Facebook: Is the LIKE button used to collect data from your PC or Cell Phone?

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JerArdra

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Mar 3, 2005
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The November 2016 issue of Consumer Reports had an extensive article named: "66 Ways to Protect Your Privacy Right Now," on pages 24-37.

Item #56 titled: "Block Snoops" refers to Facebook and I know lots of you folks are on Facebook. 

Privacy Item 56 said, Do you hate ads that steamroll over a web page?  That's not the half of it.  Many of these ads along with webpage elements such as the Facebook "LIKE" button, send information about your online activity to their data-collecting masters.

Item 56 went on to say. These ads aren't like billboards that just sit by the side of the road.  They are live code being run by people your don't know and should not trust.

I certainly did not know that the "LIKE" button could be used as a data collecting instrument. 

May I suggest that you go to a Library and get a photocopy of this article. 

JerryF
 
You don't have to "LIKE" it - even clicking on an item to view it further will capture the fact that you were interested enough to visit the page.  All those contests, trivia and Gee Whiz! items are designed to get you to visit or Like a page so they can learn who you are ans what you are interested in. That info is then sold to marketing companies who may target you with ads they feel might be of attractive to you.  A "LIKE" suggests a greater level of interest than a mere page visit, so is more valuable to the marketeers.

You should assume that everything you do on the net is noted by someone/something. You may be sitting at home, but it is a public venue and equivalent to dancing in the streets.
 
Don't you just wonder how you can search for something on Amazon and pop up ads show up on Facebook for items you searched for.
 
jhskick said:
Don't you just wonder how you can search for something on Amazon and pop up ads show up on Facebook for items you searched for.


Look up "web beacons."  Short of surfing the web in text mode, and reading all email in text only mode, every click is noted. Even when you simply delete an email without reading, the beacon has likely noted your IP address, the fact that your address is a good one, and both are then cross referenced against your other activity.
 
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