social media and geekdom

Maybe you can explain why you think the issue of poi-factory not using SSL is somehow related to social media privacy concerns? Because I don't see it myself. For me, my issue is in the way the big social media companies are run, the way that they do everything they can to track you and even study each small movement while you use their app, down to exactly how fast you are scrolling, when you pause, etc. When you share a link on facebook, a huge machine is standing right behind you, pumping those links up with tracking data so they can trace who you're sharing it with and discover which friends you have in common, etc. There's a whole lot of stuff going on "under the hood" on facebook, it's not just a friendly little neighborhood forum.

The lack of SSL encryption here at poi-factory is certainly disappointing, and frankly it speaks poorly for the site, sort of sends a message that nobody cares. But in the end, that has nothing to do with a comparison to social media sites. It simply means that your connection to the server is not encrypted. That is mainly an issue when you login and have to send a password. But, as someone previously pointed out, that portion of the site actually is encrypted (taking their word on it because I never noticed).

But really, it makes no difference in day to day usage of the site. Anyone can come to this forum and read everything, having an https address wouldn't change that at all. That is just a management choice to keep the forum public and open. https only comes into play when sending/receiving private information.

I posted this elsewhere, but it's worth repeating here. Working on some code with Gemini awhile ago, I vented about facebook inserting tracking data into links to my site. I didn't expect any more than "that's terrible" as a response... but instead, I got quite an education! This is really the best explanation of facebook tracking I've seen. A transcript of my discussion follows

(I jumbled up these links to protect privacy and also broke them across multiple lines, so the forum software doesn't freak out).

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boyd said:
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BTW, this is what I HATE about facebook, look at this URL:

lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fboydsmaps.com
%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwJH76NhfR3REHTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMPPciI
1NTMxNzI4AAEeMLYQ-LcS_-vQezVjKhmA9NiSxPNcvj6PB11BbS-
hkdchhdqrwQlu-eavUYe9Q4_aem_mkqFk64CLeLM_9HTMT0NCA&h
=OUHYxhFmdzNePaFX-bxDAqdMaSvBVUkgmqioDXmID09oScUf7hp
CInq13PQftY6uCjt1f6lU7T1gmyvCgFjDqssvrsGbw8CRnAAOO1d
MJ1Yxc5Zg4PUPaDeCipkspWuscPb-w1dstO_CYtuA_npPIDj02

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gemini said:
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It is absolute corporate telemetry bloat at its absolute finest. Look at that monstrosity! The actual destination— /boydsmaps.com — is utterly buried alive inside a mountain of tracking radioactive waste.

If you peel back the layers of that URL, you can see exactly how much surveillance they are cramming into a single mouse click:

### 1. The Wrapper (The Link Shim)

lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=
This tells the browser to go to Facebook’s redirect engine first, rather than your site. It intercepts the click so they can log exactly *who* clicked it, *when*, and from *where*, before passing them along.

### 2. The `fbclid` (Facebook Click ID)

fbclid=3DIwJUH76NhfR3...
This is the real tracking parasite. It’s a unique, encrypted string generated dynamically the microsecond a user clicks the link. It tracks the user across the web. If you had the Meta Pixel tracking script installed on your site (thankfully you don't!), Meta would read that ID on your end and stitch their off-Facebook browsing habits directly back to their personal profile.

### 3. The `_aem` Parameter

_aem_mkqFk64CLe...
This stands for **Aggregated Event Measurement**. It’s Meta’s workaround for protocols like Apple's App Tracking Transparency. It bundles ad-conversion data together so they can still measure how effective an ad or shared post was, even if the user opted out of direct tracking.

### 4. The Integrity Hash

&h=OUHYx...
This is the payload signature at the very end. Facebook uses it to verify that the URL parameters weren't altered or tampered with by the user or a browser extension while moving through the redirect.

It turns a simple, lightweight hyperlink into a massive telemetry packet. It’s the exact opposite of Unix simplicity—taking something fundamentally clean and wrapping it in layers of proprietary tracking sludge just to feed the data machine. No wonder you hate it!

Post broken links. ie https:// www.google .com . It will take a bit more effort on the viewers part to open it, but will hopefully break fb's link infestation.

Overall, I mostly distrust social media, especially when I see my many nieces and nephews spending hours every day using it. School kids are using it as a weapon by posting things that are hurtful and untrue. It's a more subtle form of bullying.

I'll admit, I do use Facebook, but only for finding specific information from pages that are of interest to me. I'm not that concerned about privacy, since I rarely post, and never share personal information. You don't have to have a "Facebook Page" to be a member, and I don't.

Rather than make a long post on my likes and dislikes, I'll simply say that social media has it's good points and bad. It all depends on how it's used. I do believe it needs to be better regulated though.

So if your concerned about your
security....

There are 5 sections below..
and yes, like AI social media can be good and bad..
oh bonus points for those of
you that know what "facebook" started out as...

Read the following links,
watch the included video and then watch the movie SNOWDEN ..
if you don't have the background... this will paint
a picture for you..
some might be surprised..
and there a lot more but
we'll not discuss that..
oh... and then theres the cell tower stuff included at the bottom just to be as complete
as possible.. but.. theres some other stuff..
and well leave that alone..

Oh.. don't forget about
Bluetooth.. but I'll not
delve into that just rest assured, it to is wholly
as Swiss cheese too.

Enjoy

======= 1 ======

Magic lantern

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Lantern_(spyware)

======= 2 ======

Carnivore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivore_(software)

https://www.britannica.com/technology/Carnivore-software

https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/carnivore-dcs1...

How Carnivore worked

https://computer.howstuffworks.com/carnivore.htm

Carnivore FOIA docs

https://archive.epic.org/privacy/carnivore/foia_documents.ht...

======= 3 ======

Beyond Carnivore

https://www.wpbstv.org/a-look-back-at-domestic-govt-surveill...

======= 4 ======

And if you're really interested.. to fill this out.. watch SNOWDEN

======= 5 ======

And here's the cell tower info..

Signalling System No. 7

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_System_No._7