience by sharing how you use the app?"

You are a tech dude and read it the same, but it's not the same.