Facebook’s New ‘Clear History’ Tool Hits A Legal Roadblock Over Criminal Evidence Concerns

Daily Caller ^ | 08/27/2019 | Audrey Conklin

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

A Texas district judge temporarily blocked the implementation of Facebook’s new “Off-Facebook Activity” tool over concerns of erasing criminal evidence.

The “Off-Facebook Activity” tool prevents search history from being linked to individual users. The feature was announced more than a year after Facebook said it was working on a “Clear History” tool that would allow users to completely clear their browsing data after it was revealed that the tech giant used that information to target advertisements.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

1) I don't understand how FB can do anything to "off-FB activity" unless FB controls whatever sites that activity occurred on. If it means that FB promises to delete whatever external links that ever existed inside a user's FB data, I still would not trust FB to act in good faith.

2) Even if users believed that FB would do that, users who have been banned can't logon to do anything on FB.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

FB PING

[DesertRhino]

“A Texas district judge temporarily blocked the implementation of Facebook’s new “Off-Facebook Activity” tool over concerns of erasing criminal evidence.”

So now are we supposed to maintain a record of everything we do online, and be forbidden from deleting it, in case someone wants to search through it and prosecute us for something, someday?

[Fedora]

Injury trial lawyer Annie McAdams, requested the decision because she is working on a “significant human trafficking case” that relies on potentially “relevant evidence that can be found on Facebook. . .Shear said McAdams “doesn’t know the first thing about privacy, safety and security on social media,” adding, “They’re putting the privacy, safety and security of millions of people who use Facebook at risk instead of saying, ‘Make sure you hold this specific information for my client.'” ”

[BenLurkin]

Until proven innocent, comrade.

[lepton]

I don’t understand how FB can do anything to “off-FB activity” unless FB controls whatever sites that activity occurred on.

---

Facebook has a presence on many, many sites - especially ones that use its logon. It captures data from people just from going to such a page. You don’t have to actually log on there. Google has a similar ubiquity.

Ever notice how you can go to a store site, look at a couple of items, and then advertisements pop up referencing it when you are on completely unrelated pages? That’s it in action.

[TexasGator]

Read the article

[monkeyshine]

Well it seems in this particular case, the alleged “criminal” is Facebook itself - being sued by a woman who was sexual exploited by other criminals who allegedly conspired on the FB platform. So in a way this is a judge saying don’t destroy evidence against yourself to FB.

Otherwise I’d agree. It should be no surprise that criminals seek to hide and destroy evidence of their crimes. And I don’t think anyone should be forced to reveal their online and social activity to a couple of snooping corporations with massive federal contracts, federal regulators, federal licenses, federal exemptions...

[Luke21]

Social credit score. Coming to a gulag near you.

[Gideon7]

This is the diametrically opposite of the European Union’s new strict GDPR privacy directive, which requires all websites to include the right to be ‘forgotten’ on demand, including the removal of all personal information including search history activity.

[Openurmind]

Once you load Facebook cookies they hang there and track everywhere you go and everything you do after. What should be illegal is that they do this even if you are not a registered user or never logged in, all you have to do is land on one of their pages even by accident. Youtube does it too.

This feature they are trying to implement is probably even worse, it’s probably actually an upload dump stealing even more from your machine. I would NEVER install a client script from Facebook no matter what they claim. You are right... They CANNOT be trusted.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

I think it’s worse than what we used to think of as “cookies.” It’s more like the the self-replicating mines in Deep Space 9. I. e. even if you delete them from your machine, they are still tracking you.

[Openurmind]

Yep, and not just adsense but Google Analytics too. But how to get away from it? Almost everyone is using Google Analytics now, even this site. The problem with Google Analytics is while it might be handy for domain owners, they are only allowed access to very little of what the API is actually collecting for Google. There are dozens of free self implementation analytics tools that do the same thing for the domain owner without need for a third party API connection.

[Openurmind]

I think so too, I think their scripts give access and open direct port connections in windows. A couple times when I was still using Windows, I cleared everything Google completely out of my system. then I started monitoring all my services. Lo and behold there was Google still running as a hidden service and direct connection. I had to do some deep detailed work to completely remove it all. And I think Facebook and of course youtube are doing the same thing.

This is when I made the decision to make the change to Linux, There was absolutely nothing I could not live without to stop this vulnerability. Why Microsoft would allow this to happen without our knowledge I have no clue. they are obviously in bed with them no matter what they claim.

[slowhandluke]

Any site with a “share on facebook” button has a bit of javascript from facebook that can tell the page and link it to your facebook signin. Same for google, twitter, etc. It can be there without any button to notify you.

[upchuck]

This is the Facebook Is Evil ping list.

If you'd like to be on or off this list, please click Private Reply below and drop me a FReepmail.

[JZelle]

Social Credit Score aka Mark of the Beast.

[a fool in paradise]

Private citizens must maintain detailed records of all of their activities and communications but the FIB and Hitlery Rotten Clinton are not subject to FOIA requests

[grey_whiskers]

[grey_whiskers]

He is "both eagle and insect, soaring above the rest of humanity and at the same time insinuating himself into the fabric of their lives like a termite into wood."