• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Trainsplit sending data to Facebook?

Status
Not open for further replies.

AnkleBoots

Member
Joined
8 Jan 2017
Messages
506
Two of the apps on my phone are Trainsplit and Facebook. Upon checking my FB Privacy settings, I found that Trainsplit has sent data to Facebook on many occasions. I didn't find any other transport app doing the same.

What are they sending, why, and should I be concerned?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

najaB

Veteran Member
Joined
28 Aug 2011
Messages
30,783
Location
Scotland
I'm sure that @SickyNicky will be able to answer the question, but Trainsplit does have a 'Sign in with Facebook' option, did you perhaps use that? If you did then the two sites would be exchanging login information at the very least.
 

SickyNicky

Verified Rep - FastJP
Joined
8 Sep 2010
Messages
2,772
Location
Ledbury
TrainSplit NEVER sends any data to anyone. However, if you log in using your Facebook account, Facebook themselves will authenticate you and send us a token. That token tells us nothing, except that you are an authenticated user. We won't, under any circumstances, either attempt to access any data at Facebook, or send anything about your transactions with us to them.

I hope that puts your mind at rest.
 

AnkleBoots

Member
Joined
8 Jan 2017
Messages
506
This is the relevant article:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7937243/Facebook-users-given-control-data-gathered-sites-apps.html said:
'Off-Facebook Activity lets you see a summary of the apps and websites that send us information about your activity, and clear this information from your account if you want to,' Facebook said in a blog post about the tool.

HOW TO USE OFF-FACEBOOK ACTIVITY
Go to your settings in the Facebook app
Select 'Off-Facebook Activity'
Review the summary of the apps and websites that have shared your activity
Manage your settings.
Manage which apps and websites can access your off-Facebook activity
Does anyone else have transport apps on their list of "off-Facebook activity"?
 

najaB

Veteran Member
Joined
28 Aug 2011
Messages
30,783
Location
Scotland
This is the relevant article:

Does anyone else have transport apps on their list of "off-Facebook activity"?
When it comes to anything technical (or non-technical really), I don't think I'd trust the Daily Mail as a source.
 

dtaylor84

Member
Joined
14 Apr 2013
Messages
128
It does to an extent in terms of your intentions although it doesn't quite fit with the quote from Facebook in the article below.

It fits perfectly. Using Facebook as an identity provider (to authenticate logins) falls under "off-Facebook activity" alongside everything else (including the more problematic data-mining).

A cynic would suggest they've tied then together to confuse the issue, and make it less likely people will turn off "off-Facebook activity" as it will prevent them from using Facebook to login to other sites.
 

robbeech

Established Member
Joined
11 Nov 2015
Messages
4,650
Not all of them, I’m not entirely sure which I do and don’t.
 

CaptainHaddock

Established Member
Joined
10 Feb 2011
Messages
2,213
TrainSplit NEVER sends any data to anyone. However, if you log in using your Facebook account, Facebook themselves will authenticate you and send us a token. That token tells us nothing, except that you are an authenticated user. We won't, under any circumstances, either attempt to access any data at Facebook, or send anything about your transactions with us to them.

I hope that puts your mind at rest.

Hmm, I'm not convinced and in light of the op's post I don't think I'll be using Trainsplit again. Shame really as I've found it a very useful site, but I value my personal privacy and don't appreciate websites sharing it without my consent.
 

Lewlew

Member
Joined
15 Oct 2019
Messages
748
Location
London
Hmm, I'm not convinced and in light of the op's post I don't think I'll be using Trainsplit again. Shame really as I've found it a very useful site, but I value my personal privacy and don't appreciate websites sharing it without my consent.
It's only if you login into Trainsplit with your Facebook account. Just don't login with them, simple. Better yet, delete your Facebook account.
 

Paul Kelly

Verified Rep - BR Fares
Joined
16 Apr 2010
Messages
4,134
Location
Reading
I don't think it's anything to do with logging in via Facebook. Last time I looked at this, on the TrainSplit homepage there is one or more images hosted at Facebook. These are loaded as part of the page loading and involve your browser sending details to Facebook. So while it's not TrainSplit itself sending your details to Facebook, your browser is telling Facebook that you have visited TrainSplit (and sending Facebook cookies that presumably identify you as a Facebook user etc.), and that happens automatically as a consequence of loading the TrainSplit homepage. This is normal practice for many websites (although I'm not condoning it!).
 

Paul Kelly

Verified Rep - BR Fares
Joined
16 Apr 2010
Messages
4,134
Location
Reading
So while it's not TrainSplit itself sending your details to Facebook
I've just realised somebody could say I'm trying to split hairs with that point so I'll be clearer - as I understand it the TrainSplit website is causing your details to be sent to Facebook, but they are sent directly from your own web browser (so you could block them if you installed the appropriate plugin). Nothing is sent directly from TrainSplit to Facebook - it all goes from your own browser directly to Facebook without any intermediary.

