This is shocking!
Whenever someone used to ask me about Facebook and privacy, I used to answer that what was wrong with it. How anyone could expect privacy while being on Facebook when he/she opted to put all his/her private information on the website. And the reaction used to be like "Yeah you do not know the definition of privacy".
I just have a personal opinion. I consider privacy as some thing about me that is only shared with in me. Well that is quite an ideal scenario that can only exist in theory.
Anyway, getting back to the point. Here is a simple experiment that revealed something quite interesting about Facebook privacy problem to me.
I bought this very laptop from an old friend of mine. He actually spends a lot of time online and loves reading blogs and technology news (I think he hates my efforts on blogging). Before handing it over to me, He deleted his personal data, temporary internet files and deleted his history/browser cache. He even uninstalled the Firefox that was installed on this machine prior to this version that I am using right now. And when he was sure that nothing had been left behind, he handed it over to me. I later had to ask him to get me Firefox for the system as I loved it. He installed the version 4 again and told me to update it when I have enough time. I agreed but I never had the chance to update it.
However, yesterday while browsing a website, I stumbled upon a shocking revelation that although I was yet to sign in to my Facebook account on my fresh laptop, I had that website's FB app recognize me as my friend and in fact it was inviting me to post a comment through my friend's FB account.
This reveals to me that there is something more than cookies used by Facebook to store users' information and later identify them. I am not sure but I am again of the thought that FB apps are still a big threat to privacy and that FB is using illicit tactics to track users on internet. So if you want to stay private, may be staying a little away from Facebook will help.
Whenever someone used to ask me about Facebook and privacy, I used to answer that what was wrong with it. How anyone could expect privacy while being on Facebook when he/she opted to put all his/her private information on the website. And the reaction used to be like "Yeah you do not know the definition of privacy".
I just have a personal opinion. I consider privacy as some thing about me that is only shared with in me. Well that is quite an ideal scenario that can only exist in theory.
Anyway, getting back to the point. Here is a simple experiment that revealed something quite interesting about Facebook privacy problem to me.
I bought this very laptop from an old friend of mine. He actually spends a lot of time online and loves reading blogs and technology news (I think he hates my efforts on blogging). Before handing it over to me, He deleted his personal data, temporary internet files and deleted his history/browser cache. He even uninstalled the Firefox that was installed on this machine prior to this version that I am using right now. And when he was sure that nothing had been left behind, he handed it over to me. I later had to ask him to get me Firefox for the system as I loved it. He installed the version 4 again and told me to update it when I have enough time. I agreed but I never had the chance to update it.
However, yesterday while browsing a website, I stumbled upon a shocking revelation that although I was yet to sign in to my Facebook account on my fresh laptop, I had that website's FB app recognize me as my friend and in fact it was inviting me to post a comment through my friend's FB account.
This reveals to me that there is something more than cookies used by Facebook to store users' information and later identify them. I am not sure but I am again of the thought that FB apps are still a big threat to privacy and that FB is using illicit tactics to track users on internet. So if you want to stay private, may be staying a little away from Facebook will help.
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