Facebook Tracks the Status Updates and Messages You Don't Write Too

Jah-Wren Ryel writes "It turns out Facebook tracks the stuff that people type and then erase before hitting the post button. If you start writing a message, and then think better of it and decide not to post it, Facebook still adds it to the dossier they keep on you. From the article: 'Storing text as you type isn't uncommon on other websites. For example, if you use Gmail, your draft messages are automatically saved as you type them. Even if you close the browser without saving, you can usually find a (nearly) complete copy of the email you were typing in your Drafts folder. Facebook is using essentially the same technology here. The difference is that Google is saving your messages to help you. Facebook users don't expect their unposted thoughts to be collected, nor do they benefit from it.'"

Comments

Do they turn up in the downloads?

[rvw]

Facebook has an option to download all your data. Do these texts turn up in these downloads as well? If not Facebook violates EU law.

Re:Do they turn up in the downloads?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't find this in my data download.

Re:Do they turn up in the downloads?

[parkinglot777]

Update, Dec. 16, 2013: This article was updated to clarify that it is the browser code, not Facebook, that reads whatever you type.

From TFA above, it said that the data first collected is not directly from Facebook but from the client's browser. In other words, Facebook is taking advantage of browser's insight (data).

Other information we receive about you
We also receive other types of information about you:
* We receive data about you whenever you use or are running Facebook, such as when you look at another person's timeline, send or receive a message, search for a friend or a Page, click on, view or otherwise interact with things, use a Facebook mobile app, or make purchases through Facebook.
* When you post things like photos or videos on Facebook, we may receive additional related data (or metadata), such as the time, date, and place you took the photo or video.
* We receive data from or about the computer, mobile phone, or other devices you use to install Facebook apps or to access Facebook, including when multiple users log in from the same device. This may include network and communication information, such as your IP address or mobile phone number, and other information about things like your internet service, operating system, location, the type (including identifiers) of the device or browser you use, or the pages you visit. For example, we may get your GPS or other location information so we can tell you if any of your friends are nearby, or we could request device information to improve how our apps work on your device.
* We receive data whenever you visit a game, application, or website that uses Facebook Platform or visit a site with a Facebook feature (such as a social plugin), sometimes through cookies. This may include the date and time you visit the site; the web address, or URL, you're on; technical information about the IP address, browser and the operating system you use; and, if you are logged in to Facebook, your User ID.
* Sometimes we get data from our affiliates or our advertising partners, customers and other third parties that helps us (or them) deliver ads, understand online activity, and generally make Facebook better. For example, an advertiser may tell us information about you (like how you responded to an ad on Facebook or on another site) in order to measure the effectiveness of - and improve the quality of - ads.
(source: https://www.facebook.com/full_data_use_policy)

From the quote above (from their web site), it pretty much covers the 'download all your data' part in a vaguely wording way (bulletin #1). I guess someone has to sue Facebook to see if their policies actually cover the way they are doing now.

Re:Do they turn up in the downloads?

[Ralph Wiggam]

Which makes sense because they were never stored.

The source article that the linked article refers to says that Facebook records the fact that you entered text but never posted it. It does not record the text.

But after three levels of "telephone", we have this thread.

Re:Do they turn up in the downloads?

[bmimatt]

There's a Firefox plugin called 'Firebug'. It let's you see HTTP requests and responses. You could use that to see if what you type is sent immediately to FB.

Time to switch gears

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see myself following a policy of "never type directly into a web browser, only copy and paste" in the near future. (And here's yet another reason to avoid "cloud" services and prefer local storage for anything personal.)

Re:Time to switch gears

[Anonymous Coward]

Somehow I just can't picture vim phoning home like a proprietary software product.

Re:Time to switch gears

[Anonymous Coward]

Somehow I just can't picture vim phoning home like a proprietary software product.

Oh yeah? Well, emacs doesn't phone home better, and hasn't been doing it longer!

Re:Time to switch gears

[chromas]

Well, that's probably the one function emacs doesn't have.

Re:Time to switch gears

[gman003]

Just for those who haven't memorized all the keybinds, "don't phone home" is c-m-X c-] by default.

Message saving

[Anonymous Coward]

"The difference is that Google is saving your messages to help you."

Well, we hope at least. When Google's robot army kicks down my door for looking up subversive material, will we still be saying this?

Can we just call it...

[Akratist]

..."Stasibook" and be done with it?

Hmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

Must kill Zuckerberg, Must kill Zuckerberg, Must kill ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
Must post cat video.

I bet this is a part truth

[Chrisq]

"The difference is that Google is saving your messages to help you."

Well, we hope at least. When Google's robot army kicks down my door for looking up subversive material, will we still be saying this?

Obviously drafts do help you ... but I wouldn't mind betting they also analyse the data and use it to predict your preferences in exactly the same way that Facebook does!

Facebook doesn't store this stuff.

[MarsLander]

FTFA: "In their article, Das and Kramer claim to only send back information to Facebook that indicates whether you self-censored, not what you typed. The Facebook rep I spoke with agreed that the company isn’t collecting the text of self-censored posts."

Re:Facebook doesn't store this stuff.

[Sockatume]

I guess Slashdot accidentally stored a hilariously inaccurate version of the summary.

Re:Thought process

[Chrisq]

Capturing a person's though process has a lot of value, sometimes more than the actual post written. Think of brand recognition, for a simple example. I like Pep... oops, I mean, Coke.

And that is quite harmless. Its if writing a draft "dear mum and dad I'd like to telly you I'm gay. I know its against your religious beliefs", then deleting it will result in adverts for gay support groups, or anything else that could give someone an idea of what might not have been said that there is a problem.

Facebook? Still?

[macbeth66]

Social Media was so 2013.

Get with it, its all about meeting up with people in real-time. Awesome. You make a call, talk to a person and arrange to meet up somewhere. Say for dinner or a drink. Maybe even a hook-up.

Re:Time for an addon...

[G-forze]

Exactly my thoughts. This seems to be a good case for "poisoning the well", by using some simple Selenium script and a couple of e-books, for instance. Have the bot post random text snippets from the books to all kinds of people, events and pages, and then delete before sending. Make this data collection useless.