5 ms·

Facebook denies cookie tracking allegations

11 points by revorad 15y ago

Saavedro 15y ago
Even if Facebook -was- not completely clearing your UID it's not like it's impossible for them to track you. If Facebook -wanted- to track you without your consent IP + User Agent is likely plenty unique for that purpose. But hey, finding malicious intent in anything Facebook does is cool these days, I guess.
- thirsteh 15y ago
  Finding malicious intent in anything anyone popular or influential does is cool these days.
- Angostura 15y ago
  "Malicious" is a term that you've just applied. An alternative way of phrasing it might be "applying some skepticism to Facebook's approach to privacy. I don't think that such skepticism has anything to do with being "cool", I think it's warranted - Facebook's valuation is largely based on the value of teh data it holds and its ability to to track and analyse user behaviour. The original article merely points out that logging out doesn't actually effect Facebook's ability to track & analyse, so why should we assume that it voluntarily throws away an important data collection opportunity?
  - sixtofour 15y ago
    "... Facebook's valuation is largely based on the value of teh data it holds ..." For Facebook's larger investors, I've been wondering what kind of access or other benefit they (may) gain, beyond ROI.
- icebraining 15y ago
  No, actually that's not nearly unique. On 3G networks, for example, there's often hundreds using the same IP and probably the same user agent. There was someone who claimed a small 3G ISP in Germany used the same IP for all of their ISPs. Besides, being able to track and actively assign IDs - including for people who don't have accounts - is very different. For a bad car analogy, when one walks in a city we pass by plenty of cars that could hit us if they turned abruptly. But if the car is actually driving on the sidewalk in our direction, most people would be slightly more worried.
Slimy 15y ago
I don't believe Facebook is doing anything malicious, but it can never hurt to do a little investigation.
Someone 15y ago
Can anybody tell me how a cookie on my computer would help: "the logged out cookies are used for safety and protection including: identifying spammers and phishers" How would that work? "detecting when somebody unauthorized is trying to access your account" I can see how that would prevent anybody to log in from another system, but how would ey separate a user doing that from a villain? "helping you get back into your account if you get hacked" How would that work? "disabling registration for a under-age users who try to re-register with a different birthdate" How would that work while at the same time allowing shared computers (as cited below)? "powering account security features such as 2nd factor login approvals and notification" How would that work? "and identifying shared computers to discourage the use of “keep me logged in.”" That I can understand to be a feature, but why would it require more than a 'someone logged into Facebook from this account on this computer' flag? Certainly, it would not require storing a user ID?

11 points by revorad 15y ago

Even if Facebook -was- not completely clearing your UID it's not like it's impossible for them to track you. If Facebook -wanted- to track you without your consent IP + User Agent is likely plenty unique for that purpose. But hey, finding malicious intent in anything Facebook does is cool these days, I guess.

thirsteh 15y ago
Finding malicious intent in anything anyone popular or influential does is cool these days.
Angostura 15y ago
"Malicious" is a term that you've just applied. An alternative way of phrasing it might be "applying some skepticism to Facebook's approach to privacy. I don't think that such skepticism has anything to do with being "cool", I think it's warranted - Facebook's valuation is largely based on the value of teh data it holds and its ability to to track and analyse user behaviour. The original article merely points out that logging out doesn't actually effect Facebook's ability to track & analyse, so why should we assume that it voluntarily throws away an important data collection opportunity?
- sixtofour 15y ago
  "... Facebook's valuation is largely based on the value of teh data it holds ..." For Facebook's larger investors, I've been wondering what kind of access or other benefit they (may) gain, beyond ROI.
icebraining 15y ago
No, actually that's not nearly unique. On 3G networks, for example, there's often hundreds using the same IP and probably the same user agent. There was someone who claimed a small 3G ISP in Germany used the same IP for all of their ISPs. Besides, being able to track and actively assign IDs - including for people who don't have accounts - is very different. For a bad car analogy, when one walks in a city we pass by plenty of cars that could hit us if they turned abruptly. But if the car is actually driving on the sidewalk in our direction, most people would be slightly more worried.

Slimy 15y ago

I don't believe Facebook is doing anything malicious, but it can never hurt to do a little investigation.

Someone 15y ago

Can anybody tell me how a cookie on my computer would help: "the logged out cookies are used for safety and protection including: identifying spammers and phishers" How would that work? "detecting when somebody unauthorized is trying to access your account" I can see how that would prevent anybody to log in from another system, but how would ey separate a user doing that from a villain? "helping you get back into your account if you get hacked" How would that work? "disabling registration for a under-age users who try to re-register with a different birthdate" How would that work while at the same time allowing shared computers (as cited below)? "powering account security features such as 2nd factor login approvals and notification" How would that work? "and identifying shared computers to discourage the use of “keep me logged in.”" That I can understand to be a feature, but why would it require more than a 'someone logged into Facebook from this account on this computer' flag? Certainly, it would not require storing a user ID?