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

Well

[Anonymous Coward]

Only if you have a Facebook account.

Re:Well

[SMacD]

facebook does use your email address as the login

Re:Well

[wattrlz]

Facebook uses an email address as your login, but I'm guessing they probably have some sort of cookie thing set up as well.

Re:Well

[Vectronic]

Facebook uses a e-mail address as the login.

Slight difference, and Facebook doesn't do any extensive verification either, so any e-mail address will do. Still amazes me that people don't have a dedicated "trash" e-mail for stuff like this.

That said, one of the most disconcerting things is when you first sign up, is that to a novice/n00b/idiot a lot of people would assume:

Email: _____
Password: _____
[+] Remember Me

"oh, it wants my e-mail address, oh and now it wants my password" as if they had to use their e-mail password as the login, like MS Passport, or Yahoo, or GMail, or even a legitimate one.

They have since (I signed up about a year ago) changed the sign-up though and added Create Password, as well as a "password strength" (Weak/Med/Strong) thing.

But yes, even when you are not signed in, I imagine they track the cookie (or possibly any number of Java "you need this to do this" crap on the site). PLUS, if you sign in without checking the [+] Remember Me, close the site, and go back to it, it signs you in automatically, and I'm not sure how long that takes to 'expire' if ever, it only removes it if you sign-out before leaving, otherwise you sign in automatically.

Re:Well

[bartok]

If you use Firefox you can also block it:
http://www.ideashower.com/blog/block-facebook-beacon/

Re:Well

[Anonymous Coward]

And now they have one more of your email addresses. The web contracts a bit more... ;)

Re:Well

[vux984]

There is nothing to prevent them from recording ALL transactions reported to them by their affiliates and either associating them with you when you do create an account OR even if you never create an Facebook account attempting to maintain a dossier of transactions which Facebook believes are likely to have been made by the same person. This is why one should never provide accurate information concerning one's identity online unless it is absolutely necessary. If you are not feeling creative then you can always use Fake Name Generator to create a throw away identity.

1) Facebook is tracking your buying habits, obviously when dealing with vendors you have to provide a reasonably real identity... they need a real address, creditcard, etc in which to bill you and send you your goods. So you can't really lie there, even if you wanted to.

2) Lieing to facebook about your idenity is against the facebook eula and terms of service. Granted its something a lot of people do and get away with doing of course, but nonetheless it amounts to fraudulently using facebook's service.

In my opinion if you do not wish to agree to and submit to facebooks terms of service, you should not use facebooks services. It really is that simple.

If more people stood up for their rights and refused to click through agreements they don't agree with, service providers would change their agreements to something customers could actually stomach.

Same goes for DRM.

Re:Well

[CodeBuster]

they need a real address, creditcard, etc in which to bill you and send you your goods. So you can't really lie there, even if you wanted to.

The real address can be either a mail drop or an address controlled by a private trust. It is the same thing with the credit card, it is in the name of the trust which is managed by the private trustee who remains legally anonymous behind the trust. IANAL, but it is common knowledge that trusts are used by politically well connected and other high profile people so that they may conduct business publicly without revealing their true interests or identities (or at least without making them blatantly obvious to any casual observers, advertisers, or information brokers). It all depends upon how much you value your privacy and how much you are able and willing to spend to protect it, but there are ways.

Lieing to facebook about your idenity is against the facebook eula and terms of service

Well cry me a river, why should people give a crap about their terms of service? The worst they can do is ban your throwaway account. People care about terms of service when and if someone finally serves them with a lawsuit or they care about losing work that they have put into something.

In my opinion if you do not wish to agree to and submit to facebooks terms of service, you should not use facebooks services. It really is that simple.

In general, I do what I please until somebody pushes back because that is how the real world works. Some people and certain relationships are important to and others are not and I treat them accordingly.

Re:Well

[RackinFrackin]

"Only if you have a Facebook account."

That's not insightful. It's obvious.

Re:Well

[vux984]

The real address can be either a mail drop or an address controlled by a private trust.

It all depends upon how much you value your privacy and how much you are able and willing to spend to protect it, but there are ways.

Sure, you could also just not buy anything online, and show up in person wearing sunglasses, a veil, gloves, and cash... that's not really the point here though.

Well cry me a river, why should people give a crap about their terms of service?

Only a complete idiot would use a service without understanding what the terms and consequences were.

