Mother Davis wipes the grime of the morning from her cheeks with a warm washcloth as she warns,
If you are a member of Facebook, but don’t want people snooping on your private life, cancel your account now. Then, wipe all the “cookies” placed on your computer by your web browsers.
Last week, our writer Peregrin celebrated MoveOn’s work in pushing Facebook to end its program of displaying the private activities of Facebook users to their social network. The broadcasts Facebook users’ activities included purchases and other uses of web sites outside of Facebook – when Facebook users would have no idea that they were being tracked.
Facebook has agreed to make the public display of this information something that Facebook users have to opt in to. That’s a positive change, but a dark system remains underneath it.
PC World reports that, in spite of the agreement to stop displaying people’s private activities without explicit permission, Facebook will still be tracking people’s activities without their knowledge of it: “Beacon will report back to Facebook on members’ activities on third-party sites that participate in Beacon even if the users are logged off from Facebook and have declined having their activities broadcast to their Facebook friends.”
Read that again. Even if you opt out of the Facebook system for exposing your private activities, and even if you log out of your Facebook account, you will still be tracked as you move throughout the Internet.
Consider that the Bush White House has been demanding that private companies give their databases of private customer activities to government spy agencies, for the sake of surveillance. If you’re using Facebook, you’re making yourself especially vulnerable to government spying.
If letting corporations and the government know all about your private life – where you go, what you read, what you buy – is okay with you, then stay on Facebook. Otherwise, be warned.
Putting on her poker face again,
Mother Davis
Don’t blame facebook, blame beacon. blame the sites that opt in to beacon.
and stop cruising around with javascript on. my favorite analogy here is that javascript turns your browser into a convertible. Javascript on? top is down. yes, it’s nice to have a convertible. the sun on your face, teh wind in your hair… but if you don’t know when it’s going to start raining, or who’s throwing bathwater out their apartment window, or you have your wallet out, you probably want the top up.
most people who have convertibles (that I know, anyway) keep the top up, most of the time. they lower it when they want the benefits. Treat JS like that. cruise with it off. turn it on when you need it, and trust the neighborhood.
these days, there is no operating system for which you can’t install two separate browsers, or even three. when you need the top down, but don’t trust the neighborhood, go get your truck — fire up a different browser that you never put anything personal in, or are willing to scrub down completely and immediately.
just my two cents.
That’s good advice, Vynce. Which browser would you recommend for maximum security?