B1BLOG

The social net­work Face­book admits that it uses file trac­ers, even for peo­ple who are dis­con­nected from their plat­forms, and will not change their habits.

With the help of Face­book engi­neer Arturo Bejar, an arti­cle enti­tled “Face­book track­ing is under scrutiny” on the USA Today web­site reveals details of how mem­bers are tracked on the social net­work, whether con­nected or not, and how their stored data is used. Vis­i­tors who do not have accounts on Face­book are also involved. The social net­work uses track­ing codes, also known as cook­ies, which are placed on the user’s com­puter dur­ing a web­site visit. Wide­spread, they are use­ful to sites and online ser­vices to see if a user is logged-in, or if they have already vis­ited the web­site. A good exam­ple being when you shop on Ama­zon, the prod­ucts you were shop­ping for last week are star­ing you straight in the face this week.

Read the full post »

It’s no longer break­ing news Intel are buy­ing McAfee and although the sub­ject has been thor­oughly cov­ered in the tech press in recent days, I’ve been giv­ing the sub­ject some thought and find myself a lit­tle sur­prised at the level of con­ster­na­tion — even out­rage — expressed by some com­men­ta­tors (or their read­ers) on the subject.

What is it about this deal that seems to have wound peo­ple up? Here are my thoughts.

Read the full post »