Logged In or Out, Facebook Is Watching You

kaos07 links to this ZDNet story, according to which "Researchers at software vendor CA have discovered that social networking site Facebook is able to track the buying habits of its users on affiliated third-party sites even when they are logged out of their account or have opted out of its controversial 'Beacon' tracking service. Responding to privacy concerns, Facebook has since moved to reassure users that it only tracks and publishes data about their purchases if they are both logged in to Facebook and have opted-in to having this information listed on their profile. But in 'extremely disconcerting' findings that directly contradict these assurances, researchers at CA's Security Advisory service have found that data about these transactions are sent to Facebook regardless of a user's actions."

Comments

Addendum

[wattrlz]

TFA's source indicates FB gives their affiliates javascript to include in the page that connects to a FB server for cookie exchange. Pretty sneaky. I wonder if google does something like that with google analytics.

I wonder if a list of those vendors exists

[hyades1]

It would be nice to have a well-publicized, up-to-date list of those affiliated third-party sites, so buyers could ensure that they shop elsewhere.

As for Facebook's lies...I wonder if their dishonesty amounts to fraud? I bet the right judge would allow substantial penalties for that kind of deception. It tends to make the sheep restless while they wait for their shearing.

Does ABP still block this?

[Thelasko]

Also, here's the actual CA article.

Whew

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

Glad I don't have a facebook account