"This is a good thing." would be valid in a perfect world where everyone is nice to each other and only has the best intentions, to find the best product "for you and for your needs". But, we live in capitalism. Companies don't care if the product is the best fit "for you and your needs". They want to sell their stuff. The "comparison sites" don't care about you, they compare and promote the brand who spends the most on ads and commission. But hey, that's still OK, you can still decide and are in power of your choices, right? Let's go one step further. You meet with someone who's into antivax, antimask, government surveillance (the microchip implant) theories, Querdenker, MAGA or QAnon. Facebook and Google spin up their algorithms and over time you'll slowly but surely get targeted misinformation in your feed that lets you first doubt your believes and then undermines your confidence. Of course, using these algorithms with personal information in targeted advertising costs a lot of money. During 2021 I kept wondering "who profits from antivax misinformation" and of course fell into the conspiracy trap and thought of big political power games etc., but in reality it's a lot simpler: It's just good business. - people [selling fake vaccination certificates](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-market-covid-19-vaccine-cards/) - politicians who [use their influence to direct sales](https://www.dw.com/en/german-mp-faces-bribery-allegations-over-covid-masks-deal/a-56708300) and take a "commission" - YouTubers, Bloggers and "Influencers" who benefit from the views and ads - left/right/otherwise [radical groups using the publicity for their own agenda](https://www.dw.com/en/meet-germanys-querdenker-covid-protest-movement/a-57049985) - spreading ["donation account" for "the cause"](https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-price-of-freedom-how-anti-lockdown-protest-leaders-make-money-from-the-movement-20211130-p59de5.html) - selling "anti vax" swag, shirts, caps, ... - ... Oh the conspiracy theory, this could never be true! - [Anti-Vaccine Propaganda Is Dangerously Profitable](https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/anti-vaccine-propaganda-profitable) - [What's behind the 'anti-vax' movement?](https://www.bbc.com/news/health-33774181) - [Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp is complicit in Myanmar genocide](https://thediplomat.com/2020/08/how-facebook-is-complicit-in-myanmars-attacks-on-minorities/) - [Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp drives people into depression](https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/6/22712927/facebook-instagram-teen-mental-health-research) - [Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp algorithms promote hate and drive toxic content](https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/facebook-algorithm/) - [Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp used for political advertising to promote fake news and hate speech to influence the election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal) - [Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp harms children and is damaging democracy](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/05/facebook-harms-children-damaging-democracy-claims-whistleblower) - [Google sued as "the unchallenged gateway to the internet for billions of users worldwide, but that its success depends on unfair and monopolistic behavior."](https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/21/21524886/google-market-power-justice-department-antitrust-lawsuit-consumer-harm) - Google: [NewsGuard identified more than 150 sites that published falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election between Election Day and Inauguration Day](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/google-needs-to-defund-misinformation/ar-AAQRZ7O) - the list goes on ... To me, this means Ads and my personal information isn't just about buying a mattress or a refreshment, it's about how people can influence my decisions based on my personal habits, behavior and beliefs by continuously showing suggestions and targeted content on social media and websites I visit. Given there's adspace for sale everywhere, even my most trusted/visited websites may contain misinformation sponsored by the highest bidder, making the suggestion much stronger than a simple message on a social news feed. ## What can I do? The bad news: it's not easy and requires a sacrifice. The big ad companies have made life incredibly comfortable with Maps, Email, Messenger, Groups, etc. so you happily use their products for free and don't even think about them tracking your every move. If you know any other/better/easier options, please [let me know on Twitter](https://twitter.com/PatrickHeneise) or send me an email! So far, the most effective anti tracking measures are found are ["DNS Blocking"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_blocking), so every time a website tries to load anything (ie "Like" button with tracking pixel) from Facebook, the request is re-routed and blocked. ### On