Facebook Files For a Patent To Track Its Users On Other Sites

suraj.sun sends word that a recent Facebook patent application details specific methods for tracking its users while they're using other websites. Michael Arrington pointed out over the weekend that this follows explicit statements from Facebook employees that the social networking giant has "no interest in tracking people." Quoting the Patent Application: "In one embodiment, a method is described for tracking information about the activities of users of a social networking system while on another domain. The method includes maintaining a profile for each of one or more users of the social networking system, each profile identifying a connection to one or more other users of the social networking system and including information about the user. The method additionally includes receiving one or more communications from a third-party website having a different domain than the social network system, each message communicating an action taken by a user of the social networking system on the third-party website. The method additionally includes logging the actions taken on the third-party website in the social networking system, each logged action including information about the action."

Comments

Let me get this right..

[Moheeheeko]

So they went from denying that they track people outside of Facebook...to patenting the process? What time is it? I clearly missed the logic train.

Re:Let me get this right..

[Scutter]

It's called "lying". Anymore, what companies SAY they're going to do and what they ACTUALLY do rarely have anything in common.

Re:Let me get this right..

[tech4]

No. Just because they patented it doesn't mean they're actually using it. Companies patent lots of things all the time.

Re:Let me get this right..

[GameboyRMH]

The claim that they don't track users runs on CNN where all the Facebook users see it while the patent news runs on Slashdot, where the security experts who are already seen by their friends and family as tinfoil hatters see it. It's not illogical. It's a calculated lie.

Re:Let me get this right..

[aztracker1]

That was my first thought... these techniques have been in use, at the very least by google for a decade now. Not sure WTF...

Re:Let me get this right..

[EdIII]

I do the same thing with the shopper discount cards. The whole thing is bullshit. If you look at the discounted prices you can readily see how much value they assign to your purchasing history. If they didn't they would just set the discount price as the regular price and be done with it.

The easy way to defeat is to share a single phone number with everyone and not care about the gas. Somebody might be taking the credits at the pump, but who cares really. The whole point is to get the discount price. If you shop smart and keep to the discount items and figure out the time intervals, you can save more money than you ever would on the gas.

For instance, there is a two week interval on sales of boneless skinless chicken. Just wait for it and then load up. That is what a freezer in the garage is for, although heavens help you if the power goes out.

Picking a random phone number and trying to get gas credits is not an idea I would be spreading around. There are cameras at the pump and some people really do spend thousands of dollars every month or so with a medium sized family. You are taking something of actual monetary value away from them and I can imagine at some point, especially in this economy, you will run across somebody that was expecting the credits to be there. Considering your license plate is recorded at the pump, in addition to probably using a payment method that can be tracked, not a good idea to do something that could be a misdemeanor at best, and at worst used with some trumped up interpretations to label you as a hacker and turn it into a felony.

I don't think I am going overboard here. There are always some low-level people in the DA's office looking to make a name for themselves or just having a bad day. You never really know.

*****
As for Facebook:

The answer to FaceBook is not to participate with FaceBook. I always see people complaining and I am reminded of WHOPPER from WarGames where it takes him playing Tic Tac Toe against itself a couple million times before it learns the greatest wisdom much of us need to learn..... the correct move is not to play. I have said many times that I would renounce my citizenship and live on an island made out floating garbage like the people in Water World before I get a single social networking account. That part, I am dead serious about.

That is our biggest problem, specifically, that we cannot find the will power to just say no, or to suffer some inconveniences.

I have not paid for TV (which is subsidizing your exposure to advertisements) for over 5 years now. That alone has saved me between $1200 - $1500 per year. Sure, I cannot participate in conversations about the latest episode of whatever, but most of those conversations are a complete waste of time. If the show is any good, I will eventually be able to purchase, rent, or torrent the seasons on DVD.

I have not participated in BlueRay or HD (whatever that was), or anything else that involves DRM. BlueRay especially, since they are moving towards Internet connected devices to solve their problems of encryption updates breaking forwards compatibility with new titles. Still royally pissed off how many fucking times I am begged by family members to upgrade the firmware on their BlueFucked(tm) devices to watch the latest SpiderMan.

I have not participated in social networking because I understand the true value of my privacy and anonymity.

I have not participated in any device that I cannot completely and totally own. Of course I am referring to the ridiculous statement that loading up my own operating system on hardware I purchased is "hacking", "piracy", and/or violations of the DMCA. They can go to hell. I own it, and if I want to break out their DRM model, I will do it. It's war and I am waiting. Come and get it. This of course precludes me from owning most new devices, since I no longer have the patience or geek motivation to continually fight the battle. This is of particular note with Amazon, since the

Facebook sez:

[idontgno]

We have no interest in tracking people, and we've taken out this patent to make sure no one else can either.

