<p>Any company with many people and complex software can make a mistake. Given the track record of Facebook, the dirty tricks they have used towards competitors, and the fact that the founder stole the idea for Facebook from the Winklevoss brothers, I just don’t buy it. Facebook is our new Big Brother.</p>
<p>I think google+ is gonna take over very soon. People started to really hate facebook because of such scandals. </p>
<p>some people - invluding my crazy American English teacher - even think that the " FBI " created Facebook so that they can track our lives and know all about us :S</p>
<p>So from those more tech savvy: can’t all these companies have cookies that do this? Why don’t most companies do this? Google for example? Do they? </p>
<p>I love facebook but hate and distrust the company. I couldn’t care less than my website visits are logged in among 750 million others in some dataset…but it’s the principle of the thing. Made worse by their ‘oops, we did that by accident’ argument when caught.</p>
<p>Even CC does this. I searched for something quite unusual the other day and now I have ads targeting that right on this page. I think we’re getting a little paranoid now.</p>
<p>Google does it. The earlier controversy re FB was that the “like” button could allow them access to info from those users as well. I don’t know what’s been cleaned up- at the time, I revisited my own privacy settings. You also want to check spokeo.</p>
<p>From Google: *Some ads are based primarily on your search queries or on the content of the page you’re viewing. When providing ads tailored to your interests, we offer useful tools for you to view and manage the information that is being collected and used to serve ads. To protect your privacy, we follow three principles when we serve ads: </p>
<p>•Transparency – We provide detailed information about our advertising policies and practices.
•Choice – We offer innovative ways to view, manage and opt out of advertising cookies and other anonymous IDs.
•No personally identifying information – We don’t collect or serve ads based on personally identifying information without your permission.*</p>
<p>The concern is that “permission” is often the default positon- you have to search out the blocks.</p>
<p>Note how there’s a FB connection on this page? Right under the horizontal menu bar.</p>
<p>Right, some of our ads are delivered by Google who does “retargeting.” Generally I don’t mind that as it sometimes serves as a reminder that I haven’t bought that item yet. The downside is that after you buy the grill you shopped for you see grill ads for weeks to come.</p>
<p>Is it the logging in issue what makes it special? I understand CC and many websites tailor ads based on your apparent interests (searching, key words used), but do they collect your search data from when you’ve been logged out? I rarely log off because I’m lazy so I really can’t tell. </p>
<p>One thing I don’t like about facebook is I go to a web page…and then I see a message on my facebook page that i like that web site. Actually…sometimes…I don’t.</p>
<p>A LOT of companies/websites do this. It’s another way to better their advertisements, to get more hits on those banners and ads that they get paid for. Frankly, you should’ve been able to tell for a while now that facebook was doing this by the ads on the sidebar (at least I could). It’s no coincidence when a website ad banner pops up with something you’re interested in, a related product to one you’ve bought or been shopping for, etc…</p>
<p>I don’t know how the widespread use of the offline tracking is…but considering how prolific tabs are in today’s browsers, I’d assume that most people just keep webpages open while they simply open a new tab.</p>
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<p>With facebook constantly evolving, I don’t see Google+ taking it over anytime soon. As someone who made the switch from Myspace to Facebook 5-6 years ago, it was mainly because of the exclusivity factor. It was something that only the college kids could use…and all the college kids used it. That exclusiveness seemed to help start the fire for everyone else wanting into the network. Then they finally made it public. Boom, everyone’s using facebook. And the people who weren’t were forced to if they wanted to keep up with their friends because no one was updated their Myspace anymore. </p>
<p>Facebook is connected with everything, you can link almost anything in the web to facebook, you can post constant status updates like Twitter, you can hyperlink other users/groups/interests…it’s just a seemless way of staying connected to your friends and family and to stay up to date with things going on.</p>
<p>Yeah Google+ is doing the invite only thing now…but they hand out invites like candy, and anyone can get an invite…it just doesn’t have the same exlusivity that facebook did when it first started. I have a Google+ account as well, but never use it. Maybe it’s just me, but there’s nothing that Google+ offers yet that will make me want to switch from facebook.</p>
<p>I just wish the FB folks would ask the FB USERS what kinds of changes they might or might not want to see on FB. The most recent set of changes is driving most folks (young and old) absolutely NUTS. Why do they make these changes…" Oh…I forgot…how else would they be able to keep those well compensated employees working.</p>
<p>As usual, Daily Mail doesn’t get it quite right. This article is a little more clear. If you don’t like what Facebook is doing, don’t use it. If you want to use it but don’t want the tracking, figure out how to delete the cookies or use something like Adblock Plus. </p>
<p>Logging into (or out of) CC has no effect on the Google ads. They use their own cookies to deliver ads to you across the Web.</p>
<p>I have mixed feelings about retargeting. It seems a little spooky on one hand, but on the other hand I’d prefer to see ads about stuff I’m interested in vs. acai berry products or mortgage deals.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t see how we can keep complaining about a free site that nobody is forcing you to use. If you poll the “users” first to see what they wanted, nothing would ever get changed. People are reluctant to change. It was slightly annoying when FB make that last update, but I have now gotten used to it and am fine with it. As my son pointed out: do we really want FB to look exactly like it did when it first started? For one, none of us would even be allowed on it and it has become quite a valuable tool for me.</p>
<p>Given the state of the economy, I view this as a good thing. I’ll deal with FB design changes if it means more people are employed. Honestly, Zuckerberg can make as many changes as he wants as long as he keeps hiring people to do it.</p>
<p>The cookies that follow us everywhere is NOT a FB-only thing – it is done by a lot of websites.</p>
<p>You do not have to log into Google to use the search engine. If you wish to log into Google services and use Google Chrome browser you can use the incognito window of Chrome which prevents Google from tracking your web history. Google Chrome also lets you clear your history and cookies, etc. Google does NOT give me the creeps. </p>
<p>You have to log into Facebook. Once you are logged in you might expect Facebook to know what you are doing. But once you log out, it should be none of Facebook’s business what web pages you visit. Facebook gives me the creeps.</p>