The worst they can do is ban your throwaway account.

Why create one in the first place? If you don't agree with the way they operate why deal with them at all?

In general, I do what I please until somebody pushes back because that is how the real world works.

Why wait until they push back? Push first. Refuse to use the services of a company you don't agree with.

Some people and certain relationships are important to and others are not and I treat them accordingly.

"Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners."
~Laurence Sterne

I have far too much self respect to lie just to get a silly facebook account.

If facebook wants my patronage and membership, they can come to the table with terms I'll agree to. Otherwise they can go fuck themselves. They need us far more than we need them.

Shocked

[Romancer]

I'm shocked that you're shocked. Or even expect me to be mildly surprised that this is happening.

The only difference is that this is supposed to be a larger company and therefore better than the millions of smaller opt out pipe dreams out there?

Re:Shocked

[Yold]

I disabled my facebook account a few months ago because it occurred to me that someone is probably harvesting all the data that they can find off that site. Being someone who parties (too much ;-) ), I was constantly deleting tagged pictures of myself drinking off that website. I was damn glad that I did, because my BOSS at my uni went on looked at my facebook account before he hired me.

It would not suprise me if someone started offering money to purchase facebook accounts, just to harvest information, for say the price of $0.10 a friend w/ an account. I have a wild imagination, but with data mining being a really hot field, who knows what could be done with this information, it might even cost me a job in the future.

The future of privacy (or lack thereof), has me vigilant, even paranoid.

Re:Shocked

[ivan256]

I'm constantly amazed about how people will post private information in a public place (thus making it public information), and then complain about how they are being robbed of their privacy.

Of course it also amazes me how popular these social networking sites are with adults. It's understandable that kids and teenagers want to climb a social ladder of sorts, since it is human nature to attempt to achieve more than your peers, and there is little available in the environments we provide to kids other than social hierarchy to climb... But when you grow up, generally people move on to trying to get ahead in other types of accomplishments. It seems things like MySpace and Facebook have extended High School into adulthood. When you place that much value on your social network, perhaps it shouldn't be too surprising that people are willing to give up their privacy to maintain it.

Re:Shocked

[D Ninja]

Ahhh...but, don't you know? High School Never Ends.

Re:Shocked

[Firehed]

I was damn glad that I did, because my BOSS at my uni went on looked at my facebook account before he hired me

This, good sir, is why you set privacy controls.

You're right about their data-mining though; Facebook's ads are really starting to concern me. "Single geek age 20? Visit eHarmony today!" Obviously my relationship status and age are right there in my profile, but them dynamically generating personality keywords based off of my interests and then proving them to advertisers... yeah, I should probably leave Facebook too.

Re:Shocked

[brunes69]

What amazes me is that peple think that your prospective employer actually gives a crap if you party on the weekends.

Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you don't want to work somewhere who cares about that anyway? If an employer cares what an employee is doing in their off time then they have already crossed the line IMO.

Re:Shocked

[SatanicPuppy]

All you whippersnappers, I swear...Look me up by my real name, and you get nothing, nada, nihil, zip, because I made a very conscious decision to separate my online identity from my regular identity. Keeps me from having to be too careful.

Make the decision, and separate yourself from your online identity. You can always claim it later if you want to, but you can disclaim it as well

Re:Shocked

[unformed]

A number of reasons:

1) I don't get spammed by email. I don't have to send everybody my new email when it gets changed.
2) It's far, far, far easier to get in touch with people you've long fallen out of touch with.
3) Adults are just as much social whores as kids are. We (as a race, excepting geeks) ARE a social creature, and we like talking and socializing with others, in whatever way possible.

Re:Shocked

[xaxa]

All you whippersnappers, I swear...Look me up by my real name, and you get nothing, nada, nihil, zip, because I made a very conscious decision to separate my online identity from my regular identity.

That won't help when someone else tags a photo (or whatever) with your real name.

Re:Shocked

[Yold]

In a perfect world, yes. But the ideal picture of a programmer/math-dude isn't being at the end of a beer bong.

I think that once you are employed, it doesn't matter what you do on the weekends. But at a job interview, I'd rather not have someone know how I spend my Friday nights.

Re:Shocked

[SleepyHappyDoc]

There's a way around that. Kill your entire family, move to a different country, and insist all your new friends call you by your internet name.

