Viewing posts written in December, 2007

Facebook Datamining

Dec 17, 07

Science & Tech

tags

, ,

We all know that Facebook has not had the best track record in the privacy department, with employees viewing profiles for fun, showing your profile to an employer, and having reserved the right to use your information at will. But apparently a new feature goes beyond all that, and actually collects information about your activity on other websites.

The new feature is the Facebook Beacon, you may have noticed it on your feed, something of the form “Jane Doe has played Pacman at Retroarcade”. If you have played a game at any website that uses the Beacon, you would have seen a Facebook-style pop-up at the bottom right corner of the screen, telling you that it is sending the information [of what your playing] to your Facebook profile. As with most Facebook features, there is, of course, a privacy option on it.

But that, apparently, isn’t enough.