Warning- if you go onto the Reform anti-immigration site

I think I killed a thread. In case anyone suspects me of approving of this underhand method of secretly "marketing", I will add that my post was the result of seeking to find out more about it so as to be on my guard against it - and to enlighten others too.

"What is the Meta Pixel?
The Meta Pixel is a free tracking tool that is embedded in websites and collects users’ browsing information, such as pages viewed, buttons clicked and keywords searched, matching this to the user’s IP address and, in many cases, their Facebook account.
"Observer investigation reveals NHS trusts, mental health charities and police forces sharing sensitive data with Meta via Meta Pixels on their websites." claydenlaw.co.uk/meta-pixels-lessons-to-learn/

The link explains the many ways in which the organisations which include Meta pixels in their websites may be breaking the rules of the GDPR. (The organisations may even be unaware of exactly how the website creators have enabled them to target their advertising so well)

Facebook page about how and why to put meta pixels on your website - www.facebook.com/business/tools/meta-pixel

and on Shopify - www.shopify.com/blog/72787269-relax-advertising-on-facebook-just-got-a-lot-easier#

"Meta pixel at heart of data privacy cases – again
Tiny piece of useful code just can't stop pinging confidential data to Facebook. - techhq.com/2023/07/why-is-the-meta-pixel-at-heart-of-data-privacy-cases/

25Avalon

Bit confused here. How does the “data reveal a person’s political beliefs”? I hate websites that demand I accept cookies and avoid them unless there is something I absolutely want I can’t get elsewhere.
Is this story definitely true WWM2? Where did you find it? I’d like to read more - but not if I have to allow cookies to do so!

Yes it is and you might whilst you are at it read up about Cambridge Analytica scandal and Farage’s involvement with that. It gives you the full picture of how it all works, but there is masses of reading.

The observer will give you a start today though.

Bit confused here. How does the “data reveal a person’s political beliefs”? I hate websites that demand I accept cookies and avoid them unless there is something I absolutely want I can’t get elsewhere.
Is this story definitely true WWM2? Where did you find it? I’d like to read more - but not if I have to allow cookies to do so!

I reported Farage to the ICO for his debanking site, which did not have a cookies permission page when that was set up. I’d assumed it would be dodgy in some way, so used a VPN, and when I asked for ‘help’ used one of my junk email addresses. I never heard anything, of course, since that site was also no doubt just for data harvesting or selling.

I had a look at the meta-pixel information page that Maerion posted.

First thing that struck me was that it didn't offer any choice to accept or reject cookies; it just said that using the website meant that you agreed to accept their cookies. Isn't that illegal? Or are they under a jurisdiction that doesn't make it illegal?
Anyway, that's a bit of a red herring.

As to meta-pixels, they sound like an absolute godsend for businesses and advertisers, but do they not count as cookies? Does anyone know?

How would you even know that a site had them installed?

What information do they carry and would that information be in a form that could be sold to a third party?
Do they violate data protection law?

So many questions. I must read the Observer article.

I think it must be new. I would have clicked off if I’d seen it when I glanced at their site before the election.

Galaxy

Yes I have just looked and there is a cookies warning thing.

As I understand it, that has always been there but isn’t worth the pixel it is written on!

Well, they might have changed it now that they have been rumbled.

Yes I have just looked and there is a cookies warning thing.

fancythat

Does the site mention cook ies?

Apologies if that is a naive question.

Yes, as a massive pop-up page, that certainly wasn’t there before the election (I can’t recall if it asked for cookie permissions before, but the large pop up wasn’t there).

I don’t mind looking because I don’t have Meta accounts - they have always been notorious for privacy breaches and data harvesting of the most invasive kinds.

I do note that Reform are offering ‘member rates’ to their conference, which is so much drivel as they can’t have members under their legal structure.

If you trust the current government with your privacy and confidentiality you have rocks in your head! Just to balance things out. Communists have a bad history of prying into peoples’ lives.

fancythat

Does the site mention cook ies?

Apologies if that is a naive question.

I don’t know.

I’m certainly not going in to find out😄😄

I think the algorithms whatever they do (I sort of grasp it to a very small extent) that identify and collate individuals on line pattern and target them.