Re:Shocked

[shrykk]

Of course it also amazes me how popular these social networking sites are with adults. It's understandable that kids and teenagers want to climb a social ladder of sorts, since it is human nature to attempt to achieve more than your peers, and there is little available in the environments we provide to kids other than social hierarchy to climb... But when you grow up, generally people move on to trying to get ahead in other types of accomplishments. It seems things like MySpace and Facebook have extended High School into adulthood.

Where are you getting this crap?

Facebook is a convenient way to stay in touch with people. Almost everyone there goes by their real name, and most people put actual true and useful information on their profiles (with controls over who sees it). There's negligible spam, scams and drama, and it has a useful photo app. I guess you don't use it, and think everyone on it is just trying to get a large number of "friends".

Well, Facebook was every good, though its owners seem to be doing everything they can to destroy it. I think the problem is, despite their keen user base (some large proportion of which check Facebook every day) and young-and-affluent demographics, they haven't found a way to turn all the hits into money. Selling a few ads and $1 'gifts' isn't going to pay their hardware and hosting costs. So they're selling out, biit by bit.

The situation is now no better than if they had sold out for millions a year or two ago.

Re:Shocked

[deraj123]

There's a difference between "party on the weekends" and a photo history of you making a lot of poor decisions. Think, pictures of inappropriate jokes, pictures of you not just drunk, but completely obliterated, pictures of you breaking the law, etc.

If I'm hiring somebody, I don't care if they go out drinking on the weekends (in fact, I might be concerned if they didn't occasionally), but I would probably think twice if presented with evidence of them making repeated, poor, destructive decisions.

Decision making is a trait that translates over to work.

Re:Shocked

[Slashdot Suxxors]

I have my cell phone on my Facebook. But it's not like anyone can pull up my profile and check. If they're not my "friend" then they can't see it. If I get random friend requests from people, they don't get accepted. It's simple.

Re:Shocked

[ivan256]

It seems to me that you're in the minority. Regardless there are plenty of technologies out there to allow you to keep in touch with friend and family over great distances without posting your personal life to the public on the internet, including sending quick messages.

Re:Shocked

[Anonymous Coward]

I once had an applicate who said "My life's goal is to be the laziest person on earth" in her myspace profile. We didn't hire her, things like that matter.

Re:Shocked

[ivan256]

I don't really agree that the video games extending into adulthood thing is part of the same trend. After all, adults have always had their games. The technology has simply advanced from dice and cards and balls and sticks to also include electronics. The existence of gaming as a source of entertainment throughout the duration of adult life, though, is nothing new.

It seems to me that video gaming is replacing pinochle and golf, more than it is turning adults into over-aged kids.

It is valuable throughout your life to learn how to relax and have a good time (as long as it's balanced with your responsibilities). That's completely different from basing your self worth on popularity instead of achievements.

Re:Shocked

[philspear]

Right, because that couldn't have possibly been humor.

Hell, the fact that she was applying for a job should have clued you off that it was a lie.

Not for nothing, but applying to jobs is annoying, and while we all must do it, that doesn't make it any easier. It's tedious paperwork, waiting, not getting paid, and half the time those of you who are hiring don't have the courtesy to let us know we're not getting the job. If you decided not to hire her based on something as trivial as that and that alone, you're an asshole.

Re:Shocked

[ivan256]

Your first paragraph describes the dream, and the second describes the reality.

My comment simply offered a possible explanation as to why people see the dream instead of the reality.

What is so fulfilling to you about performing your correspondence out in public over one of the many, more private and less exploited methods? I have yet to hear anybody answer that question with something that doesn't boil down to "everybody else is doing it". Hence the high school comment.

Re:Shocked

[Grimbleton]

Better solution: Be boring as hell. Works for me!

Re:Shocked

[The Yuckinator]

Getting sloshed "every day" is definitely an issue and most of the 12 steppers you'll find in an AA meeting used to live that life. Good for them trying to get away from their weakness.

If I have a few too many on my birthday, New Year's Eve or just on holiday, then end up crosseyed (& painless) and pass out at 8pm - I am not a drunk. I've simply had too much to drink on that particular occasion.

Now, if I do that every night in my own home for no other reason than "I'm old enough and can drink whatever I want" then we can talk about me having a problem. Suggesting I've got an alcohol problem from one night of overindulging is ridiculous.

