Facebook's privacy climbdown won't limit its power

For those who follow the Facebook’s misadventures in the privacy arena, its latest climbdown will come as no surprise. Coming on the heels of a major increase in the amount it aims to learn about its users, it could be a sign of bigger battles ahead.

For privacy advocates, the hero of the latest controversy was Nik Cubrilovic, an Australian technology entrepreneur and self-described “hacker”, in his case meaning he enjoys innocently tinkering with computer software.

Mr Cubrilovic discovered that Facebook had adopted an unusual definition of what it meant for users to log out of its services. By investigating its “cookies” – the small files delivered by virtually all websites to web browsers to store log in details, the contents of shopping carts and more – he found that after Facebook users log out, the website is still able to track their browsing on other websites.    Read More

Posted in: Technology