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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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| Information | | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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31Mar15
Facebook 'tracks all visitors, breaching EU law'
Facebook tracks the web browsing of everyone who visits a page on its site even if the user does not have an account or has explicitly opted out of tracking in the EU, extensive research commissioned by the Belgian data protection agency has revealed.
The report, from researchers at the Centre of Interdisciplinary Law and ICT (ICRI) and the Computer Security and Industrial Cryptography department (Cosic) at the University of Leuven, and the media, information and telecommunication department (Smit) at Vrije Universiteit Brussels, was commissioned after an original draft report revealed Facebook's privacy policy breaches European law.
The researchers now claim that Facebook tracks computers of users without their consent, whether they are logged in to Facebook or not, and even if they are not registered users of the site or explicitly opt out in Europe. Facebook tracks users in order to target advertising.
The issue revolves around Facebook's use of its social plugins such as the "Like" button, which has been placed on more than 13m sites including health and government sites.
Facebook places tracking cookies on users' computers if they visit any page on the facebook.com domain, including fan pages or other pages that do not require a Facebook account to visit.
When a user visits a third-party site that carries one of Facebook's social plug-ins, it detects and sends the tracking cookies back to Facebook - even if the user does not interact with the Like button, Facebook Login or other extension of the social media site.
EU privacy law states that prior consent must be given before issuing a cookie or performing tracking, unless it is necessary for either the networking required to connect to the service ("criterion A") or to deliver a service specifically requested by the user ("criterion B").
The same law requires websites to notify users on their first visit to a site that it uses cookies, requesting consent to do so.
A cookie is a small file placed on a user's computer by a website that stores settings, previous activities and other small amounts of information needed by the site. They are sent to the site on each visit and can therefore be used to identify a user's computer and track their movements across the web.
[Fuente: By Samuel Gibbs, The Guardian, London, 31Mar15]
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 | This document has been published on 23Sep15 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |