So said Wired.com earlier this week in a piece today entitled ‘Facebook is always watching you’:
Amid heightened concerns surrounding Facebook’s new advertising platform, the social networking site has given users a new reason not to trust it: Researchers recently busted the company for tracking users activities on external sites, even after they logged out of Facebook.
“Facebook is retrieving enough information that they can tie what you do on external sites back to your Facebook profile,” says Stefan Berteau, a research engineer with CA. “[The company] says it’s deleting the data it gathers after you’ve logged out, but that is not clearly spelled out in its privacy policy, and there isn’t a binding public commitment.”
But here’s the good news: you can fix it.
It’s fairly easy to block Facebook, too, according to Berteau: Don’t click the “Remember Me” box when signing into Facebook and regularly clear cookies. Users can also download a Firefox plugin that blocks data transmission between advertiser sites and Facebook.
Of course, you’re already clearing your cookies regularly, right? If you’re using Firefox (and why wouldn’t you), you can tell it to do this automatically: Tools, Options, and check the box telling it to keep cookies only until you close Firefox; plus also check the box marked ‘Always clear my private data when I close Firefox’.
