I know that there are a lot of ways to have your online activity tracked. And, I thought I understood many or most of them.
But, I tried out Gemini with the request, "write a two page article on Stoicism." The results were interesting and pretty good and give me an idea of what Gemini can do.
A week, or less later, yesterday, I get an email from Facebook suggesting that I join the "Daily Stoicism" group.
WTF. I never use Facebook and basically ignore their reminders on how many notifications or messages I have.
AFAIK, there is no legal way Facebook should know what I am doing with Google, unless Google is providing them the information on a back channel.
Am I missing something? Everything I know suggest that I would have had to visit a Facebook site sometime between my Gemini request and my receipt of an email from Facebook. Or possibly have visited a Facebook site before my Gemini request and not have directly entered a URL or used a bookmark in the interim. AFAIK, those things didn't happen.
On 2/12/25 20:55, saclug@garymcglinn.com wrote:
Am I missing something? Everything I know suggest that I would have had to visit a Facebook site sometime between my Gemini request and my receipt of an email from Facebook. Or possibly have visited a Facebook site before my Gemini request and not have directly entered a URL or used a bookmark in the interim. AFAIK, those things didn't happen.
Those icons on your screen for Twitter(X), Meta(Facebook), LinkedIn(Microsoft), ... are beacons. By "agreeing" to display them on your browser you donate your browsing history to each of them. They then sell your browsing history to advertisers. Easy peazy.
Good explanation. I am using a private browsing window for nearly everything these days, and closing it after each visit.
On Thu, Feb 13, 2025 at 7:35 AM Charles Polisher chas@chasmo.org wrote:
On 2/12/25 20:55, saclug@garymcglinn.com wrote:
Am I missing something? Everything I know suggest that I would have had to visit a Facebook site sometime between my Gemini request and my receipt of an email from Facebook. Or possibly have visited a Facebook site before my Gemini request and not have directly entered a URL or used a bookmark in the interim. AFAIK, those things didn't happen.
Those icons on your screen for Twitter(X), Meta(Facebook), LinkedIn(Microsoft), ... are beacons. By "agreeing" to display them on your browser you donate your browsing history to each of them. They then sell your browsing history to advertisers. Easy peazy. _______________________________________________ Lug-nuts mailing list -- lug-nuts@bigbrie.com To unsubscribe send an email to lug-nuts-leave@bigbrie.com
I'm not sure what you are referring to? I don't have those. I don't remember seeing them on the Gemini page.
On Thu, Feb 13, 2025 at 07:34:29AM -0800, Charles Polisher wrote:
On 2/12/25 20:55, saclug@garymcglinn.com wrote:
Am I missing something? Everything I know suggest that I would have had to visit a Facebook site sometime between my Gemini request and my receipt of an email from Facebook. Or possibly have visited a Facebook site before my Gemini request and not have directly entered a URL or used a bookmark in the interim. AFAIK, those things didn't happen.
Those icons on your screen for Twitter(X), Meta(Facebook), LinkedIn(Microsoft), ... are beacons. By "agreeing" to display them on your browser you donate your browsing history to each of them. They then sell your browsing history to advertisers. Easy peazy.
Lug-nuts mailing list -- lug-nuts@bigbrie.com To unsubscribe send an email to lug-nuts-leave@bigbrie.com
On Wed, Feb 12, 2025 at 08:55:05PM -0800, saclug@garymcglinn.com wrote:
I know that there are a lot of ways to have your online activity tracked. And, I thought I understood many or most of them.
But, I tried out Gemini with the request, "write a two page article on Stoicism." The results were interesting and pretty good and give me an idea of what Gemini can do.
A week, or less later, yesterday, I get an email from Facebook suggesting that I join the "Daily Stoicism" group.
WTF. I never use Facebook and basically ignore their reminders on how many notifications or messages I have.
AFAIK, there is no legal way Facebook should know what I am doing with Google, unless Google is providing them the information on a back channel.
Am I missing something? Everything I know suggest that I would have had to visit a Facebook site sometime between my Gemini request and my receipt of an email from Facebook. Or possibly have visited a Facebook site before my Gemini request and not have directly entered a URL or used a bookmark in the interim. AFAIK, those things didn't happen.
I am only an "armchair lawyer" (not a lawyer at all). Way back in the day, EFF came to speak at SacLUG and discussed some of these details.
Try Privacy Badger plugin https://privacybadger.org/
There is also a Facebook Container plugin https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-container/
Brian
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bob r -
Brian E. Lavender -
Charles Polisher -
Gary -
saclug＠garymcglinn.com