I have been asked to add Facebook Pixel tracking on to a site.
I would ideally like to maintaining a strict CSP policy – I have some misgivings about including third-party sites given our lack of control over their content.
Ideally, I would like to avoid letting Facebook load an image on our site via our img-src. I can't seem to find an alternative in Facebook's Documentation. Where as, Google Analytics and some other analytical services provide alternative transport mechanisms – namely XHR – to image-based tracking systems.
Does anyone know if there is an alternative, non-image-based, transport mechanism when using Facebook Pixel?
Related
I was wondering, is it possible for us users to know if a website uses server-side tracking?
For example, tracking to send events to Facebook, Google Tag Manager, etc.
Are there any indicators or tools we can use to find this out?
Does anybody know if there's any way of using standard Facebook Messenger features like quick replies, buttons or templates from Facebook Channel (Beta) via Programmable API?
As it is right now it seems too limited to be of any use beyond simple text conversations; no prefilled answers, no links to actions or products...
Are there any (short term) plans to support it? (just being able to send a json like in Facebook own API would be more than enough https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/reference/buttons/quick-replies)
Right now, you are right that the integration is relatively simple.
What you want to look out for is the Twilio Messaging Content API which is currently in pilot. The Content API is intended to make rich messaging across any of the channels that Twilio offers easier. The Content API will wrap each of the channels, making it straightforward to add buttons, actions or prefills to messages over channels that support it, with fallbacks for simpler channels (like our old friend SMS). The API is in pilot right now, but you can register your interest and request access here.
I am not talking about the public graph api, i am asking is it technically possible to consume facebook's private api that facebook official apps use, and benifit from login/sign up and such features?
Like if i reverse engineered messenger or facebook app and mimic their communication with their API, whould i be able to build a working client?
Thank you.
There are existing projects that have already done the same.
Take a look at the works of dequis e.g. purple-facebook. He has also written tutorials on reverse-engineering the APIs of Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
Take a look at the source code of the Facebook protocol plugin of Miranda NG. They reverse-engineered the API used by the desktop web frontend of Facebook.
They exist for years. None of them have been sued so far. However, hiding your identity is recommended if you plan to do such things. Also you may want to open-source your project and host it on multiple sites. Corporate arrogance of tech companies is at very high levels nowadays.
Yes, it is theoretically possible.
However, remember that you will be easily sued if Facebook do not agree with what you're trying to do. For example, if you're trying to use their own private Intellectual Property without their permission, or if you violate their Terms of Service agreements (reverse-engineering is going to be in there without a doubt), then they can legally sue.
Facebook have public APIs with documentation which is what is intended to be used by developers. If you decide to ignore it and go digging into things which you do not own, nor have consent to access, you're going to land yourself into trouble.
I don't mean to be a kill-joy, I'm just saying how it is from a realistic point-of-view.
From what I understand, Facebook only supports an iframe adtag for DFP ads. Google states there are limitations with using this functionality, seen here: https://support.google.com/dfp_sb/answer/90777?hl=en
We're hesitant to implement the iframe tag across our whole website just to satisfy Facebook's requirements as this would then impact direct website traffic.
My questions are:
Does anyone have a sample of what FB's desired implementation would look like with the use of the iframe GPT tags?
Is anyone currently doing this, and if so, have you implemented this site-wide (limiting website functionality), or are you using a REGEX to cut the original ad out and replace within your feed export - seems messy.
After reading the link you shared and the FB policy it seems there aren't any real concerns with using an iframe. FB doesn't allow expandables or 3rd party ads. You can always have house ads targeting the ad unit as a fallback so i don't think the blank situation should come into play either. Here's the Facebook policy for reference: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instant-articles/policy
Lots of sites adds "?ref=###" in their URL, facebook/imdb etc. Now I checked this question and it appears that the reason is to keep track of what "referred" the users to that page. But I don't understand, what's the point of doing that? Is it for analytical or functional purposes?
As David said in the comment, it could be for any purpose they'd like.
In case of Facebook, it is mostly used for statistical tracking. It helps developers to understand where their traffic is coming from so that they can better optimize their Facebook integration. This data can also be seen in the App's insight under Referrals. According to one of the comments in the question that you've linked, a functional use of ref=ts parameter it to disable the mobile redirect, so some Facebook app developers use it intentionally to serve mobile users the desktop version of the site.
You can find more info at: Fbdev Ref Wiki and Referral Tracking documentation.