Facebook tracks you even after logging out

I heard about this a few days ago. I was advised to install the add ons (for firefox) "Better Privacy 1.67" and "Facebook blocker 1.0", which apparently stops facebook from tracking you.

Although to be fair, what do you expect from a website where you post your full name, contact details etc on to it?

Originally posted by 7Over22
reply to post by HighMaintenance

 

Another trade secret. They change the website around for marketing advantages to see how best they can profit from their users. There is no conspiracy here.

I never said there was a conspiracy and I'm not resistant to change.

Originally posted by Lulzaroonie

Originally posted by Shamatt

Originally posted by Jason88
reply to post by Shamatt

 

I post pictures of my daughter on Facebook to my friends and family in a well managed profile. I don't want "friends-of-friends" to access that information, as I don't know them so therefore I don't trust them. That new feature is coming with "timeline"..... So since I cannot ask my family and friends, some who have over 400 friends which means they don't really know their friends, to start de-friending people, it's me who has to leave and find a new way to share personal stuff. I do not live around.many friends and family so Facebook was a the best option for sharing pics, video and other tidbits... not any more. I am aware of security, and this officially pushed it too far.

edit on 25-9-2011 by Jason88 because: (no reason given)

All you need to do is set up facebook so that "Friends Only" can see your profile, your posts and you albums. This might take a minute or two. After that, I think the problem you describe is solved. Nothing has really changed. It is just dosplaying the info it has always had in a new way. Security on FB is not as hard as people make out. Any way - this thread os about gather information on surfing habits, which is a different topic all together.

Doesn't the new layout make it possible for you to see what your friends are doing on their friends profiles?
Say for example you and I were friends, but only you were friends with Jason88. You added a like or a comment to Jason88's pictures of his daughter, wouldn't I be able to see that?
Or has Facebooks developers actually been thoughtful in this respect and made it so totally private profiles such as my own won't come up in the feeds of friends of friends who post on my stuff?
Bleh too confusing.

This is exactly the reason I don't want to use it anymore. I'm not entirely happy about the fact that any friend of a friends, aunt, uncle or papa Joe can see what I'm doing and there's nothing I can do to stop it (apart from put everyone on a restricted list, and what's the point of that??) Mostly it's the fact that I have to be subjected to what THEY'RE doing on their friends, aunt, uncle or papa Joe's page, I'm really NOT interested and nor do I care, and believe me I tried everything to stop seeing this stuff. Meh, it's really not the be all and end all of my life, there was life before facebook

The majority of people are not smart.

Look at Apple.

Even if you LOCK the Safari:
- History.plist
- Cookies.plist
- TopSites.plist
- LastSession.plist


Somehow Safari still remembers your history, TopSites, Last Session, Cookies, History.

Apple's a worse spy on you than FaceBook.....but both are bad. As is Google.

People are generally stupid and don't care they are being tracked/watched and their information is being sold.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Thanks for the info and I love the avatar of Dexter best show on tv.

Fb has had recurring issues with privacy. I heard someone speaking about it at at tech conference. He said that younger people are more comfortable putting their personal info in such a public way. There are definitely privacy issues, and my concern is that so much personal data can be collected into a database. I had heard about TIA back in around 2003 or so and it does not surprise me that this type of culling of personal data however meaningless it may appear is happening.
Putting a lot of personal data on the web was encouraged at a TED conference couple years back, when Web 2.0 sprouted wings.

reply to post by Highlander64


Not at all surprised. This story does though go along very well with the recent report that 'On-star' tracks you even though you no longer subscribe to your service. "It's a safety feature." they say.

reply to post by Highlander64
I would assume someone else mentioned this in the thread and I just missed it, but will speak up just in case.

While I definitely don't like Facebook and they take way too much liberty with anything you give them (and those involved with its founding have ties to CIA, DARPA, and who knows what all else), I would assume there's not really anything you can do anonymously on the internet anymore, period.

I would assume this is likely global, but I know any internet use in the US is already split by providers and routed for intelligence agency logging and review, so it goes very much far and beyond facebook for US users, at least. To not be tracked, spied on, eavesdropped upon, copied, tagged, or what-have-you, really all you can do is either completely stay off line (or do NOTHING that can ID you - this includes behavioural profiles from sites you use and your search habits, any transactions, and so forth), not have a cellphone and if you do have one always take the battery out when not actually using it real-time, and so on.