"Only drunks with a real problem get sloshed" - that's a pretty broad stroke of the brush. Couldn't disagree more.

Re:Shocked

[Abcd1234]

Good thing, too. For her. Sounds like she has a sense of humour, while you don't.

Re:Shocked

[Gewalt]

No, but during my stint in the military, I did get to serve as a counselor for a while. As you can see from my troll moderations, there's quite a bit of denial taking place here. They will learn soon enough.

Re:Shocked

[Mia'cova]

You can send messages to multiple people. Hell, you can send messages to up to 5000 (groups) last I checked. You can send mass emails to people attending an event (not those who opt out), etc. It's handy. Do I want all those group/event organizers to have my actual email address? No, not really. I'd much rather they send mail through a proxy and have facebook send me an email with the contents of the message (not just a notification). I think you're just trying to come up for reasons why it's a bad idea. It's not.

Re:Shocked

[Abcd1234]

So, what is that ideal picture? Personally, I've met programmers and math types that are all over the map, personality-wise. And, frankly, I would consider avoiding the overly bookish, socially inept types, given that one's job as a programmer is, above all things, to communicate with others and to, you know, socially interact with them.

Re:Shocked

[syousef]

Of course it also amazes me how popular these social networking sites are with adults.

It doesn't amaze me at all. When your work means you're out of the house 9-12 hrs/day 5-6 days a week (and that's considered good hours in IT), then you come home to chores etc. when do you find the time to catch up with old high school friends? My experience has been that I've become more and more isolated as I've gone from my mid teens to my mid 30s and my spare time has decreased. I have more acquaintances than close friends that i hang with. My social time's spent mostly with family. Still, if I do get spare time and it's not at the same time as my friends, I can write them an email. Sure I could keep track of everyone using simple email, but it's nice to see pictures of what people I haven't had time to catch up with in person for a long time are up to.

What I don't understand is all the crappy games on facebook. You've been bitten by a vampire? What swearword are you? Someone's given you a freaking virtual fish? Who cares? The novelty of that wore off in 5 minutes. THAT is the side I see as childish.

Re:Shocked

[Jason Earl]

If you are so drunk that your friends are inspired to take pictures of you, then it is likely that you have a drinking problem. Even if you don't have a drinking problem, you can't hardly blame potential employers for being concerned that you *may* have a drinking problem.

The reality is that employers often are dealing with very little hard information about a candidate, and hiring the wrong person can be a very expensive mistake. A Picture of you holding a beer while hanging out with friends is not a big deal. Heck, even several such pictures are not likely to be held against you. Pictures where you are clearly drunk, on the other hand, are likely to get you passed over for the job.

Re:Shocked

[zuperduperman]

Unless you've specifically configured it only to be visible to direct friends you may be surprised at who can see it. By default anybody in any networks you are in will be able to see it.

That means if you were foolish to say "Why yes, I do live in the state of New York!" (or where ever) at signup or any later time you may well have exposed your number to anybody in that state. Similar traps exist throughout Facebook - it's basically a minefield of privacy violation traps.

Re:Shocked

[WDot]

An applicant you mean? I don't know if I'd like to work for an employer who can't spell.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Applicate

See how silly that is? It's an honest mistake, and here I am condemning you for it. I'm even suggesting that you can't spell AT ALL, even though you only made one mistake in the whole post. I'm making sweeping generalizations about your literacy based on a post on the Internet.

If you cut out applicants based on whether they have a squeaky clean Internet Posting Record, you are making a rather arbitrary (and poor) choice. You are also wasting your time on Myspace when you SHOULD be reading those resumes we spend hours on.

Built-in

[von_rick]

The title has a built-in "In Soviet Russia joke.

Re:Built-in

[Ollabelle]

So in Soviet Russia, the government would simply contact Facebook to watch you for them, or they would contact the telephone company.... oh, wait....

Re:Built-in

[von_rick]

In_Soviet_Russia jokes are never so long.

I should have guessed.

[Chris Burke]

"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."

I should have known there was a problem when I was signing up and saw this:

[ ] Opt out of Beacon(tm) on-line tracking when logged into Facebook; opt in to Lighthouse(tm) on-line tracking when logged out of Facebook.

