Facebook tracking people that have not even signed up for an account

[Arika]

holy shit, it keeps getting better and better

 

Quote

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that, for security reasons, the company collects “data of people who have not signed up for Facebook.”

 

Concern about Facebook Inc’s respect for data privacy is widening to include the information it collects about non-users, after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the world’s largest social network tracks people whether they have accounts or not.

Privacy concerns have swamped Facebook since it acknowledged last month that information about millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, a firm that has counted U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 electoral campaign among its clients.

 

Quote

Critics said that Zuckerberg has not said enough about the extent and use of the data. “It’s not clear what Facebook is doing with that information,” said Chris Calabrese, vice president for policy at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a Washington advocacy group.

 

Facebook gets some data on non-users from people on its network, such as when a user uploads email addresses of friends. Other information comes from “cookies,” small files stored via a browser and used by Facebook and others to track people on the internet, sometimes to target them with ads.

“This kind of data collection is fundamental to how the internet works,” Facebook said in a statement to Reuters.

Quote

Facebook often installs cookies on non-users’ browsers if they visit sites with Facebook”like” and “share” buttons, whether or not a person pushes a button. Facebook said it uses browsing data to create analytics reports, including about traffic to a site.

The company said it does not use the data to target ads, except those inviting people to join Facebook.

 

what the hell is wrong with facebook? i would love to know what their "Security reasons" are to track people that are not even signed up for their service. If they "dont use the data to target ads", of which Zuckerberg has stated that's what Facebook does, what is the point of having the information? The fact that people don't know it's happening and even if they do, no way to find out what they know about you is terrifying.

 

Quote

Facebook said in its statement on Friday, “Our products and services comply with applicable law and will comply with GDPR.”

and like a lot of other threads recently. Just because it's not illegal, doesn't mean it's right.

 

Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-tracking-of-non-users-sparks-broader-privacy-concerns_us_5ad34f10e4b016a07e9d5871

[r2724r16]

Next week: Facebook is gone

[vanished]

I still don't know how any of this is surprising or even new information to people

[Wh0_Am_1]

2 minutes ago, Sierra Fox said:

holy shit, it keeps getting better and better

 

 

 

what the hell is wrong with facebook? i would love to know what their "Security reasons" are to track people that are not even signed up for their service. If they "dont use the data to target ads", of which Zuckerberg has stated that's what Facebook does, what is the point of having the information? The fact that people don't know it's happening and even if they do, no way to find out what they know about you is terrifying.

 

and like a lot of other threads recently. Just because it's no illegal, doesn't mean it's right.

 

Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-tracking-of-non-users-sparks-broader-privacy-concerns_us_5ad34f10e4b016a07e9d5871

Wow, this is why I tried to avoid them, apparently not well enough.

[2FA]

You weren't aware of these trackers? They've been around for years now.

2 minutes ago, Sierra Fox said:

Facebook said in its statement on Friday, “Our products and services comply with applicable law and will comply with GDPR.”

These cookies aren't actually compliant with GDPR as it requires explicit consent to be given, Facebook does not gain that explicit consent in this case.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

I thought this has surfaced in this forum over case in Europe (Belgium, I believe, but maybe not ).

 

Edit: found it, and it was Belgium  

 

 

Edited April 16, 2018 by SpaceGhostC2C
Found post

[AresKrieger]

2 minutes ago, Sierra Fox said:

Facebook often installs cookies on non-users’ browsers if they visit sites with Facebook”like” and “share” buttons, whether or not a person pushes a button. Facebook said it uses browsing data to create analytics reports, including about traffic to a site.

I thought more people knew this, anyway you can see the trackers with Ublock Origin's log for example adblockers aren't just for ads I use it for numerous thing such as blocking facebook and Google analytics and malware 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Yep.

[Arika]

11 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

-snip-

 

11 minutes ago, 2FA said:

-snap-

 

7 minutes ago, AresKrieger said:

-snup-

 

While the trackers may have been around for years and some people were aware of it, with everything else going on with facebook at the moment, it's worth spreading the word to those who may not know about it and has a much greater impact on how people will feel about it after the rest of the privacy concerns came to light as well. instead of people just dismissing it with "eh, i dont care, what can they going to do with this information?"

[AresKrieger]

3 minutes ago, Sierra Fox said:

While the trackers may have been around for years and some people were aware of it, with everything else going on with facebook at the moment, it's worth spreading the word to those who may not know about it and has a much greater impact on how people will feel about it after the rest of the privacy concerns came to light as well.

Well if we are sharing general scummy facebook practices did you know the Facebook phone app tracks your location and can tell if you've been in various retail stores for the sake of targeted advertising, this is also the reason the app drains excessive battery when compared to most apps even while not being directly used.

