Oh please, make Facebook go away—I don’t like being tracked

[Catsbane]

I don’t like being tracked, especially when I’m playing games—it’s not fun. The presence of the Facebook icon on the Game Results screen is unwelcome, creepy and an invasion of privacy. Anyone wishing to “share” their win can take a screenshot and post it, but using the Facebook icon/link allows for the collecting of information by Facebook and the targeting of ads (at large). I would prefer to pay more for the premium plan than to have my privacy and my fun compromised this way. Please make Facebook go away from Board Game Arena. Thank you.

[Heyalx]

I totally agree with you @Catsbane.
I am not on facebook for a reason and seeing the icon this morning has made me uncomfortable. I do not wish to have any of my data shared, accessed or compromised by FB. The addition of this button is unnecessary and doesn't add to the fun of playing board games online.

[sourisdudesert]

Hello

This is a standard "Facebook sharing" button, like the one you can find on any other news article, blog article, including boardgaming news website (and including Board Game Geek).

If you ignore it, not info is sent to Facebook. So basically, you can just ignore it if you don't want it.

(however, the button is pretty ugly, I agree with you, and we should probably work on that)

[Manassès I]

I don’t like being tracked, especially when I’m playing games—it’s not fun. The presence of the Facebook icon on the Game Results screen is unwelcome, creepy and an invasion of privacy. Anyone wishing to “share” their win can take a screenshot and post it, but using the Facebook icon/link allows for the collecting of information by Facebook and the targeting of ads (at large). I would prefer to pay more for the premium plan than to have my privacy and my fun compromised this way. Please make Facebook go away from Board Game Arena. Thank you.

i agree, it is visual pollution, pls remove or make it small with soft color

[aesche]

This is a standard "Facebook sharing" button.
If you ignore it, not info is sent to Facebook. So basically, you can just ignore it if you don't want it.

Uuhm, sure... I strongly hope that this is transparent enough that someone with deeper knowledge than me can check how true that statement is. There are many articles in the web how the share buttons do collect data with simply being there, how facebook repeatedly was sued about this, and how this is not compliant with data protection laws if not properly included in the data protection guidelines of a page that uses share buttons (which you do not do correctly, unsurprisingly, afais).

Having other forum posts here in mind, that your data security awareness is ... maigre, till suggestions that BGA is not compliant with GDPR and not actually seeing anyone of you really caring about it, and with no possibility implemented to hide some personal information (online status, activity log), and not to forget your sale-out to an American company branch, I‘m not so convinced that your statement has a lot of truth/value.

At best a personal solution and not really an excuse: I used to have browser plugins that block tracking through such plugins and cookies. Unfortunately, since using mobile browsers mostly meanwhile, I never secured them up to that level, and actually am not even sure if it is possible to that degree.

[BarnardsStar]

If you ignore it, not info is sent to Facebook. So basically, you can just ignore it if you don't want it.

That’s not actually true, though, is it? Consumer Reports doesn’t think so. (Article title: “How Facebook tracks you even when you’re not on Facebook”)

[shadowphiar]

If you ignore it, not info is sent to Facebook. So basically, you can just ignore it if you don't want it.

It's an iframe, meaning FB get an https request when the button is displayed, even if you do not interact with it. It has a URL along the lines of the following:

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/share_button.php?app_id=&channel=https%3A%2F%2Fstaticxx.facebook.com%2Fx%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2F%3Fversion%3D46%23cb%3Df2ec9f7acbb9f58%26domain%3Dboardgamearena.com%26origin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fboardgamearena.com%252Ff13e228cd82ae86%26relation%3Dparent.parent&container_width=706&href=https%3A%2F%2Fen.boardgamearena.com%2Ftable%3Ftable%3D165496557&layout=button&locale=en_US&sdk=joey&size=large

… meaning that they get, at the least, the table number you just played. If they cared to, they could associate that with the name of the game. After just a few games they would be able to connect your other browsing history to a specific BGA username.

[BobGod8]

Anyone have a CSS customization to make it go away yet? I can make it disappear with uBlock Origin by hiding it, but it doesn't persist, so at least the <div> element should be easy to identify and remove.

[sourisdudesert]

Anyone have a CSS customization to make it go away yet? I can make it disappear with uBlock Origin by hiding it, but it doesn't persist, so at least the <div> element should be easy to identify and remove.

No need for that: we're going to change the way it is handled on next week.

[BobGod8]

Whatever, here's the fix for anyone curious:

.publishresult {
display:none!important;
}

Add to your advanced CSS preferences and the whole container block disappears. Enjoy!