NJMatsuya Photography

*Via +Jason Kowing via +Tom Bielecki :

It's a bit disconcerting to know just how much/how easily one can be tracked online.. the salient points of the article were:

Facebook's trove of data

•The company compiles tracking data in different ways for members who have signed in and are using their accounts, for members who are logged-off and for non-members. The tracking process begins when you initially visit a facebook.com page….

•From this point on, each time you visit a third-party webpage that has a Facebook Like button, or other Facebook plug-in, the plug-in works in conjunction with the cookie to alert Facebook of the date, time and web address of the webpage you've clicked to. The unique characteristics of your PC and browser, such as your IP address, screen resolution, operating system and browser version, are also recorded.

•Facebook thus compiles a running log of all your webpage visits for 90 days, continually deleting entries for the oldest day and adding the newest to this log.

If you are logged-on to your Facebook account and surfing the Web, your session cookie conducts this logging. The session cookie additionally records your name, e-mail address, friends and all data associated with your profile to Facebook. If you are logged-off, or if you are a non-member, the browser cookie conducts the logging; it additionally reports a unique alphanumeric identifier, but no personal information.

Bejar acknowledged that Facebook could learn where specific members go on the Web when they are logged off by matching the unique PC and browser characteristics logged by both the session cookie and the browser cookie.

He emphasized that Facebook makes it a point not to do this. " We've said that we don't do it, and we couldn't do it without some form of consent and disclosure," Bejar says.

Bejar also acknowledged "technical similarities" in the cookie-based tracking technologies used by Facebook and the wider online advertising industry. "But we're not like ad networks at all in our stewardship of the data, in the way we use it, and the way we lay everything out," Bejar says. "We have a very clear and transparent approach to how we do advertising that I'm very proud of." <<== Really??

"Whoever visits Facebook or uses a plug-in must expect that he or she will be tracked by the company for two years," Weichert said..

Reshared post from +Tom Bielecki

This is messed up. Seriously. No speculation: this is now official.

Facebook officials are now acknowledging that the social media giant has been able to create a running log of the web pages that each of its 800 million or so members has visited during the previous 90 days. Facebook also keeps close track of where millions more non-members of the social network go on the Web, after they visit a Facebook web page for any reason.

It's official. Facebook has absolutely no respect for anyone's privacy, and the entire site is being used for data collection. Of your friends, your family, and everyone they know.

Embedded Link

Facebook Follows You Elsewhere Online
Facebook officials now acknowledge that the social media giant has been able to create a running log of the web pages that each of its members has visited during the previous 90 days. Facebook also ke…

Google+: View post on Google+

Post imported by Google+Blog. Created By Daniel Treadwell.