That's just how Facebook does business, piggybacking on all sorts of other things to get the maximum data it can about you within the boundaries of the law. If you really really really valued your privacy, you probably wouldn't have a Facebook account and would have all connections to Facebook blocked in your browser...
 

DaleCooper

Established Member
Joined
2 Mar 2015
Messages
3,513
Location
Mulholland Drive
Don’t have a Facebook account - simples!

Extract from Firefox which suggests they track you anyway.
Want even more protection against Facebook? Facebook like and share buttons on other websites allow Facebook to track your browsing activity, even if you never click them. To strip these buttons of Facebook trackers, add the Facebook Container extension.
 

AlbertBeale

Established Member
Joined
16 Jun 2019
Messages
2,735
Location
London
That doesn't solve the problem unless I've misunderstood? I mean yes, Facebook will know less about you, but it will still track some details.

Facebook, like Google, grabs information about everything and anything and anyone that crosses its path. A clickable Facebook logo on a web page you visit means that FB is there watching you - whether you click on it or not and whether you're a FB member or not - and FB can then store whatever it can find, eg about your internet IP address, your browser, etc, in the hope/expectation that it can correlate that information with other info at some future stage, to build up a picture of you.

Similarly, even if you never use any Google services at all, and never click on any Google maps, and so on, all it takes is for one person with a Google e-mail account to send you one message, and Google thereby have a file on you...

Setting you browser to block trackers, deleting cookies regularly (and indeed not accepting them in most cases), accessing the web via a VPN, using a confidential e-mail address like protonmail, ... all these sorts of things can help. But unless and until the ilegalities and financial power of megacorps like FB, Google (et al!) are reined in, then interacting with the internet without at least some risk to privacy is currently difficult. But it makes sense to all do what we can to resist as much as possible.
 

SickyNicky

Verified Rep - FastJP
Joined
8 Sep 2010
Messages
2,772
Location
Ledbury
I don't think it's anything to do with logging in via Facebook. Last time I looked at this, on the TrainSplit homepage there is one or more images hosted at Facebook. These are loaded as part of the page loading and involve your browser sending details to Facebook. So while it's not TrainSplit itself sending your details to Facebook, your browser is telling Facebook that you have visited TrainSplit (and sending Facebook cookies that presumably identify you as a Facebook user etc.), and that happens automatically as a consequence of loading the TrainSplit homepage. This is normal practice for many websites (although I'm not condoning it!).

Ah - that would be the "ShareIt" buttons that allow for easy sharing of the website. An ad-blocker will remove them. I may get rid of them completely if the consensus is that way. I personally never see them because of my ad blocker.
 

najaB

Veteran Member
Joined
28 Aug 2011
Messages
30,783
Location
Scotland
Ah - that would be the "ShareIt" buttons that allow for easy sharing of the website. An ad-blocker will remove them. I may get rid of them completely if the consensus is that way.
Personally, I wouldn't bother. People are way too paranoid about sharing of non-information. A ShareIt button won't disclose any personal information if it's not clicked.
 

najaB

Veteran Member
Joined
28 Aug 2011
Messages
30,783
Location
Scotland
Extract from Firefox which suggests they track you anyway.
Only if you have a Facebook account. Think about it, if you don't have an account who or what would they associate any tracking information with?
 

Paul Kelly

Verified Rep - BR Fares
Joined
16 Apr 2010
Messages
4,134
Location
Reading
Ah - that would be the "ShareIt" buttons that allow for easy sharing of the website.
Oh I always assumed it was deliberate for targeted advertising on Facebook etc., otherwise I might have said something before now!
 

miami

Established Member
Joined
3 Oct 2015
Messages
3,167
Location
UK
upload_2020-2-7_17-2-34.png

Some nasty stuff there from google, facebook and dwin1 (digital window).


Other sites are equally or even more nasty
upload_2020-2-7_17-5-9.pngupload_2020-2-7_17-6-8.png
 

DaleCooper

Established Member
Joined
2 Mar 2015
Messages
3,513
Location
Mulholland Drive
Only if you have a Facebook account. Think about it, if you don't have an account who or what would they associate any tracking information with?
Could they not associate it with your IP address which they might use in ways I can't even imagine.
 

some bloke

Established Member
Joined
12 Feb 2017
Messages
1,561
"If you’re logged out or don’t have a Facebook account and visit a website with the Like button or another social plugin, your browser sends us a more limited set of info. For example, because you’re not logged into Facebook, you’ll have fewer cookies than someone who's logged in. Like other sites on the Internet, we receive info about the web page you're visiting, the date and time and other browser-related info. We record this info to help us improve our products.

As our Data Policy indicates, we use cookies to show you ads on and off Facebook. We may also use the info we receive when you visit a site with social plugins to help us show you more interesting and useful ads."

What information does Facebook get when I visit a site with the Like button? | Facebook Help Centre | Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/help/186325668085084/
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top