How Dare They

[jareth780]

This is an outrage! How DARE they try and sell me things! This is almost as infuriating as Vons/Safeway and their "club card", tracking my purchases to try and "Better serve me". Horsefeathers! The fact that the products I want are in stock at any given point is PROOF that they've been using my spending habits to PREDICT MY NEEDS, which goes against everything I believe in.

When I say I want a free social networking site, it's not good enough that I not be billed directly for using it. The company hosting it must be desperately trying to sustain the bandwidth and CPU time for my constant page refreshes. At no point should they be even breaking even, let alone PROFITING from their service. Information wants to be free! Down with Big Brother! Doublethink! Free as in beer! ...What else... Oh! And my cell phone bill is too high!

Re:How Dare They

[plasmacutter]

Way to one-sidedly misrepresent wholesale privacy violation as innocent altruism.

Apparently the telecom domestic spying scandal has not reached your part of the world?

In these times, companies have as much or more assets and power available to them than many of the world's nations, and allowing the wholesale gathering of information on individuals by private firms under the red herring of "private property" will lead to the exact same kind of oppression as allowing the government to do it under the red herring of "national security".

There are other ways to better serve me without having to identify me personally. Inventory tracking has been done successfully at the branch level for a century in its current form, and if they don't carry something, speaking to a manager will often get results.

There is a difference between profiting from advertising, and profiteering from spying on me and selling that data to telemarketers, government agencies, and other shady organizations.

Re:How Dare They

[Chris Burke]

This is almost as infuriating as Vons/Safeway and their "club card", tracking my purchases to try and "Better serve me". Horsefeathers! The fact that the products I want are in stock at any given point is PROOF that they've been using my spending habits to PREDICT MY NEEDS, which goes against everything I believe in.

That's clearly not true, because I've been to Safeway plenty of times and not ONCE have they offered me a blowjob.

Re:How Dare They

[novakyu]

This is almost as infuriating as Vons/Safeway and their "club card", tracking my purchases to try and "Better serve me".

Well, turning the sarcasm detector off, change that to "Vons/Safeway and their 'club card' tracking my purchases and all other purchases with the credit card that has ever been used with the club card through special deals with the credit card company ...." and you will be closer.

Facebook is welcome to track you on their own website (practically every website owner does this with log analysis) and even track your outgoing clicks with redirects, hidden or bare (even Google does this, and they are really tricky about it too, if you've noticed it on their search results). What they are not welcome to do is track you when you are not on their website through "special deals" with other websites. Such aggregation of data on you is a disaster waiting to happen.

Re:How Dare They

[LandDolphin]

Seems you've been shopping at the wrong Safeway

"affiliated third-party sites"

[InsaneMosquito]

So the article (yes, I read it) only mentions 3 affliated sites. Does anyone have a list of all Facebook Affliated sites? While I don't use (and never will use) facebook, other family members do have facebook accounts. I don't consent to have my information sent - could this be a liability for Facebook should someone decide to make it a large issue?

Re:I don't understand...

[wattrlz]

Hey, the moment /. starts getting flooded with eye-candy coeds ( and helping track down long-lost non-geeky friends, but it's 99% the coeds) I'm sure facebook will go out of business, but until then, they're pretty much the big dog of social networking.

Here's the list:

[GameboyRMH]

Facebook is currently affiliated with the following sites:

        * Art.com
        * Blockbuster
        * Bluefly
        * CBS Interactive
        * eBay
        * ExpoTV
        * Fandango
        * Gamefly.com
        * Kiva, Kongregate
        * LiveNation
        * Mercantila
        * NY Times
        * Overstock.com
        * Redlight Mgmt
        * Seamless Web
        * Six Apart
        * STA Travel
        * TheKnot
        * Travelocity
        * Viagogo

http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=57

The first bloody Google result |: |

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=facebook-affiliated+sites&spell=1

orly?

[Tekninja_Hawk]

Your friend has invited you to use the application "Big Brother", would you like to add this application?


Would you like to be a Vampire/Pirate/Zombie instead?

Amazon.com does something similar...

[HouseOfMisterE]

Amazon.com does something similar with their website ads. I search and buy a lot at Amazon.com, and their ads on other web sites (I've noticed it at crooksandliars.com, at least) apparently read my cookies and display item suggestions that are the same or similar to items that I've searched for or purchased at Amazon.com. It doesn't matter if I've logged out of my Amazon.com account, closed and restarted my browser to clear out any active cookies, etc, the targeted advertisement results still come.

