Hello,

I'm all for spreading the word about LFS (trust me on this one).
And I can understand that the Facebok, Twitter and G+ buttons provide both a service to the user and help to promote LFS. Nice!

However, by implementing those elements on the website you allow third parties to track you, present "personalized" ads, and (I'm guessing) even identify you if you've got an account at, for example, Facebook. Not so nice!

Sure, there are gazillions of way to protect yourself:
- Installing plugins to block tracking and/or ads (Adblock plus, Privacy Badger, Ghostery ...)
- Using private sessions and/or disabling referrers.
- Doing crazy things with your firewall or proxy.
- etc ...

But the most simple method probably is to simply enable the Do Not Track (DNT) setting in your browser. It doesn't require any plugins or about:config tweaks. And all major browsers support it.

Downside is, this setting does nothing unless the website owner adheres to it. Hence this post.

Vic,

How about updating your code to check for this header and, if it's set, skip the rendering of the social buttons (and possibly even Google Analytics?).

https://www.eff.org/issues/do-not-track
http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-tracking-2011-11

Nice, now it also speeds up the loading time a bit, thanks

That's awesome, Vic. Cheers!

Edit: And good point, Flame. I didn't even think of that aspect. Too much foil ...