Logging out of Facebook is not enough
by Volker Weber
Facebook knows every account that has accessed Facebook from every browser and is using that information to suggest friends to you.
Comments
That's frightening. I wonder if Google and Twitter do the same. When I'm logged out (and to be fair I'm rarely logged out from Google) I don't want any connection at that time. Else I wouldn't log out ...
These are the super cookies.
In other breaking news, Google, Facebook, and other "free" sites want to monetize your privacy.
I'm alright with that as long as I opt in = log in, Craig. When I log out I'm opting out right in that moment and not to respect that is not about business and monetizing, it's borderline criminal.
If this really helps provide better / more focused suggestions, I'm all for it.
They can as well build profiles for users who haven't signed up (yet). Tracking known but logged-off-users on everybody else's site with like/+1/whatever buttons is not that different. It's technically feasible and it could help paying the bills - is it really that much of a surprise?
Deleting cookies (and cache!) and resetting your ADSL router (in order to get a fresh IP adress) might be futile. With todays customizable browsers, verbose http headers and geolocation via IP address they can at least try to identify your machine. Even a 50% propability would help increasing conversion rates of better focused ads. You don't have to be sure to monetize someones privacy.
All by itself this information hasn't got much value. Question is what other data hogs are doing. I am tired, so I won't start fiddler right now, but could be an option for tomorrow.
I stopped using facebook more than 2 years ago now. It just felt "dirty" that I didn't know who was able to access my information, and the kid (who never wears a collared shirt), was standing at the top of a large pile of money overseeing this. You know this is not going to end well.
"Surprise"!
Ich muss hier jedoch mehr schreiben als ein Wort, um nicht gelöscht zu werden.
Mich überrascht das beschriebene Vorgehen allerdings überhaupt nicht. Die Annahme, dass "Ausloggen" gleichbedeutend mit dem Löschen aller Cookies sei, ist zwar ein ein wünschenswertes Verhalten, aber erwartet hätte ich das nicht, weder von Gugel noch Amazon noch von irgendeinem Online-Shop. Es gibt eigentlich keine Alternative dazu, Cokkies massiv zu blocken oder bestimmte Seiten komplett zu meiden.
If you are using Firefox there is an add-on that will remove at least some of the supercookies. Google "BetterPrivacy".
An old "geek and poke" comic sums it up a little.
If you want to surf private. Save a clean VM and use a new copy every day/session/login...