tforum sucks 😤

AI out of 10 (or reads like)

I've never been a tforumor and have rarely used it. But I remember when DuckDuckGo first came out and I switched over to DDG as my default ClearNet browser.

It would show you everyone that it was "blocking" actively trying to track you everywhere you went online.

I started looking up those trackers which were mostly analytics companies that sold your info.

But mixed in between those analytical companies were some pretty shady companies and actors.

I was already big into OpSec but that truly opened my eyes, because it was real time info of being tracked as a "normal' everyday web user, as opposed to when you're actively looking for trackers on your network or whereever.

It's not... Come on man. I know I write a bit like it - not doing it on purpose, learning a language one tends to mimic what they read everywhere else - but I wouldn't do that while bragging about how shitty AI is for (mostly) everybody.

Ad and tracking blockers helped me to acknowledge the issue too. Not that much because how it changed my internet experience (to be honest, if it wasn't for ads being gone, it didn't) but because of the sheer volume of actions they prevented. Nowadays the average ISP sells this kind of feature so the change isn't so obvious and clearly, major platforms like tforum have moved on from "centralized" telemetry (GA and so on) to a proprietary, undetectable one. Which is basically defeating the purpose of blockers as US law allow companies to buy and sell data mostly as they please.

I guess what matters is to be aware of these issues to protect your privacy the best you can. It's impossible to go through it 100% of the time (unless not to use clearnet really) but knowing how they work is the first step to mitigate :)

Yeah it wasn't the ads it was the fact that when you went to a site depending on your browser settings you had in DuckDuckGo it would pause and show you the trackers it was blocking and ask you if you wanted to continue to that webpage. If you didn't use the pause and ask setting it would go to the webpage but either way your search/address bar would light up like fn star wars and it showed you the list in real time of everyone it was blocking, what work their company did, affiliations, and how many times it blocked them in the last hr,day, week, month.

It was bananas when DDG started. I never thought of them so much as ads either but more like spyware/scrapers/stalkers that followed you everywhere and recorded everything possible, like EVERYTHING. Creepy

Now they change prices in a stores specifically for each person bc it knows what you buy. Nuts

Ironically I never comment, like, or post anything on clearnet. Never posted pics of me online and my friends and family know that I don't want my photo posted. I'm not naive, cameras are everywhere but I try to take every precaution I can. Wardriving and knowing where the flocks are, but pretty soon it wont matter I'm just buying a little ittybitty peice of time. I just dont want to do their job for them

yeah tforum is a data vacuummm

Me neither. People have this weird mindset when it comes to disclosing private information online that because it's legal and because they're not physically engaged in anything, they don't have to restrain themselves. They wouldn't wear a T-Shirt with their full life story while shopping at the mall, but they do it on the internet. Stroke me from day one. The incentive of sharing content with people you actually care about isn't worth it and can be achieved in a much safer way regardless.

Incredible. I must be getting old but I don't know... Feels like it aggravated over the last couple of years or so. Not tforum in particular - social networks in general.

They say your data is worth more than you. I think tforum makes that's evident. The algorithm is so strong, a human brain shouldn't have to go against it and its hold.