Good news!!
The Saker blog will now have an existence on the social media, specifically on Facebook and on Twitter. In the near future, we also have plans for a presence on VKontakte (the Russian Facebook). I personally do not have the time or inclination to deal with the social media, but others have done so on my behalf in the past, and there are a few “Saker” pages in FB and Twitter. But this time around, these will be “official” pages, and they will be run by my Research Assistants:
On Facebook, Raskolnikova will be in charge of https://www.facebook.com/thevineyardsaker
On Twitter, Duff will be in charge of https://twitter.com/VineyardofSaker
As soon as the Russian Saker blog rebounds from its current problems Raskolnikova will also probably launch our presense on Vkontakte.
There seem to be TWO twitter accounts for this blog:
https://twitter.com/VineyardofSaker
https://twitter.com/VineyardSaker
Hmmm… one has not been used form 3 months. We’ll have to do something about that. Thanks.
Hope to see you on VK… i realy don’t like facebook (((
And to share on the Russian sphere… it is much more better!
To The Saker and staff, I’m not quite sure what to think about this. I recently had an experience on Facebook that revealed how far FB goes in collecting and maintaining personal data on users.
It is well-known and has been for years that FB collects consumer information so that they can sell target lists to advertisers. Amazon perfected this model, — i.e., “Customers who purchased [x] also bought [y].” Eventually they expanded it not only to what you buy but what you look at. Facebook has been doing this since the start. However, now they are putting ads directly into users’ feeds rather than in the ad area in the sidebar.
A week ago, an ad appeared in my feed, but it was not for a consumer product. It was a campaign ad for Hillary Clinton. When I clicked on the “why am I seeing this” link, I got a response that Facebook has determined from my activity that I am “very liberal” and “thought you might like this.” So now they not only are collecting info on your buying habits, but they are building a political profile to sell to politicians.
I mentioned this to a friend, who told me about some free software that you can add to your browser that tells you what companies are tracking you, and you can block them. What an eye opener that has been. I clicked on a link to a BuzzFeed article and immediately got 23 alerts! Unfortunately, it can’t block Facebook from tracking your activity while you’re logged in. The one thing I don’t know is whether they can track you when you’re on public FB pages that don’t require you to log in. FB does have data collection programs that run outside of FB, same as other ad and analytics companies.
Speaking strictly for myself, I would not feel comfortable viewing The Saker on FB. I will stick with this site. I think I might have seen one tracker here, Google Analytics or something like that, but otherwise this is a tracking-free area.
The program PQ mentioned is most likely Ghostery. It’s free.
Michael
Yes, Michael. That’s the one. I’ve been using it for a week and am just floored by what it’s picking up. BTW, I originally downloaded it for Explorer, and it crashed my system every 10 minutes. The friend who gave me the tip suggested switching to Google Chrome. Did that and it works like a charm!
I just downloaded and run Ghostery on a few different MSM pages. Guardian 12 – 14 trackers, Sputnik 5 or 6 and China daily only 4 trackers.
Big brother is watching here in the west.
Try setting your browser to “Do not want to be tracked” (under Privacy in Firefox) and see if they honour it.
P.S. to Webmaster… When I posted this comment, I got a 404 error saying the page no longer existed. I reloaded and posted again, then got a message that I already posted that. Maybe just a one-time random glitch, but thought you might like to know.
That happened for me, too.
I got that 404 error, too.
Yes, me too…
http://www.dailydot.com/technology/diaspora-ello-facebook-battle-of-social/
“In the wake of Ello, thousands of people have turned to an old favorite: Diaspora, an open-source, anti-censorship, privacy-friendly, decentralized, and totally customizable social network that delivers on everything that Ello promised and more.”
http://www.dailydot.com/technology/diaspora-ello-facebook-battle-of-social/
“In the wake of Ello, thousands of people have turned to an old favorite: Diaspora, an open-source, anti-censorship, privacy-friendly, decentralized, and totally customizable social network that delivers on everything that Ello promised and more.
In the past week, the number of active users on Diaspora has nearly doubled to 25,000.
“There’s been renewed talk about Diaspora following the Ello hype, apparently all [administrators] note an increase in new/returning people,” one user wrote. “Good news!”
Founded in 2010 and owned by users, Diaspora hosts over 1 million total users but has repeatedly been deemed a failure for lacking a critical mass of users to propel growth and usage. That perception has been challenged several times in recent years, and deserves to be challenged again today.”
Why assist the Empire by tying all the users to such web nets?
Social Media is suicide for the Resistance.
FB is so pernicious it collects while you are logged out. It buries itself in your computer and is sucking everything you do, see or write.
It saves your deletions.
Your computer or device is like a terminal on their server.
And to what benefit?
Have to agree red ryder.Some more of us will now be logged as potential terrorists.I can imagine turning up at the airport one day and being escorted to a small room.FB/CIA/SAKER? not six eyes ,yet. TwitterShmitter.Oh no, don’t put that effing Fawkes mask on me ,thanks.But,of course,progress is all in this USSA world.
good news ??
uh uh.
‘Piwik/ tracks this page on mine.
I also got the ‘404’ treatment.Fish is past sell-by date.
CIA/FB/SAKER/WTF?
I don’t like it. Facebook and Twitter are evil tools.
When will Saker Sitreps resume?