Sunday, October 2, 2011

Facebook: Outright lies or pure misunderstanding?

Mike Arrington took the facebook cookie-tracking-while-logged-out issue to the next level when he compiled a set of links on his blog with a title "Facebook: Brutal Dishonesty", a twist to his previous blog post, "Brutal Honesty."

Just days after facebook's big f8 conference, resident hacker Nik Cubric dished the dirt on the 800+ million strong social network, asserting that facebook keeps track of its users even when logged out with a little cookie magic.

Despite denying this fact, facebook tweaked the behavior of its cookies and tried to explain whatever it is that is happening under the hood, working with Mr. Cubric to take a shot at fixing the problems. There's still one tiny little fact that you should know though, Facebook still retains the ability to track browsers  and not users for security, spam and performance purposes. Want a quick fix? Clear those cookies on your browser from time to time.

Now if using this cookies adds a layer of security or improve my browsing experience and all that during my time on the site then fine, but I won't be too trusting. After all, facebook has not been brutally honest to us as of late.