Facebook Privacy: Site Confirms It Tracks You After You Leave

Facebook has said that it's rooting for an "open web", but it can't even be honest about what data it's collecting, how much tracking is done, and how that data is used by the company.

A scary aspect of Facebook is that most users are completely unaware and care-free. Their friends are on there, so why should they leave? A lot of my friends are leaving for Twitter because of the recent porn spam and the ticker nonsense, but that's a tiny chunk of the userbase (maybe a few hundred at the most).

Re: Facebook Privacy: Site Confirms It Tracks You After You Leave

#5

Post by folkster » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 6:33 PM UTC

rosser wrote: post #2

This is why I visit Facebook in one browser, G* in another, and everything else in yet a third.

There is not much use switching browser. They tracks you using cookies even if you dont login(like button and other plugins) You need to block/remove all the facebook related cookies.

Re: Facebook Privacy: Site Confirms It Tracks You After You Leave

#6

Post by psychotik » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 6:34 PM UTC

Wait, how is this even technically possible?

Sure, Facebook can see sites you visit which use Facebook Connect in some form, but can they actually "create a running log of the web pages that each of its 800 million or so members has visited during the previous 90 days" like the article claims?

Re: Facebook Privacy: Site Confirms It Tracks You After You Leave

#7

Post by untog » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 6:35 PM UTC

folkster wrote: post #5

rosser wrote: post #2

This is why I visit Facebook in one browser, G* in another, and everything else in yet a third.

There is not much use switching browser. They tracks you using cookies even if you dont login(like button and other plugins) You need to block/remove all the facebook related cookies.

Cookies do not cross browsers. If he's using a second browser, Facebook cannot read the cookies set in the first browser. They could use some IP matching logic or something, but it would be prone to a lot of false positives.

Re: Facebook Privacy: Site Confirms It Tracks You After You Leave

#8

Post by droz » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 6:35 PM UTC

I'd like to think that developers wouldn't implement this kind of functionality on ethical grounds -I bet there are some at facebook who refused- but I also bet there are some there who will do anything for buck no matter how questionable it is.

Re: Facebook Privacy: Site Confirms It Tracks You After You Leave

#9

Post by raganwald » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 6:37 PM UTC

psychotik wrote: post #6

Wait, how is this even technically possible? Sure, Facebook can see sites you visit which use Facebook Connect in some form, but can they actually "create a running log of the web pages that each of its 800 million or so members has visited during the previous 90 days" like the article claims?

They can certainly track visits to those sites displaying a Facebook “Like” button or other FB spoor.

Re: Facebook Privacy: Site Confirms It Tracks You After You Leave

#10

Post by alain94040 » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 6:38 PM UTC

To be fair, Google is doing the exact same thing with adwords and adsense.