Comments are emerging that Facebook is gathering data on you, even when you are logged out. Have you seen these comments yet?
Nik Cubrilovic writes on his blog the following… “Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit.” He even posts examples of what he is seeing. This is a serious concern for your security, period! Go visit Nik’s blog to check out what he said.
Nik further comments that…”The only solution is to delete every Facebook cookie in your browser, or to use a separate browser for Facebook interactions.” This essentially means that you should clear your cache when ever you log out of Facebook; if you don’t want your activities captured by others. You could also use a separate browser for Facebook or your secure sites. But this will require you to do more.
Where this can really hurt you is when you get hauled into court. This information can be used to note “what you where doing at what time”. You say one thing and the evidence says another. It even has ramifications for my law enforcement friends. This information could be used by businesses to figure out how best to advertise to you. There are a lot of things that this information be used for.
In a CNN.com article, they write the following… “Facebook acknowledges that it uses “cookies” when you visit the site that then transmit data from other sites that are connected to it.”
Bottom line, what can we do?
- Make sure you clear your browser cache when you are logging out of Facebook. Here’s a video I created on YouTube for this a while ago. The browser versions may be older than what you are currently using, but it should help you learn how to do this.
- Consider using a separate browser for things like your banking and other secure site logins.
- Always remember that your activity can show up to others. We live in a very public world. Surf wisely.
Your safety is important. A little effort now can prevent a lot of pain later.
A friend emailed this and I thought it was very note worthy…
“The real problem is happening on the servers and there is not much you can do on your computer to prevent the problem other than never log into facebook again, but even that will not fix the problem if you have ever used the service before. Reformat of hard drive will not fix the problem.
The information is gathered on various web sites based on IP address among other things. Facebook is not the only one doing it. The problem is really more insidious that most people think and most are not even aware of the long term consequences (Minority Report type of marketing followed by almost complete loose of online privacy).”