Facebook Admits To Tracking You At All Times
Facebook has admitted that it has been watching the web pages its members visit even when they have logged out. In its latest privacy blunder, the social networking site was forced to confirm that it has been constantly tracking its 750 million users, even when they are using other sites. The social networking giant says the huge privacy breach was simply a mistake – that software automatically downloaded to users’ computers when they logged in to Facebook ‘inadvertently’ sent information to the company, whether or not they were logged in at the time. Most would assume that Facebook stops monitoring them after they leave its site, but technology bloggers discovered this was not the case. In fact, data has been regularly sent back to the social networks servers data that could be worth billions when creating ‘targeted’ advertising based on the sites users visit.
Mr Cubrilovic found that when you sign up to Facebook it automatically puts files known as cookies on your computer which monitor your browsing history. This is still the case. But Facebook claims the cookies no longer send information while you are logged out of its site. If you are logged in to Facebook, the cookies will still send the information, and they remain on your computer unless you manually delete them. They send Facebook your IP address – the ‘unique identifier’ address of your PC – and information on whether you have visited millions of websites: anything with a Facebook like or recommend button on it.
Comments are closed.