Why the hell am I "waiting for facebook" when I load a QRZ page????

Title says it all!

This morning, loading QRZ forum pages is particularly slow. If I look at the bottom of my Firefox frame, I see the message "waiting for facebook" while nothing is happening.

Why should QRZ.com be loading anything from (or uploading anything to) Facebook in the first place? The reason I hang out on QRZ is to avoid having anything to do with Facebook!

 

"Ask Firefox".

 

Facebook is ubiquitous. Possibly Look for a firefox plugin to block these attempts, or try a different browser.

 

I doubt it’s QRZ’s fault.

I’m no internet expert, but it’s probably a targeted ad tracker from FB that’s being served slowly because of some FB problem. From what I understand it’s worse if you are still logged into FB, even if the browser doesn’t have any tab open to FB and the open tab is unrelated. Some browsers are good about sandboxing each tab, some aren’t. Some can block third party trackers, some can’t. Some add-ins can do it too.

Hopefully someone with much more knowledge in the field will comment.

 

Here is what FireFox claims it does:


Is it lying?

I do not have any accounts I am aware of on any of the "social media" sites.

 

Try raising the level of protection in Firefox and see if it helps. Supposedly FB expends a lot of money and effort to stay a step ahead of these protections.

 

Facebook has nothing to do with QRZ and vice-versa.

I'm not part of the support forum, but your symptoms appear to be Facebook in another frame/window/tab doing something. When my Firefox misbehaves, I shut it down and restart it. This fixes many problems. I'm a semi-retired tech systems researcher, and I wish Firefox had better diagnostics, but that's the easy way out-- restart it.

I personally suggest using ad blockers. Ghostery and the EFF's Privacy Badger eliminate a lot of trackers (but not all).

IF you're using Windows, make sure you're using Malwarebytes to look at your browser for various barnacles and bad-ware. This works on macOS, too.

Finally, do your Windows updates if you haven't done so. Resist Windows 11 for as long as you can.

73 Tom W9YW

 

See that little blue box in the lower left hand corner of the page that says "f Recommend"? Where do you think that's coming from?

 

You can use the Firefox Web Developer Tools to see what websites you're accessing when you load a QRZ page. Some Facebook sites get accessed on every page you load on QRZ.

 

Look at the bottom left of the page, do you see a Facebook "Recommend" button underneath "Share This Page"?

Ack, W6RZ beat me too it. There are lots of services being loaded - facebook, googleleads, etc. You're not just connected to QRZ.com. My load of this page shows 43 separate requests being made to construct the page.

 

I dont see those FB widgets because they are blocked by default on Safari in iOS and MacOS.

 

Raise your level of protection

 

I use Firefox with uBlock Origin, never see any FB links. Occasionally I use NoScript, that helps with some tracker infested websites.

Firefox also offers something called Facebook Container. I think that helps prevent their tracking.

 

Oops I was wrong, I looked and the Facebook widget isn’t blocked by default in Safari. However I believe that the cross site tracking that is done by the widget is blocked, I will check this. Firefox also stops cross site tracking with the correct settings.

Yes, I have block cross site tracking enabled, and the privacy report from Safari shows FB was blocked several times. So the widget still appears and is presumably functional if clicked, but is prevented from tracking.

I think Firefox blocks cross site tracking in their standard privacy setting, and they also have a privacy report so one should be able to confirm it’s working. ( I don’t normally use Firefox…)

 

No FB widget here, I use Strict setting in Firefox.