Lawmakers seek FTC probe of Facebook post-log out tracking

[IDemo]

Source: CNET News

By: Elinor Mills
September 28, 2011 5:27 PM PDT

Two U.S. congressmen today asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Facebook's practice of tracking users even after they have logged out.

"When users log out of Facebook, they are under the expectation that Facebook is no longer monitoring their activities. We believe this impression should be the reality. Facebook users should not be tracked without their permission," said the letter (PDF) sent to the FTC by Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Joe Barton, a Texas Republican.

"Facebook was able to obtain this information when users visited websites that connect with Facebook, including websites with 'Like' buttons," the letter said. "There are an estimated 905,000 sites that contain the 'Like' button."

Asked for comment, a Facebook spokesman said the company did not store or use any information it should not have.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20113101-83/lawmakers-seek-ftc-probe-of-facebook-post-log-out-tracking/

[DJ13]

1. Its crap like that which kept me from joining

They are too lax on privacy.

[arcane1]

2. "we did not store these identifiers for logged out users"

I guess that depends on what the meaning of "store" is. They could send it directly to third parties, who they themselves actually store this data, and Facebook's statement would still be 100% correct.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. It only passes the cookie if you allow it, or your browser is configured to do so.

For instance, I use DailyMile, a run tracker website that integrates with Facebook credentials for login. I can auto-login after I have explicitly logged in the first time, only. Otherwise, Facebook would never know I'd hit that site.

This is mostly a misunderstanding of how the credentials are used by the users themselves, as well as the user terms for facebook.

[begin_within]

4. Yet another reason to avoid Facebook completely.

[Divine Discontent]

5. the crap sites do!

http://www.zazzle.com/republicans_2012_keeping_millions_out_of_work_bumper_sticker-128002960205017719

[SoapBox]

6. I'm another...never done it, never will.

Facebook seems skeezy to me.

[napoleon_in_rags]

7. Scratching the surface of an ocean there.

People should take this kind of thing seriously, more seriously perhaps than this isolated incident can. I think its really time policymakers get together with some smart ideological professor types, as well as industry leaders to start talking privacy. This is a HUGE deal with long term economic ramifications, and the big companies have a lot to lose.

Example: I've been thinking about ways handheld computers could be used to save money in taking care of people with disabilities, and there is huge promise for better care with lower cost. Also I've heard two respected voices...One was a Huffpo contributor, and was Craig Mundie, talking about how the new energy revolution comes from new computer tech. The first guy said it was about lateral collaboration through handhelds, and Mundie was talking about getting the scientific research on the devices to facilitate this. When one student asked him the all important metadata question, Mundie replied that the problem was social, and the answer was for scientists to get ALL their research process on the device...

So I got one of those prepaid smart phones. Its really cool, but its incredibly opaque. It was uploading and downloading data I didn't send, and when I installed an app to find out what was doing that, I saw it was some magical app that appears and disappears with Yuna from Final fantasy as its icon. This was part of a cluster of apps that uploaded about 10meg of mysterious data from my phone to God knows where, that came with the phone. It been granted explicit permission to read my email, do pretty anything it wanted. I couldn't uninstall it because I don't have root on my phone, and the only way to get root (which is to say the ability to have full control over my phone) was to knowingly infect it with what anti-virus programs recognize as a virus, one of the "jailbreak" type programs.

It could all be innocent, but there is no way of knowing and there is no reason whatsoever to trust that it is. Of COURSE Facebook is tracking people through their like buttons. OF COURSE if somebody has a power they are going to use it. But the thing is, the group of people with that power is growing.

You see, this isn't about getting watched by the man. That's been happening since 9/11. This is about getting tracked and spied on in every detail of your life by every pimply faced, (and in fairness, hypothetical) Final Fantasy playing kid who thinks he's clever because he can hide a backdoor in some program he writes which is obscured in millions of lines of code and probably isn't even legislated because lawmakers don't have the expertise. Do I trust that kid NOT to mess with disabled people should they rely more on apps for their care? HELL no. And will scientists trust that kid NOT to steal their sensitive research data? HELL NO. So can anybody move forward to start using Microsoft/Google/Apple's platforms to do the things the world needs knowing that the group of people spying on us is growing to include new assholes every day? Hell no. ITs time for Government and the big players to sit down and have a serious talk about privacy. Let people know and understand the rules of the new paradigm so we can move forward.

[Smilo]

8. I am so fed up with being "tracked"

http://globalgrind.com/news/how-stop-facebook-tracking-your-every-move-online-watching-you-monitor-web-pages-cookies-photo

Came across this and going to give it a try.

[AllyCat]

10. Thanks for this. I plan to try this out too.

[hang a left]

9. I think we have reached a point in time that all internet

traffic can be collected. We post on certain sites that we trust, but who is to know who has access to your IP. The internet is the best thing that ever happened for big brother.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Well I'll be damned.

So this is how it feels like when you have a responsive government. I swear, this feels like the first time in thirty years where the government has been immediately responsive to something that had some personal interest.