this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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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."

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[–] [email protected] 228 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I started using #Threads

Ah, I see, there's the problem.

[–] [email protected] 176 points 1 year ago

Shit, did your phone extend a needle for a blood test?

[–] [email protected] 139 points 1 year ago

There's a reason it's not allowed in the EU.

[–] scottywh 131 points 1 year ago (23 children)

What I don't understand is why people wound even want to use this app...

What possible appeal could it have?

[–] DrZaious 84 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Using Threads knowing it's a product of Zuck, is like voting for Trump in 2024 cause he wore a different style suit.

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[–] foggy 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

"Okay so it's basically Twitter, but with like... Facebook features..." Is literally a joke I have made about annoying app ideas people have when you tell them you're a software developer.

I have made this joke a few times, because it killed every time.

I'm stunned. Out of material, and stunned.

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[–] linearchaos 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you are already eating out of a dumpster, even the worst fast food looks appetizing.

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[–] hyper 76 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That tracks about everything it possibly can just for the sake of it. I despise Meta so much...

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[–] JoeKrogan 64 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Not sure why anyone would install that garbage. Even a one off install to check it out means it will upload lots of data.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Some people simply do not care.

Is it really that hard to understand that some people like the idea of participating in a community with all their friends and favorite content creators, and find the idea of getting access to this for free at the cost of some privacy that they don't hugely value to be an acceptable enough trade?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"some" privacy lol

Zoomers don't value privacy at all, and that's a huge problem.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago

At this point I think it would be more informative to simply display the data they don't collect. My guess is "nothing".

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago

Thank you EU!

[–] OutrageousUmpire 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Holy crap are you kidding? Mastodon IIRC requires zero priviliges/personal information to run.

[–] OutrageousUmpire 35 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Also, what the hell does it need "headphone status" for?

[–] Hildegarde 42 points 1 year ago

Bluetooth headphones have unique identifying information. Another data point for apps that the headphone jack doesn't provide.

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[–] KuroJ 40 points 1 year ago (10 children)

That’s insane, well I know one thing. This is making me want to go download the DuckDuckGo browser.

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[–] onlyanegg 40 points 1 year ago

A lot of that stuff is pretty standard if you're doing logging and metrics on your service (which you should if you want to resolve outages). From the IP address and user agent you get rough location, os info, and network info. A few other things can be used for optimization (faster load times), and a Meta-scale, I wouldn't be surprised if they do that.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why in the first place do you want to use that garbage?

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[–] popemichael 38 points 1 year ago (12 children)

This is why I use Privacy Badger

Not only does it show you what and where it blocks, but you can also whitelist blocking in case you play browser games.

You get a lot of information out of one addon.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Holy shit. I'd ask how the fuck is this even legal, but seeing EU's reaction I guess it really kinda isn't

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Why did you download threads in the first place? Just scanned the app in exodus and the list of trackers is worse than all meta apps combined

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[–] Etterra 35 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Orientation? Why would Facebook need to know if my phone is gay? Jk, I know they really want to know my phone's political orientation. Joke's on them, my phone voted for Megatron.

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[–] stormageddon 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Damn, just straight up stealing other people's content. Very cool

Original post: https://writing.exchange/@kreig/110664764474921792

Original poster: https://writing.exchange/@kreig

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (5 children)
  • The name of your first crush.
  • Your religious beliefs.
  • Your innermost fears.
  • That thing you did in June of 2007 that you must never speak about.
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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (5 children)

It’s unbelievable that an app which collect this many data points, including voice, is legally allowed. Insane. Yes, people should not use it and should care, but come on… this is just mass surveillance and collection.

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[–] klyde 29 points 1 year ago (4 children)

That's your fault for using threads

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[–] otter_bee 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

absolutely wild, was going to (naively) give it a go, but I work on telemetry for a big platform and cannot in good faith use this product.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Remind me of that scene in The Dark Knight when Lucius Fox has all the screens with all the data from every smartphone around.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

That’s insane

[–] Transcendant 22 points 1 year ago (8 children)

200 in a few hours sounds like a lot (well, it is) but is small compared to some apps I use. Revolut tried to make tens of thousands of requests in an hour last time I looked! I expect that particular app is coded badly so when it gets rejected it just endlessly tries to repeat the request.

I highly recommend everyone installs something like the DuckDuckGo android app because it blocks tracking attempts in all apps. It's a bit horrifying to see how often, how much, and what type of data all our apps are requesting.

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[–] armrods 22 points 1 year ago (7 children)

People here complaining about Threads and TikTok (Chinese owned) being the defacto social network for an entire generation over there without outrage, and when it's outrage about it people just say "at least is not the US" what kind of defense is that?

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[–] mainaccount 21 points 1 year ago

And then they'll need another permission to access your photos, contacts, text messages... They'll grab and run with everything what's in your phone. Before your 1st day is over, they'll know everything about you, your friends and family. It's just another massive privacy/data grab. Fuck them (and fuck u/spez ofc).

[–] nickel 20 points 1 year ago

Looking at the data collection categories in the ios app store for Threads is terrifying. Similarly, mastodon collects nothing. General population doesn't seem to care though given the number of signups that Threads has received in the last few days. People are happy to give their information away.

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