1116
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

I don't really use facebook anymore so couldn't care less; but so happened to log in today to change my password and saw this on my front page.

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[-] [email protected] 373 points 7 months ago

Ad Blocking is Cyber Security, never ever let anyone convince you differently

[-] [email protected] 152 points 7 months ago

if ads were just static PNGs with a link you went to if you clicked I wouldn't have ever bothered. but ads became a major malware and tracking risk so plugging that security hole became mandatory.

[-] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago

I tried finding that website, but I can't remember what it is. I've seen it use the static image advertisement. It changed on each reload too.

But yes, that website had last update somewhere in the early 2000s.

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[-] [email protected] 57 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It's true. I work in a computer shop and we see literally thousands and thousands of dollars lost from people clicking on ads that look like normal buttons (things like "Download", "Next", etc). And not just the elderly either. Everyone has a a combination of inputs to get scared and comply. Folks that are otherwise extremely competent and savvy can get scammed too.

The best security you can have online is adblockers, only beaten by using trusted websites.

Edit, fair points with sites being slimy these days. I meant using legitimate versions of websites rather than copy/fake websites designed to steal credentials.

[-] [email protected] 27 points 6 months ago

I dunno', the way Google themselves have served vulnerable ads, it might be true that ad blocking is more important than using "trustworthy" sites.

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[-] [email protected] 31 points 7 months ago

Definitely. Ads are eye cancer at best, and infiltration channels for malware at worst. Compromised ad networks pumping out executable code via javascript (or back in the days, Flash) are still a major source of trojan infections.

[-] [email protected] 29 points 6 months ago

And just to add to your important point, Ad Blockers are really Content Blockers. They allow the user to delete annoyances that have nothing to do with advertising. We should all start calling them Content Blockers.

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[-] [email protected] 169 points 7 months ago

Seems like a feature to me.

[-] [email protected] 77 points 7 months ago

Oh yeah aunt Greta, I’m still friends with you, but it’s so weird how I can’t see your anti vax “facts”

[-] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago

That's the government censorship!

[-] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago

I took a peek at my feed for the first time in years. It's all junk lol, no one I care about is posting anything

The only thing worth seeing is my local Buy Nothing group, but there are other services popping up which do something similar.

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[-] [email protected] 157 points 7 months ago

Your ad blocker is blocking posts from friends

Thank fucking god

[-] [email protected] 45 points 6 months ago

My Facebook is hardly even friends these days. It's basically ads, suggested posts, and posts in groups. Maybe because none of my friends really post anymore, I dunno.

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[-] [email protected] 90 points 6 months ago

Ok but who the fuck uses Facebook?

[-] [email protected] 27 points 6 months ago
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[-] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago

There are a few countries where Facebook is still pretty popular. The Philippines, for example

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[-] [email protected] 74 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I think people are underestimating how important the YouTube thing is.

If they succeed, the entire ad funded internet are going to clone what they do.

It will effect everyone everywhere, whether you run an adblocker or not.

It will benefit the large corporations and choke out the smaller people. It will consolidate control and wealth.

[-] [email protected] 27 points 6 months ago

Exactly and I think what we are seeing here is that the other companies are now helping build a very frustrating user experience to break down the everyday user. We will likely see Twitter and others joining in the coming weeks

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[-] [email protected] 73 points 7 months ago

Other than YouTube, I’m basically off all of these centralized social media platforms and it feels great.

I do need to occasionally use Facebook for market place and messenger for contacting business.

Basically every business operates over messenger where I live.

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[-] [email protected] 63 points 6 months ago

I find it quite dubious their claim of it blocking posts from friends, vs. ads. Friends don't post ads, so if it's blocking posts, they are inserting ads colored up as "friend posts".

[-] [email protected] 61 points 6 months ago

So this is how it will start.

First it will be a back and forth war of Anti-adblockers vs Adblockers

Then when the Anti-Adblockers start to lose, which they will, then they'll come crying to various governments with massic PAC campaigns among other insane garbage about how "Adblockers are Piracy!" and that they need to be banned.