Unsubscribe

[kellyb9]

I just wish I could delete my facebook account. It's actually close to impossible, first you have to delete all your information (wall posts, friends, etc.), and then they'll delete your account. Very, very time consuming. But I doubt any of that info is REALLY gone.

Re:Unsubscribe

[Anonymous Coward]

I just wish I could delete my facebook account. It's actually close to impossible, first you have to delete all your information (wall posts, friends, etc.), and then they'll delete your account. Very, very time consuming. But I doubt any of that info is REALLY gone.

Its easier if you change all your informations into junk, then when someone looks you up on Facebook they retrieve a completely wrong information.
I just suggest you don't upload information that would harm your future prospects for jobs and such.

Re:Unsubscribe

[gclef]

Change your profile picture to goatse...they should take card of the rest.

Re:Unsubscribe

[Anonymous Coward]

How to permanently delete your facebook account.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16929680703

Go to this page:
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

Select the checkbox and click "Submit".

Eratum

[wattrlz]

TFA's source [corrected] 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.

Corrected Link! This is why one should not slashdot before one's midday coffee. Please mod parent down, or something. That's a very small server and it will die.

Re:Clear your cookies

[Debased Manc]

Not quite, your email address also gets used as a foreign key between Facebook and it's affiliates.

Fry all your cookies, but if you share an email address between your Facebook account and someone else, say Amazon, they can connect the dots that way.

Thankfully I didn't register my Facebook account with my Hotmail only-for-the-porn account. That could've made for some interesting advertising though...

Dupe!

[Thelasko]

The CA article is the same one from 2007. Read the date at the bottom.

Published Nov 29 2007, 11:39 PM by Stefan Berteau

It was already posted on Slashdot. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/03/0656205 That's two dupes in a row guys! Care to go for three?

Re:Dupe!

[Thelasko]

correction: The Mac story isn't a dupe. The one before it is. Regardless, that's two dupes today. Start paying attention.

What shall we call this

[sjames]

Let's see, what do we call it when someone follows someone around to see where they go, their tastes, who they know, etc, etc.

Yeah, that's right, it's STALKING!

When you restrict those activities to the internet, it's cyber-stalking.

Why is stalking suddenly OK if you're trying to sell stuff? It certainly doesn't feel any less creepy to the person being stalked.

The fact that these things are done in secret and too often in spite of public denials tells me that they know at some level what they're doing is unwelcome and wrong.

If they want to cyber-stalk in exchange for a free service, then it's not REALLY free, it just happens to have a non-monetary price. Let them be honest about the price and then the users can decide for themselves how acceptable the deal is.

Re:What if it's an un-used email?

[wattrlz]

They actually use your facebook cookie, which would contain your school email, to track you. So just delete your cookies and you should be OK.

Re:Clear your cookies

[nimbius]

I've found its easier to reject all cookies and establish a list of trusted sites (banks, etc...) for whom you accept cookies. as an added level of protection in firefox, you can force these cookies to be "session only."

In Soviet Russia...

[GameboyRMH]

You track information on Facebook!

Hehehe I love the ones that make more sense in Soviet Russia mode :)

Mark Zuckerberg

[NoPantsJim]

I've often thought about the various people who have made a fortune or are about to make a fortune from online properties.

Jason Calacanis, Kevin Rose, the Flickr people, etc.

Usually I think to myself, that's awesome that these people were able to work hard and see their vision to the end and make a living from it.

When I think of Zuckerberg, I think the exact opposite. Fuck that guy. I've always felt like he sleezed his way to where he is, and stories like this only reinforce that opinion.

(prepared to be modded troll...)

Re:ah hem

[hostyle]

telnet facebook.com 80
Trying 69.63.176.140...
Connected to facebook.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET stuffed!

400 Bad Request

Bad Request
Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.

Invalid URI in request GET stuffed!

Connection closed by foreign host.

Re:What if it's an un-used email?

[AndGodSed]

With Facebook's protection of minors... I wonder if them tracking the habits of minors could get them in trouble...

Gamefly

[dj245]

I got pretty nervous when stuff I rented from Gamefly was automatically posted to Facebook. I don't need "Don has rented BMX XXX" on my ticker. Not because of the nudity, but because its a horrible game in general.

This is insightful too

[philspear]

They also can only track you if you use a computer!