a Mac/PC I've been using ["Steven Black's hostlist"](https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts#readme) for a very long time. Steven compiles and updates a list of 100,000+ (yeah right, **one hundred thousand**) unique domains which are known for personal tracking, adware and malware. You can pick another list which also includes fakenews, gambling etc. for a total of ~150,000 unique domains. This method requires a little knowledge about the operating system and you can easily lock yourself out of websites, so I would only do that if you know what you're doing. There are scripts and other ways, but I usually just picked the raw host list and copied/pasted it into `/etc/hosts` on a regular basis. As I've been using this for years, I've also been wondering for years how I can protect myself on my phone, tablet etc., where one usually doesn't have access to internal `/etc/hosts` files. ### On Mobile/Tablet There are a bunch of apps available. I use [AdGuard](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adguard-adblock-privacy/id1047223162) and [Hush Nag Blocker](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hush-nag-blocker/id1544743900) as content blockers in Safari or the [Brave Browser](https://brave.com). If you're using Apple Mail, go to Settings -> Mail -> Privacy Protection and enable "Block All Remote Content". This blocks tracking pixels in emails (every newsletter uses those to check if, when and how often you open the email and which links to click). This is OK, but it doesn't block adware/malware "in apps", since it's now popular to load a browser directly in the app, all the content blockers are circumvented. ### Network-wide DNS Blocking It's hard to admit that in my 20+ years in the Information Technology world, I didn't think of this before and only been using a network dns blocker since late 2020. There are consumer-friendly products like [Firewalla](https://firewalla.com), but you can also just get a cheap Raspberry 4 and install [Pi-Hole](https://pi-hole.net), [AdGuard Home](https://adguard.com/en/adguard-home/overview.html) or [Cloudflare Gateway](https://blog.cloudflare.com/protect-your-team-with-cloudflare-gateway/). Every network request from _every app_ from _every device_ in your network will go through this little box (I got a Raspberry with a black housing, so it's indeed a "black box"). The request is encrypted (so your Internet provider doesn't know where you surf and can sell this information to Goog... the highest bidder), and several different "name servers" are used to make spread the traffic. There's plenty information about "dns blocking" and "dns filters", and simple guides on [how to set up Pi-hole and a Raspberry Pi](https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/pi-hole-raspberry-pi/) available, just **DuckDuckGo** for it. Which brings me to the last point: ### Change your default search engine (and default browser) If you still use Chrome, none of the above methods work, because [tracking is built in to Chrome itself](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/08/dont-play-googles-privacy-sandbox-1). > Google is trying to hide its true intentions behind a pretext of privacy,” the > suit continues. With Privacy Sandbox, “Google does not actually put a stop to > user profiling or targeted advertising — it puts Google’s Chrome browser at > the center of tracking and targeting. — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/16/22333848/google-antitrust-lawsuit-texas-complaint-chrome-privacy There are some good browsers out there. My main browser is actually Safari (#teamsafari) and Safari Technology Preview. I use [Brave](https://brave.com) for work and to open social networking sites like Twitter and LinkedIn. And guess what, I don't use Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp. In your browser, go to Settings and find the "Default Search Engine". I've been using [DuckDuckGo](https://duckduckgo.com/spread) for years and are quite happy with the results, I'm reviewing [Ecosia](https://www.ecosia.org) on a regular basis to compare. Thanks for reading. If you have comments or feedback, feel free to send me [an email](mailto:privacy-article@patrickheneise.com) or [find me on Twitter](http://twitter.com/patrickheneise). ## Final Thoughts I have no sympathy for online advertising. What started with silly annoying popup windows has become an empire where personal information is traded like commodities and targeting goes beyond age and gender demographics, religious beliefs and income down to daily habits, spending, location tracking and inter-personal interests based on your friends, family, social contacts (the above mentioned "conversation tracking"). The 1984 Resurrections? PS: I know Twitter is pretty bad too, it's my "guilty pleasure".5/ This is a good thing.
— Jesse Pujji 🎾 (@jspujji) December 25, 2021
You get value from it all the time.
You’re shopping for a mattress. You go to Casper’s website. Then back to FB/IG.
You start getting ads for other mattress companies and even a mattress comparison site.
You find the right choice, you buy!