If you use #Bluesky be sure to install a tracker blocker.

@mastodonmigration It's not real. It resolves to 0.0.0.0 and ::, which is the wildcard address. It's a misconfiguration left in the production version from the development version. In any case, it's not a real site, and resolves to no server.

Blurry Bits Photography

@mastodonmigration to these 'oh it's just analytics' types -
User behaviour is a fucking gold mine. Stop pretending it isn't.

The data collection is equally valuable whether its Doubleclick scraping it, or its bluesky. If anything they are being shrewd with their 'product' and likely to profit more from it.

Yeah, now we dont get to see who the buyers of said analytics are. State actors? Religious Groups? Political interests?

Theres no rational reason for this aggressive tracking on ALL users

Elisabeth K

@3x10to8mps

On my iPhone I use DuckDuckGo or Startpage. I also have a DNS ad blocker and Proton VPN.

@mastodonmigration @BlurryBitsPhoto

LisaH

@ElisabethK @mastodonmigration @BlurryBitsPhoto Thanks. I've never heard of Startpage. Is it a browser alternative? And what DNS ad blocker do you use? I appreciate the recs!

Elisabeth K

@3x10to8mps

Startpage is located in the Netherlands and is based on the European Union's data protection regulation. I use DNSforge.de as an ad blocker.

dnsforge.de DNS Resolver

DNS-over-TLS und DNS-over-HTTPS: Zensurfreier, sicherer und redundanter DNS Resolver ohne Logging, dafür mit Werbeblocker.

(dnsforge.de)

@mastodonmigration @BlurryBitsPhoto

Mastodon Migration

@ElisabethK @3x10to8mps @BlurryBitsPhoto

Very cool! Thank you!

Mastodon Migration

@dave

Thanks for the reply. Not very reassuring that you think it is some sort of oversight. In any case, still prefer not to be tracked.

Mastodon Migration

@BlurryBitsPhoto

Boosting this reply to the 'just analytics' comments here, because this does seem like a valid point.

It seems like some people are saying that these trackers are no big deal because they just go back to Bluesky. But why would you want Bluesky collecting so much information on you? You insist it is just for 'development purposes', but what if it is not? What if it is used to build out a profile on you you or something?

Dave W

@mastodonmigration

Bsky: 0 third party trackers
mastodon.social: 2 third party trackers
mastodon.online: 1 third party tracker
mastodon.world: 4 third party trackers
mas.to: 2 third party trackers
mstdn.social: 3 third party trackers

I don't think any of them are a serious problem, but let's be realistic here.

Mastodon Migration

@dave

Thanks for your analysis. This account is on mastodon.online and have never seen any trackers, but maybe it is more complicated than simply looking at the uBlock and PB logs.

Would be curious for your reply to @BlurryBits 's comment regarding non-third party trackers:

Blurry Bits Photography (@[email protected])

@[email protected] to these 'oh it's just analytics' types - User behaviour is a fucking gold mine. Stop pretending it isn't. The data collection is equally valuable whether its Doubleclick scraping it, or its bluesky. If anything they are being shrewd with their 'product' and likely to profit more from it. Yeah, now we dont get to see who the buyers of said analytics are. State actors? Religious Groups? Political interests? Theres no rational reason for this aggressive tracking on ALL users

The PNW Zone (pnw.zone)

You say these are innocuous, but why should one be unconcerned about Bluesky collecting all this personal data? You say, just for dev, but what guarantee is there that this is true.

more...

Mastodon Migration

@dave @BlurryBits

Further, if the data collection is innocuous, why do it?

Clearly the company should know that their practices are under a microscope. Why have an app that lights up uBlock like a Christmas tree, if they are trying to demonstrate they are concerned about user privacy?

Dave W

@mastodonmigration @BlurryBits It only lights up uBlock because uBlock is blocking it, and causing it to retry over and over again.

I can only guess from experience as I have no association with Bsky, but I would strongly suspect the data collection is used by dev to see where people click to tune the user interface, as well as collect real-world latency information to see if users experience a slowdown in any particular part of the app's functionality.

You're not supplying any more data in realistic terms than you supply by using the app anyway, it just means that deeper inspection on aggregate data can be done. In terms of the information that matters - your user data, identity information, things you click on - it would be collected anyway.

This kind of information is very, very important for knowing what to improve and if users are having trouble as they tend not to report it - an aggregate picture of the user's experience can surface bugs and weird behaviours that would never be detected by standard testing.

So yes, I say it's just for dev, but when you consider what exactly is being collected it's still nothing that impairs your privacy in the slightest.

I would ask you to be honest, are you willing to listen to me or are we having an argument that you have already made your mind up about? I don't mean that in any offensive terms, because if this is a real conversation that stands a chance of going somewhere, I'm willing to do a deeper analysis (tomorrow) of what data is actually flowing. Please let me know, and I can only ask you to be honest and save me wasting my time if that is the case. If you'd like to reply privately that's fine too, I'll keep it quiet and we can let this lie if that's how it is. Otherwise, as I say, I'm willing to delve deeper tomorrow.