Facebook follows you in even more ways than you think

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That we are closely followed by Facebook is now widely known, but now that the social media giant has answered to questions posed in the American congress that it all goes much further than we all thought.

These are some of the ways Mark Zuckerberg & Co. follow us on the internet, all taken from the 222 pages document that has been forwarded to Congress. We already knew part of these tracking methods, but if you put it all together you will see that there is very little secret for Facebook.

This tracks Facebook all

  • Your mouse movements are all followed, so Facebook knows for sure that you are not a robot. What happens with it is not clear
  • Facebook can also see if your window is in the foreground or background. This is also intended as anti-robot technology, but can also be used to see how fast you stop using Facebook – and where.
  • Your device is completely watched: how full is your battery, how good is your connection and how much place you still have things to store.
  • It looks at which operating system you use, which browser, which plugins are installed there and which filenames you use.
  • It goes on: Facebook knows who your provider is, both mobile and at home, your IP address, your cookie data, which time zone you are in and of course how fast your internet is.
  • It is absolutely insane that Facebook also looks at other devices on your network in some cases, in order to “to help with, for example, streaming video to your TV.”
  • Facebook can see what is connected to your device via Bluetooth.
  • The same applies to your network: all Wi-Fi points in the neighborhood are shown to Facebook and the app can see which mobile towers are nearby. That includes your GPS location, by the way.
  • Your camera information and photos can also be viewed if you do not switch off in your settings.
  • If you are on Android and have your device synchronized you are texting – and call logs too. We already knew that.
  • All the games, apps and accounts you use are logged.
  • To top it off, Facebook can also use your ‘online and offline actions’ and third-party purchases

So much?!?

Yes, so much. Facebook actually looks as good as anything you do with your smartphone or computer. It is almost absurd how much data they have about their users, which makes it possible to fingerprint to infinity. Fingerprinting is indeed recognizing and following users through their system, a process that Apple is trying to counter with the new changes in Mac OS Mojave.

It also explains for a large part why Facebook can so effectively target advertisers although they say they do not. However, it mainly puts into perspective how much we have to give of ourselves to know what our friends are doing. Is it worth it? You should actually conclude that it is not, because this is ridiculous. And that is just what they want to admit immediately. In any case, it is worthwhile to take a look at what you have an influence on when it comes to sharing your data with Facebook. In five minutes this is significantly less.

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