Facebook is tracking how everyone uses the web –– even people who don’t have a Facebook account.

The news comes via researchers from Belgium’s University of Leuven’s Center of Interdisciplinary Law and ICT, as well as the school’s Computer Security Industrial Cryptography in addition to the media, information, and telecommunication department at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels.

According to The Guardian, the report indicates that Facebook is able to track people that don’t have accounts by placing cookies (pieces of data downloaded to your browser from a website) on their computers when they visit websites that use Facebook’s “Like” button or similar plug-ins.

The data is then used to monitor browsing habits, which Facebook can package and sell to advertisers.

Facebook denied the accuracy of the report in a statement to The Guardian and said the study’s authors have not replied to invitations to discuss the matter.

At issue is whether Facebook is violating European regulations, which require that visitors to websites offer their consent to having cookies placed on their computers.

According to one of the report’s authors, Facebook simply can’t take someone’s decision to neither opt in nor opt out to mean that they want to have the cookies placed on their computers. A person has to actually give their consent to be tracked.

Even if someone does opt out of having a tracking cookie placed on their computer, Facebook, the report states, can still put a cookie on his or her machine that would expire in up to two years.

The authors of the study say they have not been contacted by Facebook, but will speak to the company when it does reach out to them.

via: The Guardian

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