

Facebook is starting to track your mouse cursor. Here is what you should know. - basez99
http://www.reactful.com/articles/facebook-will-now-pay-attention-to-digital-body-language

======
ColinWright
Another site with a major usability issue. The black banner over the top is
not considered when you click the scroll bar, so as a result there may be text
neither at the bottom of one page, nor at the top of the next. Instead, it's
hidden under that black bar, and only visible if you click the line-by-line
scroll function.

Do you do this? Are you aware of the problem?

~~~
basez99
Hi Colin,

Thanks for your comment. I'm not sure I totally get it though. When you
scroll, text goes under the bar but it looks normal to me. Could you
elaborate?

~~~
ColinWright
Click in the slidey section of the scroll bar, or hit Page Down, or hit the
space bar. The page doesn't move by a line or two, but pages. What was
previously just off the bottom is now at the top of the page, obscured by the
black bar.

I'm currently using a mobile on a train and cannot take screenshots, and won't
be home again until Thursday. If you need me to then I will try to create
screen shots in those brief moments when I'm usig a machine and have 'net
access. If you can't reproduce the problem, send me email.

Do others not have this problem?

------
masterofmasters
Sensationalist. A blog citing another blog citing a Wall Street Journal
article citing a quote from a Facebook employee who probably was just giving
examples of data that could be tracked. Decide for yourself.

"The social network may start collecting data on minute user interactions with
its content, such as how long a user’s cursor hovers over a certain part of
its website, or whether a user’s newsfeed is visible at a given moment on the
screen of his or her mobile phone, Facebook analytics chief Ken Rudin said
Tuesday during an interview."

------
greenyoda
Monitoring mouse movements might disclose some very personal information about
a user, such as whether they suffer from a neurological impairment like
Parkinson's disease.

~~~
tachyonbeam
Or that they own a cat.

------
danso
Why does FB need this data? Isn't it enough that they track clicks, and they
(should) know exactly where that link or button is placed in the user's
current viewport?

I guess scrolling is important to know, in terms of how much time you spend
looking at what's currently visible in the view port, and that the number of
times you trigger the infinite scrolling is not granular enough to figure out
which of the previous 10 items you spent the most time on (and didn't click
through).

~~~
basez99
Hi Danso,

It's because it is a complete new data stream that let's it gain a much deeper
understanding of it's visitors and thus optimize their website.

