YosemiteSam
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A researcher from a Dutch university is warning that Facebook's 'Like This' button is watching your every move.
Arnold Roosendaal, who is a doctoral candidate at the Tilburg University for Law, Technology and Society, warns that Facebook is tracking and tracing everyone, whether they use the social networking site or not.
Roosendaal says that Facebook's tentacles reach way beyond the confines of its own web sites and subscriber base because more and more third party sites are using the 'Like This' button and Facebook Connect.
The researcher provides three examples of how the 'Like This' button on any web page can gather user browser data and send it back to Facebook.
The first scenario involves users who already have Facebook accounts:
"When the account is created, Facebook issues a cookie containing a unique user ID," writes Roosendaal. "This cookie facilitates the display of a username in the login field at returning visits. When accessing Facebook from another device, a temporary cookie is issued, which is replaced by a cookie with the same ID after logging into the account."
This allows different devices to be connected to one account carrying the same ID cookie. Every time the user visits Facebook, the cookie is sent together with the HTTP request for the site. As a result, Facebook knows who wants to log in before the login has taken place.
But the cookie is not only sent when a member wants to log on to Facebook, it is also sent every single time a web site which includes the 'Like' button is visited.
Complete Story
Arnold Roosendaal, who is a doctoral candidate at the Tilburg University for Law, Technology and Society, warns that Facebook is tracking and tracing everyone, whether they use the social networking site or not.
Roosendaal says that Facebook's tentacles reach way beyond the confines of its own web sites and subscriber base because more and more third party sites are using the 'Like This' button and Facebook Connect.
The researcher provides three examples of how the 'Like This' button on any web page can gather user browser data and send it back to Facebook.
The first scenario involves users who already have Facebook accounts:
"When the account is created, Facebook issues a cookie containing a unique user ID," writes Roosendaal. "This cookie facilitates the display of a username in the login field at returning visits. When accessing Facebook from another device, a temporary cookie is issued, which is replaced by a cookie with the same ID after logging into the account."
This allows different devices to be connected to one account carrying the same ID cookie. Every time the user visits Facebook, the cookie is sent together with the HTTP request for the site. As a result, Facebook knows who wants to log in before the login has taken place.
But the cookie is not only sent when a member wants to log on to Facebook, it is also sent every single time a web site which includes the 'Like' button is visited.
Complete Story
