Question

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

Answer 1

1. 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.
2. 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?”
3. 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?