[vanished]

2 minutes ago, Sierra Fox said:

While the trackers may have been around for years and some people were aware of it, with everything else going on with facebook at the moment, it's worth spreading the word to those who may not know about it and has a much greater impact on how people will feel about it after the rest of the privacy concerns came to light as well. instead of people just dismissing it with "eh, i dont care, what can they going to do with this information?"

Yeah it's a good thing to make these stories known.  Clearly, that's something that needs to be done.  I'm just amazed at how all this recent investigation has revealed anything that could be considered even remotely surprising or revolutionary to anyone at this point, but I guess most people don't pay even the slightest bit of attention.

[Drak3]

The Hindenburg disaster is closer to being news than this is.

 

[Delicieuxz]

9 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I still don't know how any of this is surprising or even new information to people

Well, I don't know how people could be aware of these things, and yet there not be an overwhelming public opposition to these practices. And when a small bit of information comes out about what these companies are doing, there is significant public revulsion to it. That tells us that the 1) the public is overall not aware of these things, and 2) the public is vehemently opposed to them when they become aware of them.

 

Since the vehement public reaction to these practices is isolated to the few occasions that a bit of info is presented in mainstream new media, we can know that if the public was fully aware of what's going on, that they would demand a stop to these practices. Since we see that these practices are continued by Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and others, we can know that the public is not yet very aware that these practices are taking place by the major tech companies.

 

That means that the mission is to educate the public of these practices, that they are by nature exploitative, pervasive, anti-privacy, and arrogant. Once the public is educated, then I think we can then expect to insist there be a stop to these practices.

[divito]

4 minutes ago, AresKrieger said:

Well if we are sharing general scummy facebook practices did you know the Facebook phone app tracks your location and can tell if you've been in various retail stores for the sake of targeted advertising, this is also the reason the app drains excessive battery when compared to most apps even while not being directly used.

So does Google, and a ton of other apps. 

[Guest The Viking]

???? Since when is this news? This is like 2 years old news. Resurfaced few weeks ago, a Belgian court condemned Facebook for these trackers. They'll be paying 250K/day, up to 100 million euros, until they stop tracking everybody with cookies. Facebook has filed an appeal, so it's pending. 

[AresKrieger]

5 minutes ago, divito said:

So does Google, and a ton of other apps. 

Not a ton but yes it isn't just facebook, any affiliated with a major company who primarily makes funds without actually selling anything and MS. Though the facebook app is the most notorious for it.

 

Not that the fact they are not alone changes the fact it is shady and should stop.

[mr moose]

I know plenty of average non tech savvy users who are in both camps, some are acutely aware that something fishy is going on because the ads they get are way to targeted to not have personal information (i.e from txt,/email that is). Whilst others are completely oblivious.  And on top of that those who are oblivious don't care so long as they can still share pictures of cats doing funny things.

[Kamina]

"Please enable cookies"

 

Also, block trackers with ghostery. Google does the same thing.

[Zodiark1593]

39 minutes ago, The Viking said:

???? Since when is this news? This is like 2 years old news. Resurfaced few weeks ago, a Belgian court condemned Facebook for these trackers. They'll be paying 250K/day, up to 100 million euros, until they stop tracking everybody with cookies. Facebook has filed an appeal, so it's pending. 

Only 100 million? That's pretty much pocket change for the CEO. He may as well just cut a check and a middle finger to the Belgian courts.

[DrMacintosh]

Isn’t this just what every website that uses cookies does? 

[Guest The Viking]

38 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Only 100 million? That's pretty much pocket change for the CEO. He may as well just cut a check and a middle finger to the Belgian courts.

there's a maximum allowed by the law. In Spain, Facebook only got 300K per fault when the spanish court said it wasn't legal to share info between whatsapp and Facebook, because 300K was the max.

 

But this is still 100 million max-for Belgium. Whatever way you view it, it's a lot of money. Sure, sure, for Facebook it's not much, but what else do you want them to do? 1 billion? even 1 billion is pocket change for half these companies.

[Guest The Viking]

5 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Isn’t this just what every website that uses cookies does? 

 

they didn't put this with clear indication. 

[Arika]

15 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Isn’t this just what every website that uses cookies does? 

except the cookies aren't obtained from the facebook website, it's any site that has a facebook element like the "share" and "like" buttons of which you cant avoid in most cases and also there is no consent to accept the cookies, they just do it.

[DrMacintosh]

15 minutes ago, The Viking said:

 

they didn't put this with clear indication. 

Doesn't seem that big of a deal to me. 

[Guest The Viking]

41 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Doesn't seem that big of a deal to me. 

All websites are forced, by law to to tell the visitor whether they use cookies or not. You can limit yourself to just use a basic, generic message like that one, OR you can put a full message with a link to a section of the site where you explain what you collect, track & do with the data, which major websites will do.

 

Facebook was using cookies without notifying users that those cookies were there. End of the story.

 

I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is illegal.