Does the site mention cook ies?

Apologies if that is a naive question.

And illegal

Casdon

eazybee

Every day in every way launch another attack on the Conservatives.
Distracts attention from what Labour are actually doing.

There are plenty of threads about what Labour is doing eazybee, and we’re all free to start more, you included if there is an issue you want to discuss.

I don't want to add fuel to the flames, but this sort of shutting down is not helpful. I'm sure that people across the political spectrum feel that things have been very confrontational on here lately - I certainly do - and I'm sure that many of us see the 'attacks' as being on the party we support. As Casdon says, we can all start threads about whatever we like. There are numerous ones about 'what Labour is doing', and they've only been the government for a few weeks.

As I see it (and I'm not claiming to be less biased than anyone else) most of the recent comments about the Tories have come from exasperated people pointing out that it is not the government who has caused the problems we are in. The previous government was in power for 14 years, and the new one is looking for ways to mitigate some of them. None of us knows yet whether they will succeed, but it is frustrating when they aren't being given a chance.

I think the subject of this thread is very concerning. I too looked at the Reform website - amongst others - to check out who our local candidate was, as boundary changes meant I was unfamiliar with any of the voting choices (she had no photo or details anywhere) and I don't like the idea of my own details being harvested like this. That is not an 'attack on the Tories'. for one thing, it's Reform who have done it, and for another I would feel the same if the Labour Party, the Lib Dems, or anyone else did it. It's unethical.

petra

Every time you use Google your info goes into their bank accounts.
You will read many claims that they don’t : they do!!! Nothing to see here.

www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/google-says-it-doesnt-sell-your-data-heres-how-company-shares-monetizes-and

Every time you look at a website which uses Google Ads, that website receives a very small amount of money from Google. It is how many websites are monetised (including I think Gransnet)

It is the reason that some sites which can't be bothered to add actual content will post instead those long involved "stories" which show a small part on each of many pages followed by a "click here for more" to move on from each cliffhanger.

Google in turn, of course, gets money from the advertisers who pay them to display their ads.

That was for petra. I despair at my proofreading.

But, as WWM has just a at I’d, this isn’t about advertising, it isn’t about using Cookies which you have agreed to and customised. It is about sharing personal information without consent.

eazybee

Every day in every way launch another attack on the Conservatives.
Distracts attention from what Labour are actually doing.

But this is what Reform are actually doing - secretly undermining our freedom to vote for Labour or Conservative as we choose, without our choice being tracked and our details recorded illegally for their own purposes.

Labour are doing legally what they feel will get us out of the financial mess we are in whatever the opinions of other parties There is a vast difference. Farage & Co, of course will be unable to see any difference, or not care about it.

Whitewavemark2

petra

Google is worth $2 trillion. How do they earn that money?
Advertising. Bingo!!

This isn’t about advertising though is it?

Advertising is their big earner. Then there’s this.

www.forbes.com/sites/kevinanderton/2020/12/13/middle-schooler-proves-google-search-results-influence-political-opinions-infographic/

eazybee

Every day in every way launch another attack on the Conservatives.
Distracts attention from what Labour are actually doing.

There are plenty of threads about what Labour is doing eazybee, and we’re all free to start more, you included if there is an issue you want to discuss.

petra

Google is worth $2 trillion. How do they earn that money?
Advertising. Bingo!!

This isn’t about advertising though is it?

Google is worth $2 trillion. How do they earn that money?
Advertising. Bingo!!

The Observer article:

www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/10/reform-uk-tracked-private-user-information-without-consent

The Meta pixel is a piece of code that you deliberately put on your website. It’s something that you have to implant not something that happens by accident so the “cock-up nor conspiracy” argument being offered is just more of the “new kids on the block” disingenuity that Farage is so fond of.

Whatever they are branding themselves as this time around, we know they are old lags on the block, veterans of UKIP and the Brexit Party and know exactly what they are doing.

From the Reform “Contract”:

Our data and privacy must be protected. Surveillance of the public must be limited and those monitoring us held to account.

More explanation here for anyone interested in the tech side of Meta pixel.

instapage.com/blog/meta-pixel/