Facebook Beacon also tracks non-users
p2pnet news | Freedom:- More bad news for FaceBook.
In fact, with blood in the water and sharks already circling, it might even be its death knell.
If you’ve never signed up for Facebook and believe it therefore can’t track you to collect data on what you’ve been doing online, think again.
Because, “Facebook’s controversial Beacon ad system tracks the activities of all users of its third-party partner sites, including people who have never signed up with Facebook or who have deactivated their accounts, “says CA (Computer Associates), according to the IDG News Service
Quoting the company’s Stefan Berteau, the story says Beacon captures detailed data on what users do on the external partner sites and sends it back to Facebook along with users’ IP addresses.
And it happens even if you delete the Facebook cookie, the story declares.
Says Berteau, “The Facebook JavaScript [code] is still called by the affiliate site, and the information is passed in."
In the case of users without accounts, or with deactivated accounts, the data isn't tied to a Facebook ID, IDG has him stating, continuing IP addresses, however, "are well known to provide a variety of information about users, and they have in some cases been used to identify individuals."
And, "The information that Beacon captures includes the addresses of Web pages the user visits, and a string with the action taken in the partner site, Berteau says.
The revelations, "build on Berteau's report last week that Beacon stealthily tracks the activities of users on affiliate Beacon sites even if they are logged off from Facebook and previously declined having their activities reported back to their Facebook friends," says the story, adding:
"Over the weekend, Facebook confirmed that Berteau's report on Friday was accurate, but said that it deletes the data it receives under these circumstances."
Stay tuned.
Also See:
sharks already circling - Facebook - blood in the water, December 5, 2007
IDG News Service - Facebook's Beacon Ad System Also Tracks Non-Facebook Users, December 3, 2007
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December 5th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Facebook confirmed that Berteauâs report on Friday was accurate, but said that it deletes the data it receives under these circumstances.
“Sure” it does…
December 6th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Quote: “More bad news for FaceBook.
In fact, with blood in the water and sharks already circling, it might even be its death knell.”
You really have no clue, do you. With the kind of volume and growth rate Facebook is dealing with at the moment, there is no remote chance that Facebook could ever be at its ‘death knell’ for something as small as this. Too many people rely on facebook for social networking, and despite the news feed drama of last year, they have still come back for more.