This will not end well.

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[-] [email protected] 56 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Oh no, I have to stop using Facebook too? Holy shit I might get something done

You guys should implement that shit here on Lemmy too

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[-] [email protected] 55 points 6 months ago

LOL, if you block ads they'll hide a message from one of your friends that you never would have seen anyway because it would've been buried in ads.

I think this is good though. I think this is just what a lot of people need to get them off FB. I mean... have you tried surfing the www without an ad blocker? I'd rather not use the www.

[-] [email protected] 48 points 6 months ago

Stop using Facebook.

[-] [email protected] 45 points 6 months ago

I'd rather have some false positives than a single unblocked ad.

[-] [email protected] 41 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It’s been for a long time but not overtly. (I’ve never used it, this is someone else’s screenshot)


Facebook splitting the word "Sponsored" to bypass adblockers – r/assholedesign

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[-] [email protected] 39 points 6 months ago

They ain’t my friends if they be posting ads.

[-] [email protected] 36 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

So they're essentially admitting that their advertisements are indistinguishable from your friend's posts which are the actual reason you visit the site in the first place. It doesn't matter anyway anymore. Facebook has buried friends list content among absolute bullshit you have zero desire to see. I visited a while ago and 99% of what I was shown was ridiculous groups I tried to block. But there are millions of them. You can block a thousand groups and there's 999 thousand more that are just like it, waiting to take their place. Facebook is supposed to have this super algorithm that determines what users want to see. If that's the case, why are they incapable of detecting that I am actively opposed to certain types of content? Maybe they think they're going to outrage me enough to engage on this bullshit? Nah, I'll just leave. Bye, fuck-faces.

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[-] [email protected] 35 points 6 months ago

I don't think any other site can do what YouTube is doing, because YouTube is almost impossible to replace and find an alternative to. If Facebook pulls this I'm out for good. The only reason I'm on there still is the 3 people who refuse to use anything else that I still care about.

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[-] [email protected] 35 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Can anyone please get my country off Facebook and Messenger? Please?

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[-] [email protected] 35 points 6 months ago

Facebook can get fucked. They offer even less to me than YouTube.

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[-] [email protected] 34 points 6 months ago

Of course they are, that's how they make their money. Can't understand the broken logic of anybody that's suprised by this, what is surprising is that anybody that cares about privacy would ever use Facebook.

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[-] [email protected] 32 points 7 months ago

How does one block a post from a friend with an ad-blocker? Do some of your friends type like shills? Is Facebook making numbers up for fun?

[-] [email protected] 34 points 7 months ago

It's probably made-up garbage. If they knew my ad-blocker had actually blocked a friend, I'm sure they would have found a way not to get anything blocked.

Or alternatively they are now displaying some friend's posts on the same channel normally reserved for ad networks so they are indistinguishable via software? But then it should be way more than one, unless this is some early A/B testing crap.

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[-] [email protected] 31 points 6 months ago

lol what.. my feed is 80% ads, 15% group posts and maybe 5% friends

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[-] [email protected] 29 points 6 months ago
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[-] [email protected] 27 points 6 months ago

this is such an insidious way to stop people from using ad blockers. It's not like facebook isn't deliberately making sure these false positives happen.

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[-] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago
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[-] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago

It's like all these tech companies wait to deploy this stuff at the same time.

[-] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago

As soon as one has the audacity to deploy anti-consumer bullshit and the others see there's no measurable fallback, they all rush to roll out the same shit.

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[-] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago

Good. Facebook should just die.

[-] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago

It would be funny if the ad blocking community just ignored this, and focused on removing FB tracking on external sites.

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[-] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago

Great for the internet! More people will install an adblocker (hopefully ublock origin).

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[-] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago

100% of the ads i saw on facebook that i can remember were scams

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[-] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago

So all my “friends” are actually ads?

Guess I don’t need to use Facebook

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this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
1116 points (99.2% liked)

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