
Facebook denies cookie tracking allegations - revorad
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-denies-cookie-tracking-allegations/4044
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Someone
Can anybody tell me how a cookie on my computer would help:

"the logged out cookies are used for safety and protection including:
identifying spammers and phishers"

How would that work?

"detecting when somebody unauthorized is trying to access your account"

I can see how that would prevent anybody to log in from another system, but
how would ey separate a user doing that from a villain?

"helping you get back into your account if you get hacked"

How would that work?

"disabling registration for a under-age users who try to re-register with a
different birthdate"

How would that work while at the same time allowing shared computers (as cited
below)?

"powering account security features such as 2nd factor login approvals and
notification"

How would that work?

"and identifying shared computers to discourage the use of “keep me logged
in.”"

That I can understand to be a feature, but why would it require more than a
'someone logged into Facebook from this account on this computer' flag?
Certainly, it would not require storing a user ID?

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Saavedro
Even if Facebook -was- not completely clearing your UID it's not like it's
impossible for them to track you. If Facebook -wanted- to track you without
your consent IP + User Agent is likely plenty unique for that purpose.

But hey, finding malicious intent in anything Facebook does is cool these
days, I guess.

~~~
Angostura
"Malicious" is a term that _you've_ just applied.

An alternative way of phrasing it might be "applying some skepticism to
Facebook's approach to privacy.

I don't think that such skepticism has anything to do with being "cool", I
think it's warranted - Facebook's valuation is largely based on the value of
teh data it holds and its ability to to track and analyse user behaviour.

The original article merely points out that logging out doesn't actually
effect Facebook's ability to track & analyse, so why should we assume that it
voluntarily throws away an important data collection opportunity?

~~~
sixtofour
"... Facebook's valuation is largely based on the value of teh data it holds
..."

For Facebook's larger investors, I've been wondering what kind of access or
other benefit they (may) gain, beyond ROI.

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Slimy
I don't believe Facebook is doing anything malicious, but it can never hurt to
do a little investigation.