Old Article

[Silent Node]

The date on this article is 04 December 2007 05:22 PM, are we sure the concerns raised here weren't dealt with already? ...not that I'm a huge Facebook fan, but if I were to leave Facebook I would have to give up administration of the United Cabin Dwellers Federation. Although I hear leaving can be difficult...

In Soviet Russia ...

[AftanGustur]

In Soviet Russia .

You watch Facebook ..

Oh, wait ... WTF !!?!?

Re:Well What ROYALLY pissed me off earlier

[davidsyes]

What might have royally pissed off others was that when facebook asked for the new member's valid email address, it implied or outright expected them to provide to the f/b interface the VALID PASSWORD OF THE VALID EMAIL ACCOUNT.

This royally inFURIATED me. All they needed to say was Give us your valid email of choice, and reply within 5 minutes of receiving it and supply the code we give you, or you'll have to redo this and still try within 5 minutes to validate yourself.

They had NO f*cking business structuring it in such a way that MILLIONS of users would blindly or hopelessly supply their gmail, yahoo, msn, and/or other passwords through a facebook conduit.

Can you IMAGINE how much snooping could be done if facebook were compelled by law or court order to submit subscribtion/memberhship application logs to various agencies that don't want to actually leave traces of intel-snooping? All they have to do is notice whether or not the user is online or not, then log in as them, quickly look at non-viewable things, then log out. Only if friends and bots are somehow tracking friends login/logout activity can anyone be tipped off that something might be amiss.

Even without the conspiracy theory stuff, facebook should NEVER have culled or duped people into giving facebook their other account's passwords, nevermind the fact that there are other means by which other parties could steal or surreptitiously obtain a targeted user's password.

I cannot remember what I did to foil that frackin' attempt, but I think I did foil it.

Re:Well What ROYALLY pissed me off earlier

[Vectronic]

Im not sure im following, but I think you mean the "Add Friends" thing? Where you add your e-mail, and that e-mails password so it can log into MSN/Yahoo/Gmail and pick up your contact lists?

If so, I completely agree, I found that terrifying actually, talk about mining, they must have millions of users real e-mail and passwords for multiple chat and networking clients. Which means they could possibly know everyone you talk to online, and then six-degrees of separation.

It asks you to do that just after you "establish" your account, at least it did a year or so ago, as if it was mandatory almost, I think I just killed my browser to get out of it...Fuck That!...

Frankly, I despise Facebook with a passion, however, that doesn't stop me from having it on my SpeedDial, and visiting it multiple times a day, but its limited to random information, and I don't add any "Apps".

Plus the fact that its Google Indexed, you can search for -Your Name- in Google (among other search engines) and find your own Facebook Profile even if yours isn't participating (ie you didn't Opt-Out) in the indexing nonsense because surely at least one of your contacts has that enabled. Try it, "Bob Smith" if you have a Facebook account it'l probably show up in the 20 results of Google, especially if you have a unique name, or you added your middle name etc.

I clear my account (strip all information) then Disable it for a few weeks ever 2 months or so, till its been removed from various Indexes, then added shit again... sorta like a sick game of hide-and-seek.

Re:Well What ROYALLY pissed me off earlier

[davidsyes]

I am pretty sure that it was when I initially subscribed.

But, I almost NEVER input my friends' REALL e-mail. FUCK THAT. It's just another lazy-assed, surreptitious harvesting opportunity. I search for my friends by name, or find them in other friend's profiles. If I cannot find a friend without their e-mail address, I give up. Or, I call them, tell them MY e-mail, and let them decide whether or not to tell me/add me, or put themselves on a social site.

Way too many thoughtless/un-thinking people unmindfully add their contacts lists of people who might have been TRYING TO STAY OUT of the marketing mechanism.

I wonder, though, if there is or will be a Do Not Harvest & Retain Me list, compelling facebook, myspace, et al to purge all public/blog/post references. That could really piss off some advert types who "just want that fucking contact info, no matter what"...

Re:Well What ROYALLY pissed me off earlier

[severoon]

I used to think the same way. It doesn't matter, though...no matter what you or your friend's intentions, some idiot is going to tag a photo with your real name, address, email, etc on a public forum like Facebook. You don't even have to have an account there to be identified in the most public possible way. Just hope it's a photo of you at your best. It's a public life, and we did it to ourselves--didn't take a government or nothing to get us to install a two-way TV like in 1984.