Facebook Tracks Users After They Leave Site
September 27th, 2011I use a custom filter in AdBlock+ to block all Facebook nonsense. I haven’t seen one of those ‘Like’ buttons in years. (Not on my computer, anyway.)
If you don’t know what this ‘Like’ button garbage is all about, it’s a little widget that site operators put all over the place that lets Facebook users indicate when they like something on the Internet. These bits of Facebook code are like a plague that have spread over most of the Internet.
—Germany: Facebook Data Collection Under Fire Again
Ghostery also blocks Facebook widgets.
Via: Sydney Morning Herald:
FACEBOOK is following you, even when you have logged out.
An Australian technology expert has discovered Facebook tracks the websites its users visit after they leave the social networking site. Nik Cubrilovic said his tests showed Facebook did not delete its tracking cookies when you logged out but modified them, maintaining account information and other unique tokens that could identify you.
So whenever you visited a web page containing a Facebook button or widget, your browser was still sending the details back to Facebook, said Mr Cubrilovic.
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”Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit,” he wrote in a blog post. ”The only solution is to delete every Facebook cookie in your browser, or to use a separate browser for Facebook interactions.”
