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Unfortunately, I imagine it'd be a fair bit of money. Many toolbars track every site you visit, how long you're there, what you type on the site (including pers

Unfortunately, I imagine it'd be a fair bit of money. Many toolbars track every site you visit, how long you're there, what you type on the site (including personally identifying information), and a host of other Orwellian things. I can't imagine anyone feels good about trying to trick their users into installing this crap. If the money wasn't good, only completely amoral psychopaths would do it. As it stands, the financial incentives bring it to the point where greedy asshats are also willing to get in on the action.

astrodust 12y ago
Define "a fair bit of money", please. It's telling that Facebook, a company that's not known for treating their users as anything other than a commodity to be packaged and sold, would never stoop to something like this. In an era where a photo sharing site sells for over a billion dollars, Oracle must be raking in hundreds of millions on this deal for it to be worth the damage to their Java brand.
- wnevets 12y ago
  facebook is probably able to get data through other means. Their like button javascript on half of the internet for example.
  - astrodust 12y ago
    Do any of these "other means" involve installing shady software on people's computers? They've had many opportunities to do stuff like that with their iOS and Android apps but have never dared.
    - wnevets 12y ago
      My point is they wouldnt need to install shady software on your machine. They're able to track you with their like button.
      - ripb 12y ago
        I find it amazing that people seemingly don't know that Facebook tracks you across the web through those embedded Like buttons, and more amazing that many who do know don't seem to care.
        astrodust 12y ago
        There's a reason I have the equivalent of "127.0.0.1 facebook.com" in my /etc/hosts file.
- glesica 12y ago
  Facebook doesn't do it because they don't need to do it, at least right now. Wait until they're on the ropes, fighting for their corporate life in one way or another, then see what they do.

astrodust 12y ago

Define "a fair bit of money", please. It's telling that Facebook, a company that's not known for treating their users as anything other than a commodity to be packaged and sold, would never stoop to something like this. In an era where a photo sharing site sells for over a billion dollars, Oracle must be raking in hundreds of millions on this deal for it to be worth the damage to their Java brand.

wnevets 12y ago
facebook is probably able to get data through other means. Their like button javascript on half of the internet for example.
- astrodust 12y ago
  Do any of these "other means" involve installing shady software on people's computers? They've had many opportunities to do stuff like that with their iOS and Android apps but have never dared.
  - wnevets 12y ago
    My point is they wouldnt need to install shady software on your machine. They're able to track you with their like button.
    - ripb 12y ago
      I find it amazing that people seemingly don't know that Facebook tracks you across the web through those embedded Like buttons, and more amazing that many who do know don't seem to care.
      - astrodust 12y ago
        There's a reason I have the equivalent of "127.0.0.1 facebook.com" in my /etc/hosts file.
glesica 12y ago
Facebook doesn't do it because they don't need to do it, at least right now. Wait until they're on the ropes, fighting for their corporate life in one way or another, then see what they do.