Did you know that facebook is tracking your every move on the internet when you log in without your consent? Even when you log out the third party social applications are still tracking you. Facebook has denied this claim but regardless of who you believe there are some steps you can take to ensure your privacy.
When you “Like” something, you’re sending that application a lot of your internet information to this third party. Most people are completely unaware this happens. One way to avoid this is to avoid liking anything on Facebook.
Another good strategy is to logout as soon as you’re finished using Facebook. However as previously mentioned, if you do like any third party applications on Facebook, you’re not safe. You can also enter private browsing (Firefox) or open an incognito window (Chrome) whenever using google or Facebook.
The best way to stop your privacy from being invaded without too much effort is to download the Disconnect application for Chrome users. This application “disables tracking by third parties like Digg, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Yahoo without any setup or significantly degrading the usability of the web.”
Facebook hasn’t been a “service” to it’s general users for at least 5 years now, it’s been a marketing resource with us as commodities up for trade; our interests, demographics, and networking circles are used for direct marketing. This is generating huge revenues for Facebook but also raising ethical issues. If you’re concerned about your privacy take action and protect yourself
Facebook is Watching You
Interesting post, Scott. I actually appreciate you putting this kind of information up to increase awareness because I’m often really oblivious to things like this. I definitely think it’s important to be aware of what we’re getting ourselves into when we mindlessly log in to platforms like Facebook multiple times a day, every day of the week. I don’t think I can condemn Facebook from doing what they’re doing though, as much as I value my privacy and don’t think it’s necessarily right. They have a gold mine before them, gathering invaluable real-time information about their billions of users – of course they’ll do what they can to make money off this. That, I think, is the direction that marketing is taking now anyway – using technology to track every movement of the consumer, whether they are aware of it or not, to really understand exactly who each person is and therefore be able to create highly targeted and customized marketing tactics that are tailored to each person. It works, that’s why they do it. But it’s definitely a scary thought.
Thanks for your post Scott! I ended up checking out your linked page and downloaded the app to prevent anymore spying on behalf of Facebook.
You should check out this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FA-2tLehQc
It is a bit outdated but interesting. People always say just be careful with what you put on Facebook but they don’t realize Facebook mines all sorts of data without us knowing!
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