Facebook Disconnect - chrome extension to disable Facebook tracking

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ejpepffjfmamnambagiibghpglaidiec

by squarepeg • 15 years ago

99 37 15 years ago

chrome.google.com

thirsteh• 15 years ago

There's a more general addon which detects and disables tracking called Ghostery: http://www.ghostery.com/

I'm a fan of WidgetBlock, a chrome extension that simply blocks all major offsite social networking widgets, whether its facebook like buttons, tweet this buttons, the facebook connect thing, etc.

It's stated reason for doing this is to improve page load times, which it certainly does, but it does just as well to protect your privacy.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/hgiihiookhijpbha...

EDIT: It appears to work nicely in tandem with this ghostery thing.

greyman• 15 years ago

But wouldn't it also remove Facebook commenting system from the page? Because that's usually what I don't want.

izendejas• 15 years ago

And another one: http://bynamite.com/

I'm all for a transparency and control, but this has to be more effortless--a side-effect of something users would be happy to do anyway--especially for the average user if it is to be successful. I believe a social media aggregator can position themselves to do this. Facebook knows certain things about me, Twitter others, Google others, etc. What I surf online isn't always indicative of my true interests.

mrspeaker• 15 years ago

Hmmm... it would be good to know how all these compare - I'm running disconnect: http://www.disconnectere.com/ and ghostery. Now someone is suggesting WidgetBlock. To me Ghostery seems to block more than disconnect - but I don't know how they work "under the hood". It seems silly to run 3 or 4 separate plugins for the same purpose!

maigret• 15 years ago

Right, and Ghostery detects and blocks FB connect, as well as Google Analytics, AdSense and many other services. Very useful extension. Could be more intuitive though, it took me a few minutes to get the blocking right.

tuhin• 15 years ago

The fact that one needs a plugin to do this says a lot about the "Facebook" way of social networking.

Why not put it as an option in my maze on the settings page?

squarepeg2• 15 years ago

I agree, though to be fair, facebook isn't the only site where third parties have tried to fix privacy issues.

I read once that you know you've really made it when an eco-system grows around your product or service. The same can be said here: you know your product or service sucks if unpaid developers feel compelled to try and fix it.

drtse4• 15 years ago

From the same author (@byoogle) there is also a more generic Disconnect, that blocks Google,Twitter,Digg,Yahoo! too.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jeoacafpbcihiomhla...

A bit aggressive imho, with the google block enabled you can't even login to google.

mckoss• 15 years ago

Be careful. Disconnect also ends up blocking core services, like Google Channel API, used by some App Engine apps (this took me hours to figure out why my site was broken in Chrome).

pestaa• 15 years ago

There's a lot going on to block Facebook these days. I'm not happy with it either, but can somebody please give me an insight why so many people are pissed of it right now?

tallanvor• 15 years ago

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2299975

That says a lot right away.

electromagnetic• 15 years ago

I have an online and an offline life. FB is associated with my offline life, my real life. I don't want what I do online associated with my real life, and being forced to sign up through facebook before I've even tested what you're trying to sell me is a real no-no.

As I said elsewhere. The day I'm forced to authenticate through Facebook is the day there'll be a pseudonym account set up for me.

pilif2• 15 years ago

right now it's the commenting system. Before that it was general backlash and before that it was the like-button-everywhere shitstorm that also spawned diaspora.

Don't worry. In at most one month's time nobody will remember this and Facebook will be awesome again.

Until it's time again to fish for pageviews at which point another flaming article will be published somewhere and everyone will repost it in their own words in order to get pageviews.

You can't expect consistency in a society with a cumulative attention span of about a week.

squarepeg2• 15 years ago

> Don't worry. In at most one month's time nobody will remember this and Facebook will be awesome again.

Facebook stopped being awesome a long time ago. I doubt it ever will be again. You're making it out to be a victim of some kind and it's not. If facebook didn't repeatedly abuse its users' trust and privacy, there'd be no backlash. There'd be no 'flaming' articles and no shitstorms.

