Well this news has already taken a majority of Facebook user’s with a storm. Its quite shocking for roughly 8 million Facebook user’s who were unaware with the matter of fact that Facebook tracks your activity on different websites without your consent and knowledge.
Well this story has created social outrages in the US and other parts of the world where people share their private life of Facebook. In the past Facebook (Time Wastage and Spy Machine) was found engaged in privacy breaches and instead of refraining from such malicious activities Facebook continued their brutal dishonesty so bravely.
Actually the story begins last year when a blogger reveals Facebook espionage setup that comprises of a cookie named “datr” that tracks user activity on all websites that contain a Facebook Like Widget. It was really weird to know the fact that Facebook monitors even those user’s that have never visited Facebook or pressed Facebook Like button courtesy their “datr” cookie. After a lot of debate Facebook decided to remove that cookie for some time to show how much it cares for the protecting the privacy of its user’s but the same cookie returned after the debate was less intensified.
Now in 2011 an Australian Entrepreneur and Hacker Nik Cubrilovic explains in detail the entire mechanism designed by Facebook to breach user privacy throughout the internet wherever signs of Facebook exist. Nik explains that when user Logs Out of Facebook Account this is not enough but the user is still under Facebook observation, the Facebook Cookie stored in the Web Browser does not Delete when user logs out of his account which is unusual.
Now whenever a user opens up a website containing Facebook Widget it looks for that specific Cookie and if found automatically sends all user activity information to Facebook servers in the background without nay indication. This is why certain literate user’s are frustrated upon the secret activities of Facebook.
Well the ridiculous thing is that although caught red handed Facebook denied the news for some time but after few days one of the employees acknowledged that user activity is infact monitored but the data is deleted right away. Last month Facebook filed a patent regarding tracking user activity on domains other then Facebook citing the reason that Facebook needs to monitor user activity so that it may enhance its security and counter spammers, hackers and underage children trying to create a Facebook Account with fake date of birth.
Some critics suggest that Facebook earns billions of Dollars through Targeted Advertising and the data helps them achieve that but we can only speculate rather then knowing the reality.
How to Prevent Facebook from tracking you
Although Facebook is a dangerous social network so it is highly advised not to share your real name, address, pictures and video’s or status updates.
One of the solution to get rid of being spied by Facebook is to use a separate web browser for using Facebook and don’t open any other website on that Web Browser.
The other way is to clear your Web Browser History and Cookies every time you open and log out of your Facebook Account.
You could do it simply in Mozilla Firefox by Hitting Tools and Selecting Clear Recent History. Remember to choose Everything in the Tab which shows various time limits like Last Hour.
In the Google Chrome go to the settings diagram and choose options Now select under the bonnet and Hit clear history.
In Internet Explorer hit the Tools and select Internet Options, now in the General Tab Select Clear History.
Remember to check everything like form data, cookies and site preferences.
In the past Facebook has ignited violent feelings amongst Muslims especially Pakistani’s through its undervalued activities, constant spying, malicious activities, privacy breaches etc.
