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overall i'm impressed with bluesky, BUT i have some privacy concerns i'd like to see the team address. these are crucial if bluesky is to live up to its goal & stated values. (THREAD INCOMING 🧵) to start, bluesky contains tracking from companies like sentry & statsig, with no way to opt out.

the screenshots from above are via ublock origin's logger, but this tracking can also be seen directly in bluesky's source code... a couple examples below github.com/bluesky-soci... github.com/bluesky-soci...

bluesky also appears to operate their own domain for telemetry & data collection, "events.bsky.app". this appears to be related to statsig, as it can be seen directly called in the "statsig.tsx" file from their source code. it appears to be collecting info regarding app interaction, clicks, etc.

more examples of data collected: there's more as well, you can check it out for yourself here: raw.githubusercontent.com/bluesky-soci... as i stated at the beginning, there is no way to opt out of this data collection.

to add insult to injury, bluesky's main website (bsky.social) includes tracking from GOOGLE, arguably one of the most privacy invasive companies out there. no introduction needed.

i can respect the desire to collect analytics/telemetry to improve a product or service. what i can't respect is giving this data to third parties like statsig, sentry, and GOOGLE, WITHOUT user consent and a way to opt out.

bluesky claims to be "social media as it should be". behavior like this is the direct OPPOSITE, and what users ditching platforms like twitter and threads want to AVOID. what follows are my suggestions for @bsky.app moving forward.

1. google tag manager should be removed, period. no excuses. 2. ideally: sentry, statsig, and 'events.bsky.app' should also be removed. but a fair compromise IMO would be to give users a choice. something as simply as an opt-out toggle would suffice. anything at all would be a welcome improvement.