Otherwise, you are always on someone's radar. Welcome to the new world, my friend.

reply to post by Realtruth


They dont use their cookies for tracking? That's hilarious. Maybe they dont sell the info, but cookies are for tracking purposes.

Originally posted by snowen20
I heard you can't actually delete your account, and that Facebook keeps your photos and information.........................indefinitely.
Though if anyone knows how to delete the Facebook account totally i would love to know. Remember me if you find an answer, I'll be waiting.

yeah, you can only deactivate your account and then all you have to do is log in to reactivate it and everything is still there. what i did when i deactivated my account was i went through and deleted every photo, removed every tag, un-liked every single like (they dont let you choose multiple, you have to do them one at a time) - unfriended everyone.... i deleted every single solitary thing one at a time, it was a full 8 hour job. :-|

A couple simple solutions - use a different browser or use a proxy ip address. Should also be able to configure your firewall to block outgoing notices.

Originally posted by Shamatt
Folks, please, stop for a moment.

OK Thanks.

Now - Can someone please explain to me why I should be at all bothered about what information FB has on me?

Or google for that matter.

What possible cost or harm can come to me from the status quo?

here is the thing. there are many possibilities as to what they can do to you or with your information that has nothing to do with advertising. first of all, they scan the facebook database on any given subject to see what the popular opinion is... when they have that information, they know how to play the masses... they what press releases to put out to gain public support on ANY given issue, they know how to bull$hit you once they are "in your head" - the more they know about everyone, the better they can control everyone... they don't need everyone to agree with them, they just need a majority. Facebook is an EXCELLENT damage control tool.

further... have you ever heard of criminal profiling? they can basically look at any crime and pick it apart down to the exact characteristics of the persons who would commit a certain act. So... if you "like" just the right book and song and movie and you quote a certain Neitzche quote, if you admit to wetting the bed as a child in some private message, if you frequent certain websites... those may be JUST the right culmination of characteristics they are looking for, for anything they would need a scapegoat for. You could end up being the next Lee Harvey Oswald...

the point is, the *possibilities* are ENDLESS with the data that is in a facebook profile (including your biometric facial profile)... and what you think is innocent and you don't care and what does it matter... could be your own undoing.

Further, if you start buying things that would be considered survival gear, etc. you are going on a list, you better believe that.

The way i see it, Facebook is a GIANT step towards the RFID chip... man... think about it, if you are using that timeline and putting everything about yourself from birth to present on there... combine that with your medical records that are going digital, and all you need is your bank "credits" and wah-lah... everything about you can be stored on something as tiny as a grain of rice and injected into your body.

When you stop fighting for your privacy. When you see things like this facebook change as "no big deal" then i feel really sorry for you.

And all this "well, if you aren't doing anything illegal blah blah" or "well, just don't post it on the internet" is CRAPOLA... a social network is supposed to be FUN. it isn't FUN if I can't crack an occasional midget porn joke with my friend without my momma reading it. and so what? i should delete my mom? i should put my head down and not make any =eye contact and make sure i don't say anything that might offend someone, and crack no jokes and etc. etc. etc.?!? yeah... that's *real* fun. pshh.

the internet was never like this before... it is evolving in to THIS... and it is because people roll with those changes and just accept it and they never put their foot down. one day - probably soon - you are going to regret not standing up for your right to privacy.

just because you aren't doing anything illegal now, doesn't mean that something that you love to do won't be deemed illegal in the near future. there are some people who like to play Gibson guitars and drink raw milk... just sayin.

Solution: Don't use Facebook.

Delete your account (yes it can be done), clear your browsers cookie cache and never look back.

Problem solved.

