“Facebook collects all content that is typed into its website, even if it is not posted, a tech consultant has discovered,” Ben Rossi reports for Information Age.
“In December 2013, it was reported that Facebook plants code in browsers that returns metadata every time somebody types out a status update or comment but deletes it before posting,” Rossi reports. “At the time, Facebook maintained that it only received information indicating whether somebody had deleted an update or comment before posting it, and not exactly what the text said.”
“However, Príomh Ó hÚigínn, a tech consultant based in Ireland, has claimed this is not the case after inspecting Facebook’s network traffic through a developer tool and screencasting software. ‘I realised that any text I put into the status update box was sent to Facebook’s servers, even if I did not click the post button,’ he wrote on his blog yesterday,” Rossi reports. “He found that a HTTP post request was sent to Facebook each time he wrote out a status, containing the exact text he entered.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Facebook. Taking creepitude to a whole new level.
Let’s be careful out there.
Related articles:
European Commission: Don’t use Facebook if you don’t want to be spied on – March 27, 2015
Facebook, Google, and Amazon are getting even creepier – December 9, 2014
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014
Tim Berners-Lee: You should own your personal data, not Google, Facebook, Amazon, and advertisers – October 8, 2014
How to hide Twitter, Facebook buttons in iOS 8 sharing panel – October 2, 2014
Facebook’s scary Messenger app highlights iOS security vs. Android security – August 8, 2014
Facebook conducts massive psychology experiment on 700,000 unaware users, and you may have been a guinea pig – June 28, 2014
Why Apple really values your privacy – unlike Google, Facebook, or Amazon – June 25, 2014
U.S. NSA used Facebook to hack into computers – March 12, 2014
How to permanently delete your Facebook account – December 16, 2013
All the complaints against governments and banks, etc. not protecting your privacy, but so few complain about Facebook. They are the worst!
Don’t use Facebook. Facebook is the new MySpace.
It’s likely that they request the data for a variety of reasons, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they keep that. It’s likely done for performance reasons or other reasons. Just like when you type something into Google.com it gets sent immediately to their servers. You can also easily track mouse movements on any website and send that to your servers.
That Facebook is getting this information isn’t really that surprising. It’s like walking into a bank and thinking that since you’re not at the teller, you’re not being recorded on video.
Why did people vote down such an intelligent response here?
Because it’s bullshit.
you’d be surprised what people vote down, Thelonious.
For example, I posted the results of an EGG analysis carefully adjusted +-BUN the other day for AAPL’s BACN vs OMLT trajectories into the next 4 quarters, the type of stuff usually provided only behind pricey paywalls.
I am still scratching my head while after some 25 votes, the post only showed 2 and a half stars.
I’m guessing Microsoft trolls invaded the site that day.
Funny.
Biggest spying tool in the world.
There is a difference. As always with corporations, YOU decide whether or not to patronize them. You should always assume that any information you give a corporation of any sort, not just Facebook, is not safe. With governments, your information is simply taken without your permission. You have no INDIVIDUAL ability to stop them. They however have all the power in the world when it comes to punitive actions against you.
WOW!!………..creepy doesn’t even begin to describe that BS…..thankfulllllly I don’t use FB…..
another reason not to use.
Shocking. (As Gruber would say.)
Yup. (As Dalrymple would say.)
More like “yep”
actually:
“Shocker”
dd
Keyloggers use to be considered malicious.
Thanks for the inside information. From now on all my FB post will be about my daily Bowel Movements in graphic details with HDR photos included. 💩🙊
Ah for a minute I thought that Facebook collects all the text you typed but decided against posting when in fact it is limited to the content that is typed into its website. I’m sure the NSA is breathing a collective sigh of relief that they are not redundant.
I hate FB but I hate MacDailyNews’ FB page more. Very contradictory. No G+, no FB, Twitter maybe. Remove this asap.
Dam FB
Yet another reason I’m happy never to have signed up with FB.
Also reminds me of something Tim Cook said when they introduced Apple Pay. He was talking about not collecting data, and told somebody, “You are not our product.”
FB is going to challenge Go ogle for doing the most evil.
It sure seems like they’re aspiring to that dubious distinction
Well, that’s not creepy at all (by which I mean it really, really is),
Pretty screwed up !
People are still using Facebook? I mean, isn’t ZuckEd a complete douche?
This is outrageous of Facebook.
The alternative of course is to write up all posts in a text editing application then paste it into lousy, disrespectful Facebook.
OR
Do NOT use Facebook.
OR
Have fun with this BS and paste/type in MEGABYTES of expletives aimed at Facebook before you paste/type in what you decide to post.
I assume this disgusting behavior by Facebook is supposed to help their MARKETING MORONS collect further information about a person’s purchasing interests. But this is entirely WITHOUT the user’s consent and therefore constitutes a VIOLATION OF PRIVACY.
FSCK-U Facebook for diving into the sewer of bad marketing.