We were having a beer talk and have something to clear out.
Is the following conclusion correct:
When I put a facebook-like-button-box on my page, does facebook know
- every time I'm on that page, even if i'm not logged in.
- basically the same as google analytics
- if this nis correct, it should be possible to sandbox, the like-button until someone will use it. Then facebook gets only informations when the user actively confirms that.
cheers endo
- No, they can't directly track you if you are not logged in and you view an external "like" button. They can, however, set a tracking cookie that identifies you when you sign in, which would allow them to match the tracking data in the current session to you.
- One of Facebook's primary revenue streams comes from the analysis and sale of market trend information. They can analyse the likes and comment keywords of certain user clusters (e.g. middle-aged American females, teenagers in college, etc) and use these to produce statistics about market patterns and trends. They can also use keyword analysis to tell a company how many people are talking about something, e.g. "how many people have mentioned my latest blockbuster film?"
- You could simply move the image and JavaScript code away from the Facebook servers and host it locally to avoid them from tracking your users.
In pre-emption of the "FACEBOOK = EVIL" arguments:
In the end, though, is it really a big issue? Some people see Facebook as this massive life-infringing uncaring supercorporation, but in reality they're just making a buck through completely anonymous statistics. No human being (or sentient robot) views your preferences, browser tracking data, or personal information. Everything is anonymised and turned into a bunch of numbers relating to a group. Sure, they could screw everyone over and be evil, but why bother when you already make that much money legitimately?