See? We're your trustworthy friend! Come join our social network!

I gave up...

[gfxguy]

It was interesting and nice to connect to a lot of my old high school buddies, but I don't care where people are going for dinner, or bragging about the vacation they're on (how dumb is that, anyway?), so I logged out and deleted all my cookies. Don't know that I'll completely delete my account, but I'm not missing it.

Re:I gave up...

[DerPflanz]

I'm with you. I stopped caring. Deleted my account today. Also my Google+ account. For me the whole social networking thing was taking too much time with almost nothing in return.

Next week I'll meet a friend IRL for dinner and beers. I called him to make the meeting.

Scope and methods

[Synerg1y]

For everybody getting freaked out, I'm pretty sure by third party sites, they mean sites they have a partnership with, too lazy to find which ones, but I posted like a month ago about this when it first surfaced.

They are only tracking you with their affiliates with which they have achieved systems integration. A cookie is the legacy best practice code approach to sharing data between two sites. I'm sure they had business reasons for using a cookie rather than a web service (helps the smarter than average bear not get tracked since cookies are client based, while a web service happens on the back end).

I want to make it very clear I'm not defending facebook for tracking its users, but they are not tracking EVERY site like the majority of slashdotters seem to be implying.

And last, but not least, merry christmas, tin foil hat ready,

http://blog.blackdown.de/2010/05/20/stop-facebook-from-tracking-you-on-third-party-sites/

Re:Cookie exchanger

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck Facebook.

Huh?

[MightyMartian]

Apart from the fact that Mark Zuckerberg is a bad dude, how can you patent tracking cookies with a database back end? I mean, that sort of shit has been going on since the 1990s, done by other pre-Zuckerberg evil motherfuckers. What exactly is novel about this? It's like Saddam Hussein patenting "a place where people are burned for eternity and jabbed by evil bastards with pitchforks."

Re:Huh?

[sosume]

exactly, what about prior art .. this is just ignorant, let's see if the USPTO approves this patent.

EU Cookie Law (Directive 2009/136/EC)

[Chris_Stankowitz]

This appears to circumvent the EU cookie law and could be sold to others as a means for doing the same. Evil, or evil genius?

CS-

Re:Don't "do facebook", anyone question...

[sosume]

dude .. 1,586,590++ entries in your host file ..are you for real?
what, you think that setting up a local BIND might affect performance?
must be a troll and I bit.

The sane users already left Dodge.

[Foxhoundz]

The few individuals concerned with their privacy have long fled Facebook. Whatever changes Facebook makes will only hurt those idiotic enough to stay on the social networking site.

Yet another reason...

[iceaxe]

...not to use FB.

Also not using G+.

I am interested in Diaspora. Then again, I don't really care that much about web based "social networking". I talk to my family and friends in person, on the phone, and via email and SMS. I'm not looking for a bunch of new casual acquaintances, I already have a date lined up every week (or more) for the rest of my life, and I don't have time to read about other peoples' breakfasts. (What am I doing here on /., then?)

What did you think that "Like" button was for?

[Eric Freyhart]

When Facebook introduced the "Like" button which could be installed on other websites across domains it was obvious (at least to me) that it would become a way to trace users on other websites. Anywhere you now see a "Like" button by Facebook you can be assured that your stored cookie information is being transmitted to Facebook directly for tracking purposes.

Now, I have not looked into the code for the "Like" button, but it would not surprise me at all that this will be the means they use.

This _almost_ sounds like a great deal

[Daetrin]

In a perfect world they would get their patent and sue anyone else who tried to track users in the same manner into the ground. Then we'd only have to worry about one site horribly violating our privacy and those who cared could avoid it.

Unfortunately in the real world Facebook would only be all too happy to license this special secret technology to anyone willing to pay the appropriate fees.

Well, yeah.

[thejoelpatrol]

If you're still listening to anything Facebook says, I don't know what else to tell you. This is hardly the first time they've lied about something like this. They say things that are so implausible that they aren't worth listening to. They want every piece of data. Period. They will do whatever they can to get more data on people. Any time they say something to the contrary, they are lying.

Re:Are you sure it's Facebook?

[enilnomi]

This guy's pretty sure: While the patent doesn't say on its face that it belongs to Facebook, it is listed in the USPTO assignment database as being assigned to Facebook.