Doesn’t matter if you’re using an iPhone or android. They have your number, email, etc. (either given by you or by someone else when they uploaded their contacts to Facebook/instagram/whatsapp) and everything you do is tracked and logged.
That’s the thing about Meta. They gather info from literally billions of people, it doesn’t matter if you personally handed it over or not. Everyone who has your info — name, phone number, email, work number, etc. has probably already shared all or some of it with Meta. The moment you sign up and give them any info at all that matches your info in someone’s contacts, they’ll know it’s you.
If you don’t want them tracking you, your only option is to not use their services and block all their trackers. They’ll have your info anyway, but at least they won’t be able to track your activity.
Edit: a lot of people don’t grasp how bad the situation is with Meta. They trick people into uploading their contacts by requesting access to “help you find your friends” across their services, and they match that info and create a shadow profile for everyone. As soon as you sign up to any of their services, they’ll match that shadow profile to you. That’s why you immediately see people you know even though you just created an account. You’re in their contacts. Facebook has outed countless gay and trans people, as well as sex workers. They will also recommend your therapist’s clients to you as “people you may know” because you all have the therapist’s phone number.
It’s a nightmare. I’ve been trying to make people aware of it for like a decade or something like that. No one listens.
There are so many platforms anymore that I have neither the time nor desire to keep up with even a quarter of them. So maybe eight years back, a friend suggests I check out Snap Chat.
I jump on there to find about 20 pages of names of people who thought it was okay, acceptable, to share my info from their database. I’ve always been very careful and discreet with mine. But to have it thrown right in my face like that, whew. Here’s my message to those folks:
If you think it’s okay to share my private number, or anything else I’ve provided in confidence, with the planet, please delete my number.
RIGHT? It’s fucking insane that no one seems to be talking about this. I’ve been trying for years and people just roll their eyes or ignore me. What the fuck.
And it’s completely because people don’t think about it and/or don’t understand how this stuff works. The app says “share your contacts to find your friends!” and people just go “cool ok”.
Here’s a not-cool story: Facebook showed my friend a photo of her rapist under “people you may know”. Fucking hell.
I get that these aren’t tech people. But there’s a serious gap in protocol that seems to give them the ol’ Whoosh.
If I walked up on the street and asked to see somone’s dB? Lol
If a mutual acquaintance asked for your number? I’d call you with their number.
So would these non-techies. But put them on a machine and they seem to lose their minds.
Psst, want me to help you? Just give me your dB. I’ll make it easy for ya.
And they think that’s okay.
What if I would use an dummy email and refuse to add contacts? Purely to just use the app to view content.
Though, can’t use it anyway. Europe.
Europe? Do you use WhatsApp? If so, your info is already in their hands thanks to your friends/family who shared their contacts with Meta. Basically if you or any of your friends/family use any Facebook service, including WhatsApp and Instagram, they already have all your info.
Say you do sign up for Meta with a dummy email. The moment you start following people, checking out hashtags etc, they will start connecting dots.
It’s virtually impossible to avoid being tracked by them. This is why privacy advocates and activists have been begging people to stop using Meta’s apps and services for literally decades. Not only does it track the user, but also pretty much everyone the user knows, including people who never consented to having their information shared, never used any of their service, etc.
You’re only thinking about the surface level of the issue. The tracking rabbit hole goes incredibly deep. There’s so much shit happening behind the scenes when you browse the internet that if you could see it all laid out in front of you you would probably gag. It’s almost impossible for the average internet user to avoid their tracking methods.
If I installed the app, and didn’t give permission to location, or photos, or health… they can’t see that info can they?
They can monitor you as much as they want. Your posts are the last of their interest.
Facebook trackers are very well spread on the internet, so your browser activity can definitely change what you will see in Threads.
Additionally, they monitor your view time, so they can feed you with contents that are more likely to attract your attention.
Finally, the information they got from your Instagram helps them create your home feed to fit your interests.
And only God knows what they can see through WhatsApp.
Ye, if you don’t want to be tracked, then don’t use Meta Services.
All of this, scroll down a bit to App Privacy and see that you have none. BTW, the “sensitive info” is racial, sexual and biometric data. Apps themselves are privacy-destroying, always look carefully at the app privacy. Check out the Mastodon app as a contrast, it wants none of your data.
I’m just finding it hard to understand how some of that data is collected/ given access if things are turned off
Permissions to grab the data in your phone. When you authorize the app by installing and agreeing to terms you are giving a green light for it to suck up all the data you have put in the device as well as anything you do ongoing. That means the app tracks your current location, purchases through your phone, contacts list, email accounts, etc, basically anything inputted into your phone the app has access to, except for the walled off stuff that Apple protects, like unique thumbprint or facial recognition ID. About 95% of the stuff in your phone is up for grabs with that app.
Since you didn’t specify and I don’t know enough about Threads to say with certainty I’ll assume you’re logged in. At that point that’s all that matters. Posting will only associate whatever you say with your account but ultimately your posting isn’t exactly what they care about, they can monitor your traffic and usage in a number of other ways, especially if logged in.
Yes. They associate your phone, and when you do things like visit websites on a browser, those websites can report your visitation to meta.
That’s not entirely how this works though. I mean you aren’t wrong, but it’s not fully automatic (anymore). At least as far as I know.
They can’t necessarily association your phone with you if you don’t choose to provide them with access to your tracking ID. That was the default in the past, but isn’t anymore. Facebook was really really pissed about Apple making this a user choice.
Additional they can only track you within your browser if you signed in with a Meta/Facebook account on one of their services. But yes. If you do that every site that contains something from Facebook (Login with Facebook, a post, some other thingy from Facebook) will report back to Facebook that you’ve visited them.
This all being said: Facebook is the worst if it comes to this stuff.
Edit: we were talking about the Threads so here right? You are totally correct if over just used the browser or a PC.
@desmondjones this is a pretty useful article about the kinds of data the app collects :)
https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/07/how-threads-privacy-policy-compares-to-twitters-and-its-rivals/
