Facebook Cookies Track Users After Signing Out

Facebook has come into yet more scrutiny this week because it was declared that Facebook was tracking users after they signed out of Facebook. It was spotted by an Australian blogger who had been researching cookies with the website and noticed that it was possible for Facebook to track the online movements of users but only if they visit Facebook related or integrated websites. Since coming into knowledge, The Australian privacy commissioner is said investigating the issue as well as facebook itself taking actions to resolving it and preventing it happening again.

A spokesman for Facebook spoke to the BBC about this issue,

“There was no security or privacy breach—Facebook did not store or use any information it should not have. Three of these cookies on some users’ computers inadvertently included unique identifiers when the user had logged out of Facebook. However, we did not store these identifiers for logged out users. Therefore, we could not have used this information for tracking or any other purpose. In addition, we fixed the cookies so that they won’t include unique information in the future when people log out”.- Courtesy of BBC Online

Bad Timing?

Facebook where quick to look into the cookie issue and resolve it. Being the biggest website/ network in the world, they have to act quick in these situations to save face after all. They also say the data was not used for questionable reasons and without evidence, who are we to say whether that’s true or not. However, with so many complaints over the newfangled Facebook website changes, as well as continuous issues with over complicated and not always secure privacy settings, is Facebook making too many changes and loosing sight of what it was created for? Just a simple and fun social network where people can easily and safely connect? Or is it just a run of bad luck that could happen to any business who is trying its best to move forward and expand? Would be great to hear you thoughts.

~Articles mentioned in this post: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15091674

~Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajc1