AddThis found using undetected cookie-like tracking mechanism

This could be implemented to xenForo`s core to help fight against frequent spammers that target individual sites. ;)
 
I share things all the time on Facebook with no problems, though I personally have sharing off on KH-Flare.
 
Amaury said:
I share things all the time on Facebook with no problems, though I personally have sharing off on KH-Flare.
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This is not something that will cause a "problem" per se, just a dishonest business practice in my opinion. There's no current way besides using Tor to protect yourself from being "fingerprinted" by AddThis and having them track you.
 
TeflonDon said:
This is not something that will cause a "problem" per se, just a dishonest business practice in my opinion. There's no current way besides using Tor to protect yourself from being "fingerprinted" by AddThis and having them track you.
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Find all their tracking IPs and block them in your home firewall in your router. Then they can't reach you to update.
 
i ditched it the day this thread was posted.
addthis can spin it however they wish, but they were caught with their pants down.
 
AddThis is coming under increasing scrutiny for profiling what users type on forums/websites, including very private data, search data and selling such profiles to very unethical clients.
 
erich37 said:
Lawmakers in Germany just ruled against the use of "Social Share Buttons":
Fines up to EUR 5000 for webmasters.
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As said in the article. It's a really specific situation. Even with the precedent this may set for the time being, it's not going to be a huge deal. Worst case scenario if I am reading this right the like button should come up with the same sort of dialog facebook apps use when asking for permission to send or retrieve data from facebook.
 
We can expect to hear more about this in the future. The amount of data that these trackers are gathering goes way beyond simply tracking who goes where and watches what. It removes forum anonymity and indexes what people type on forums, private messages and anywhere on any site. This happens while people have no idea this is being done. Nor that data between sites can be combined in far reaching manners. The data is then resold to national and foreign commercial parties including insurance agencies, financial organizations, health organizations, etc, etc.

The data is being used to refuse services, contracts, jobs, insurance to people because what they privately type on websites puts them in a risk category.

Its really doubtful these practices are all legal.
 
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