Preventing Network Data Collection

In our continued effort to provide data privacy protection, BlackFog has introduced the first of many new blocks against social network data collection. This one focuses specifically on Facebook. With the recent revelation that Facebook tracks you whether or not you are a Facebook customer means that people had no option to opt out of this massive data collection exercise.

BlackFog has therefore made this new option available (which is off by default for those who still wish to use Facebook) to all customers. Our recent customer survey voted overwhelmingly (over 90%) as the most important new feature we could add. As a result we decided to add this to a minor point release so we could get it into your hands as quickly as possible.

This new option ensures that Facebook cookies are wiped and you Facebook cannot collect data from other sites at all. Be aware that this also means that you cannot access Facebook from your browser either.

Monetization

BlackFog firmly believes that you do not need to be the product to use the Internet. Unfortunately, the business models of many large technology companies means that they are reliant on advertising to monetize and hence grow their business for shareholders. Jaron Lanier, one of the early pioneers of Silicon Valley talks a lot about the devolvement of society as a result of this Ad driven culture. If you are not familiar with Jaron, we highly recommend you review his recent TED talk on “How we need to remake the Internet”, which is very insightful.

The increased sophistication of the algorithms used to track and monetize users means that Advertisers are now focused on changing behavior to influence your purchasing decisions and change social discourse. This also means that it tends to amplify negative and minority views quicker than positive views, because this creates results much faster.

We highly recommend that if you are not a Facebook customer, or you are a organization that wants to limit access to Facebook that you enable this option on BlackFog to ensure you have the best privacy protection available.