Monday, 03 September 2018
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Creepy.
Technology Facebook Caught ‘Inadvertently’ Tracking You Once You Log Off
- Posted on September 28, 2011 at 11:00am by
Liz Klimas
- Facebook cookies were accidentally tracking other sites users went to, even after they logged off. The cookies sent this information to Facebook.
- Facebook has fixed what it says was a malfunction in its software.
- Advice: Log off Facebook when done. Remove Facebook cookies. Use a different browser when you get on Facebook.
- Social media sites are figuring out what their role is in protecting user information and freedom of speech.
Love it, hate it, view it as a necessary evil. However you feel about social media sites, they are tracking you one way or another, cataloging your movements on their site — and sometimes off it. Take Facebook.
Facebook was recently exposed as “inadvertently” tracking your web movements, even after you logged off its site. Australian blogger Nik Cubrilovic, like many alarmed by the upcoming Timeline changes to Facebook that will automatically populate your profile with items from your past or sites you’re viewing, looked into how to disable this feature, which could “accidentally share a page or an event that you did not intend others to see.” Cubrilovic writes another blogger’s advice to combat this problem is to log off Facebook. But that isn’t enough:
[...] logging out of Facebook only de-authorizes your browser from the web application, a number of cookies (including your account number) are still sent along to all requests to Facebook.com. Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit. The only solution is to delete every Facebook cookie in your browser, or to use a separate browser for Facebook interactions.