PC World – Facebook Admits Ad Service Tracks Logged-Off Users
Facebook’s controversial Beacon ad system tracks users’ off-Facebook activities even if those users are logged off from the social-networking site and have previously declined having their activities on specific external sites broadcast to their Facebook friends, a company spokesman said via e-mail over the weekend.
Ok, let me get this straight. You’re not using the service but it is spying on you anyway. That’s spyware, plain and simple. I guess the users agreed to it in the Terms of Use. Now I’m glad I never installed it.
Why is there so much surprise? Social Networking should really be called Social Marketing. As Dvorak says in his pcmag.com column, the whole purpose is to gather data about you, and use it to identify things that can be sold to you.
This is America. Making money is our primary function. Is there really any more compelling motive for doing anything?