Posted on 06/20/2011 12:34:57 PM PDT by libertarian27
I just noticed the facebook-Like icon on the new article posts - or am I seeing things?
Crap....I have a fake facebook page - so they are tracking even though I rarely sign in at facebook?
The reason for the ‘like’ button is twofold:
- search engine optimization building back links from social network sites
- more traffic from Facebook
Smart move for both reasons by FR.
That’s what it is, i.e. firewall. I can see it on my Android phone.
If I were to use the like feature, the link to the Freerepublic article would appear on my Facebook wall and any and all of my friends could click on the link and be brought to the Freerepublic article.
This would increase traffic to Freerepublic, increase awareness of the website, and be able to increase the influence of Conservatism.
And,
More Spam.
More privacy invasion.
It sends links to the FR article to anyone who follows you on those sites.
If you have ever gotten an email from a friend that links to political info or article, its basically the same thing only now its done with one click. No cutting and pasting the URL, no opening your email account, etc etc. One click and the info is shared to all your friends and those that follow you.
I don’t see it which is fine by me.
Hey, the ‘Like’ button works - it shows 2 likes so far *snicker*
No, but it is used to track every page you go to that has it.
I run FireFox with the NoScript add-on. I don’t allow scripting from FreeRepublic.com or FaceBook.com, so I don’t see the button.
If I enable scripting from both FR and FB, the button shows up.
I have never joined Facebook, never will, but I do subscribe to Sarah Palin's Note page through RSS.
Is that why the FB Like-button is showing up for me? What else are they tracking on my computer?
that was a funny thread....I’m hopefully not in that wondering territory:>)
OK, like then like you are saying the ‘like’ button has always like been there? like-lol
libertarian27 wrote:
Crap....I have a fake facebook page - so they are tracking even though I rarely sign in at facebook?
Well, web servers (all web servers) tend to log all accesses. So they get a log entry of which image file you requested, your IP address and what the referring page was (that would be the thread here on Free Republic). For most high speed connections, the IP address is fairly close to static. It doesn't change often. For dialup of cell connections, it usually changes every time you connect/reconnect.
The other item of note is that anytime you make any requests to a web server, if you have cookies that are valid for that server, your browser automagically present those cookies, even to get an image file that is displayed on another page. The server may or may not log the information in the cookies (it's up to the administrators as to how they configure that). When you are logged in on FaceBook, you have a "session cookie" which identifies you and your account and the fact that you are logged in. I don't know whether they log this information, but most websites that sell advertising try to keep as much information as possible on their users to provide demographics and "smarter" advertising options to their paying advertisers.
So the short answer is that a lot of privacy is surrendered when we go to pages with a FaceBook logo and a "like" button. FaceBook has a lot of information available when they serve up the image file for that button. There is more information available, including identifying information, if you are logged into your FaceBook when you go to the page with the "FB" logo and "Like" button. Note that this information is sent and logged when you get the image for the button. There's another bunch of information sent when you click on the "like" button, but even going to a page that has the button on it and just seeing the button on your screen gives a great deal of information to FaceBook if you are logged in to FaceBook at the time you see the button.
I don’t suppose using a different browsers for Facebook and FR would help?
So, if I don’t sign in to my fake facebook page it’s not tracking anything directly to that identity?
(I don’t know why I’m worrying about a fake facebook page - but I worry :>) - I stripped info off of there as much as I could, but you never know.....)
“What you lookin at, Willis?”
Definately hugh but is it series?
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