On 9/28/2011 9:16 AM, Devitt wrote:
> A couple of days ago I read a news report that Facebook is tracking
> (or gearing up to track) its members web activity. I mean ALL
> activity, not just Facebook related. Having spent all my career in
> marketing, I can see where being able to sell that kind of
> information to advertisers could raise huge revenues. It is also an
> incredible invasion of privacy which gives me the creeps, big time.
> Sounds very "Big Brother."
>
> Does anyone know any details about this claim? Is it true? Bogus?
> Somewhere in-between? I currenty use Facebook through the Friendly
> app and keep my personal information private. Is there some way they
> could be tracking my web use even when Friendly is closed?
>
> This sounds nuts and maybe even illegal to me. But I'm not tekkie
> enough to know whether it's possible.
>
I'm not a lawyer, so I can't speak to the overall illegality of such
tracking, but it's certainly not unconstitutional -- at least in the
U.S. Constitution, there is no guarantee of privacy, no right to
privacy. The very fact that people would invade our privacy was alien
to the founders of the country.
Yes, there's a way they could be tracking your web use -- it's called
"cookies" and they've been around for as long as there's been a
world-wide web.
--
David H. Bailey
dhbailey@davidbaileymusicstudio.com