> Until it's time again to fish for pageviews at which point another flaming article will be published somewhere and everyone will repost it in their own words in order to get pageviews.

Perhaps so, but the extension isn't a result of a flaming article. It has over 100,000 users and 4000+ weekly installs.

pnathan• 15 years ago

Uh, no. I deleted my account almost a year ago and have no plans to reconstitute it. I am more than happy to block Facebook and any other, similar, digital tentacles of intrusions into privacy.

ABFrep• 15 years ago

On Facebook, 'you' are the product. I like to use their website, but all of the integration is not necessary and frankly annoying.

I will continue to use Facebook, and continue to block their integration with other websites. Maybe if I am compensated by Facebook for being their 'product' I will change my ways. Until then, I win.

pieter• 15 years ago

Anyone know of these kind of extensions for Safari?

bl4k2• 15 years ago

http://www.disconnectere.com/

msy• 15 years ago

For those on OSX Glimmer Blocker ( http://glimmerblocker.org/ ) provides really nice OS-wide ad blocking and there's a custom ruleset that blocks all the facebook widgets with click-to-enable at http://visuao.net/facebook/glimmer.xml

mwg66• 15 years ago

Great recommendation.

karteek• 15 years ago

I use to use Proxomitron (http://www.proxomitron.info/) on windows. Thanks for this.

dc2k08• 15 years ago

So this is just a version of Disconnect that only blocks facebook? Does Disconnet do all this anyway? I discovered at the weekend that Disconnect blocks results on a Google custom search I made where analytics is running also. Seems a little overzealous.

bl4k2• 15 years ago

this is what he wrote prior to Disconnect. if you have the later, it does Facebook and other sites

pointillistic• 15 years ago

'Keep My Opt-Outs' is the same one by Google, no? https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/hhnjdplhmcnkieca...

charlief• 15 years ago

Related post from a few months ago http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1810644

rahooligan• 15 years ago

I came. I saw. I installed.

shimi• 15 years ago

Amen Brother!

madelfio• 15 years ago

Can someone compare this to the "disable 3rd-party cookies" approach?

goombastic• 15 years ago

So much of public messaging around privacy seems to make light of people's concerns around it. I believe this is deliberate social conditioning. Some of your friends end up picking up on the verbiage and soon you are surrounded. "Awww come on, it's harmless."

Never give out enough information for someone to clone you online.

lean• 15 years ago

Word to the wise, this was preventing any ReCaptcha's from appearing (for me). Great ext otherwise.

unicornporn• 15 years ago

I just run Facebook in a separate browser (Opera) to isolate the session. Yes, I'm that crazy.

I tried Multifox ( http://br.mozdev.org/multifox/ ), but for some reason I concluded it wasn't a good solution. Can't remember why though.

gigawatt• 15 years ago

I do the same thing for bank accounts and such — I only use a clean install of opera, and that's all I use it for.

u48998• 15 years ago

Just keep yourself logged-off when not using Facebook, or use Facebook when not using any other website.

kmfrk• 15 years ago

This only pertains to ads and malware, but I use Ad Muncher on Windows, which is a paid program (with a month-long trial). I use it, because I can't be bothered to set up countermeasures, every time I use a new installation. And it works in all browsers (obviously) - and outside browsers.

Cons: * Whitelisting is a hassle: I still haven't figured it out, which means that good ad networks like Yoggrt, Fusion Ads, and Deck Network are blocked. * Blacklisting is also a hassle. You'd think they would support a widget filter - or a good import feature, but alas.

It's the best desktop client I know, though.

http://admuncher.com.

jjossarin• 15 years ago

For Firefox users:

Similar functionality can be achieved in Firefox using one of its settings. From the privacy tab of the Preferences Dialog (Options in Windows), choose "custom setting for History" and disable third-party cookies.

Another method is to use an addon called Facebook Blocker: http://webgraph.com/resources/facebookblocker/ (haven't tested).

Some other methods are suggested here: http://superuser.com/questions/220696/how-can-i-block-all-fa...

Facebook Disconnect - chrome extension to disable Facebook tracking

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