1y ago

is there a way tominimise risk while using facebook?

I have a feeling I know the answer, but thought it worth an ask, so here goes - I’ve not used FB in years, and generally try to keep fairly private online (Mullvad, librefox, etc) but I’ve found I’m missing out by not being able to use FB marketplace. If I set up a fresh account, and don’t use the social side of it at all, is there a fairly safe way to use Facebook? In a container, or in Mullvad browser with nothing else open? Or an an extreme, in a VM?

7 comments

It's worth noting that Facebook regularly collects information and builds profiles about people who are not users (or are users who but aren't logged in). The average user would be surprised what a company like Facebook can put together on individuals who have never made an account.
https://www.howtogeek.com/768652/what-are-facebook-shadow-profiles-and-should-you-be-worried/
- I’ve been fairly parsimonious with my information for a fair while - I don’t use my real name online except when unavoidable for payment etc, don’t put photos of me anywhere, use social media (other than Lemmy, and I’m not very social on here really!) and I think I have fairly good habits to keep information and habits separated. I alternate between using FF, Librewolf and Mullvad browser for different things, don’t reuse usernames/id’s, use a VPN router at home and have VPNs on my mobile devices, email masks and relays, and where possible pay with virtual cards etc. I think my most unique identifier, last time I checked with the EFF site, was the size and resolution of my screens. I’m not really sure how much data there is to collect about me past the mundane, as I don’t really associate with anyone in the real world online, and almost exclusively use signal in the real world.

regardless of what measures you set up, they'll still be able to collect a bunch of data based on what pages you visit their service, which posts do you spend more time looking at and which you scroll past, and so on.
- I figure that if I can keep it pretty isolated, they’ll only get “scrolls marketplace in SE uk” out of it - I’m never going to look at the feed or have “friends”.

I do the same, obviously all bullshit info, email forwarders for the acct, VPN, and it's cookies containerized so it can't go snooping, and make sure your browser isn't successfully being fingerprinted or it's all pointless.
https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/
Never fuck up and don't hop on without a VPN, or from it's proper container. As said, just minimizing, not removing.
- I have a VPN router, and will either use Mullvad browser with no other tabs open (and obviously all cookies freshly cleared etc) or maybe a vanilla FF on a VM. With all my details being nonsense, a unique relayed email, and the browser essentially completely resetting after every use, I doubt they can find out much useful about me

You can’t use Facebook privately. There’s no such thing.

7 comments