I’m a lurker. I don’t post on facebook or reddit or anywhere. Today I randomly got a message from reddit that my account was permanently banned for apparent repeated violations of their site wide rules. I have the ReVanced app on my phone that blocks ads on reddit just so those scumbags can’t profit off me lurking, but it’s the only reason I could fathom that is why I’ve been banned. Anyway I just wanted to vent so thanks for reading this if you did. Reddit fucking sucks.
One of the earlier methods was the share button image. That button lives on Reddit’s server, and your browser might set the URL from the referer when it requests the image. It definitely has your IP, so they can try to tie that to an account.
When you click a link, it also likely has a referer URL of the page you came from. These are both things that the browser doesn’t have to do
When you click share, they now often add URL params that track who shared the link and who clicks it
There’s tons of methods, some you can shut down with a browser or add ons, some you
Why is that illegal? Sorry I’m not too knowledgeable on the topic.
It’s kinda grey area to start with - if I install something on your computer to track what websites you visit without consent, that’s illegal, right? Different countries have different laws, they’re generally pretty broad
So then you introduce the EULA - very problematic (as Disney showed us) and no one reads it, but theoretically this is where they outline what the software can do and obtain your consent
Now, on a website they just have to put the EULA somewhere, theoretically they’re just hosting the content, your browser is in control. The rules are a bit more lax because of the nature of the interaction
But now, you can visit CNN or BuzzFeed, agree with their EULAs, and unknowingly Facebook and Reddit (websites you’ve potentially never visited), are tracking you. You never agreed to this in any form, the fact it’s even happening is obscured from you, even the sites hosting the share buttons probably don’t know
It gets less grey area if you live in the EU, they’ve passed a suite of privacy laws that are sometimes ignored
Well that’s disturbing. Thanks