Social media tracking came under the spotlight recently when Apple announced at WWDC 2018 that it’s going to start blocking social media tracking by default in macOS Mojave and iOS 12 with users having the option to enable it for select websites if they so desire. However, the new iterations of these operating systems won’t be out until the fall this year so Adblock Plus is taking advantage of this spotlight to announce that its extension will now block social media tracking as well.
Social networks such as Facebook use share buttons to track users who may never have signed up for the network, let alone be signed into it. The share buttons are now ubiquitous on the internet, you can find them on almost all websites.
The social networks use this network of share buttons to create so-called “shadow profiles” of the user regardless of whether or not the user clicks on the button or if they’re even signed into the network.
The Adblock Plus extension for Chrome and Firefox will now be blocking social media tracking as well. It’s a special feature that users have to activate manually by following these instructions. Apple was listed by the company as an inspiration for this feature but Apple’s own iteration of the feature won’t be out until at least September this year.
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