re: #36 Alexzander

Is Facebook tracking users based on their IP or something similar? Or do you mean with respect to anonymity on the internet in general?

They can only directly track the IP’s of people visiting FB. But, many websites have widgets embedded in them, as Charles just mentioned, that allow the website to scan your FB cookies and track who you are. Of course, this also means they could tell FB where you are, and this information could in turn be sold to third parties.

So yea, potentially FB could be a gigantic people-tracking database that extends far beyond what you reveal when you are just on FB itself. But, it is a process you can short-circuit by not associating logins at other sites with FB, deleting cookies, and generally being paranoid.

Regardless, it’s pretty freaking stupid that you have to be that knowledgeable about computers (and paranoid to boot) to be able to protect personal information.