Originally posted by princeofpeace
Bootom line is if you arent doing anything wrong then you have nothing to hide or worry about.

but what are you going to do when "wrong" gets redefined into something that YOU don't think is really wrong? what if you want to stock up on fresh water... purchase some gold... buy an RV or something. what are you going to do when you get a knock on the door saying that you are a suspected "domestic terrorist" and that under the patriot act they are taking you in, indefinitely, and with no right to an attorney.

i mean... i'm sure that your definition of "wrong" is that you aren't pirating things on the net, etc... but what if their definition of "wrong" is something else entirely? you don't think that you are entitled to do RIGHT things on the internet privately? you really like living under a microscope? under the watchful eye of a camera?

i would rather die. i'll fight it to the death. more people die from peanut allergies in this country than from terrorist attacks. all this "security" is not necessary. i lived my whole life just fine without it. and so did all the generations before me.

but i guess. sure... if you aren't doing ANYTHING wrong and you are a good little serf with your nose to the grind and never saying anything that isn't politically correct ....

reply to post by highpriestess


Thank you for your eloquent input on this. I got a fb account due to family and friends requests, and I even connected with some long lost cousins, but I am going to do what you did, and go through and unfriend everybody etc, as I read that is the only way to really clear it. I have found fb insets every where I go and even people friended on my fb appear on pages. It's really creepy and web 2.0 ish. They want us to put this data out willingly for one thing, because Total Information Awareness that admiral Poindexter wanted didnt make it through Congress and they have to get around the privacy issues.

reply to post by highpriestess


Why try to argue against folly?

Debunking NTHNTF

Originally posted by Griffo
I heard about this a few days ago. I was advised to install the add ons (for firefox) "Better Privacy 1.67" and "Facebook blocker 1.0", which apparently stops facebook from tracking you.

Although to be fair, what do you expect from a website where you post your full name, contact details etc on to it?

Like the above poster I would advocate just never accessing facebook again, but nevertheless plenty of people do.

*** FACEBOOK USERS READ HERE PLEASE ***

Not sure if this has been said already but if it hasn't maybe suggest that the OP link to this post.

There is an add-on for Firefox called "NoScript". On the description it says "The best security you can get in a web browser!", they aren't lying. If you get NoScript and change Firefoxs settings to wipe your history/cookies/pr0n/etc when you close the browser, not only will it protect you from ever getting any kind of malware (unless you allow it), it will stop facebook from tracking or running crap on your computer *IF* when you set Firefox to delete on browser close, just close the browser every time instead of logging out of facebook.

The downside to this is that with NoScript you will have to allow every single instance of _javascript or any other web-based language etc, it will add a new button to Firefox for this purpose (a little "S" button). In order to use a few of facebooks features (chat, some common buttons and all that) you must allow certain scripts, as far as I can remember they should look something like ####.facebook.com, or just plain www.facebook.com, you'll have a menu to pick from the scripts that are trying to run on your machine, you can allow them for this browser session or forever, I always choose to allow scripts temporarily unless its a website I visit daily and fully trust (this would seem to exclude facebook). You'll also be amazed at all the adware based stuff that different sites try and run on your computer, NoScript will block scripts from ALL websites not just facebook, though I think it automatically allows google and maybe a few other high profile sites. (You can change this though if you like)

You will have to take an extra step and a mouse-click or two to access many websites, but the NoScript addon, especially combined with the Flashblock addon will make your Firefox browser about impenetrable. I'll put it to you this way, I haven't heard a peep out of AVG in a long LONG time, I probably don't even need it anymore.

That is all.

I deleted mine ......... It's the only way.

It's nothing more than a tracking device.

Originally posted by Thebel
Get Ghostery for Chrome and Firefox, bye bye tracking cookies and bugs.

www.ghostery.com...

hahaaaa that page came up with a follow us on fb and twitter invite

Originally posted by quackers
reply to post by highpriestess

 

Why try to argue against folly?

Debunking NTHNTF

i know. you are right. but i will always speak out against this crap til my last breath. it's all we can do... and sometimes, every now and then, someone actually listens... and that makes it worth it. aggravating? yes. but i love my country, and all her people, and i just want people to wake up and realize that this "nothing to hide" attitude goes against our Constitution. And that piece of paper is WHAT makes us the country we are... once it is gone... we are no longer that great nation. i realize it sucks that the real "freaks" in society get protection from the Constitution, but THAT is the price we pay for our freedom as a whole. And to me, the occasional freak slipping through the cracks is a much better price to pay than every living breathing human being living under the camera with no real freedom at all.

it just makes me sad, dude. i feel like that Native American dude in the old anti-litter commercial when i look around at my country sometimes, ya know?

reply to post by snowen20


Saw you asked while responding to me, not sure if anyone posted super simple way to delete FB, but here's a video. Basically leave it alone for 14 days after you delete and it goes away. As for FB storing data, well there are laws that prevent it from holding data too long, but I don't trust they ever delete anything.