Facebook lets admen have a rummage through your shopping bags

Facebook is testing a new tool that will allow e-tailers to track purchases from users of the free-content ad network. The purpose of the feature is mainly to demonstrate that displaying ads on the site is a profitable move for advertisers, who are understandably nervous about Facebook's staying power. Reuters reported on …

[adnim]

facebook.com##div.ego_section

There are advertisements on Facebook?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: facebook.com##div.ego_section

Wouldn't know. I have Facebook blocked at the router. Thank God.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: facebook.com##div.ego_section

That's OK unless there's someone else who uses the same router for Facebook.

In which case you can block it from the Hosts file, but keep an eye on it because Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender don't like you doing that. They trigger SettingsModifier:Win32/PossibleHostsFileHijack which is fair enough, but if you look at the Hosts file afterwards, Microsoft removes the Facebook.com entry from the Hosts file.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: facebook.com##div.ego_section

All the more reason to block it at the router. And obviously, by blocking it at the router, you keep others from accessing Facebook. That's the whole point - Facebook is intrinsically malware.

[The BigYin]

Oh nos!

I do hope the got consent from the products* for this.

*The admen are the users, the products are the people uploading pictures of their cats and "Liking" crap.

[Anonymous Coward]

Presumably it will then start generating automatic pages for you and your product....

One status update, "The Swedish Penis Enlarger And Me: This Sort of Thing Is My Bag Baby", by [e-mail]

[Alan Parsons]

How does it work..?

..If facebook is browsed under ghostery, in a browser with private mode enabled, all history, cookies and cache trashed on browser exit, and all shopping done with all the same settings but in a different session?

[NomNomNom]

Re: How does it work..?

I don't know how it works. But in the case you specify, facebook still has your IP from the last few times you logged in, and the shopping site also has your IP when you browsed and bought all that shit. If they talk to each other I bet facebook could find out what you buy and the shopping site could find out who you are. wouldn't be 100% foolproof.

[Evan Essence]

Re: How does it work..?

If they talk to each other I bet facebook could find out what you buy and the shopping site could find out who you are.

It's not only the IP address they could use. Browsers can be individually identified fairly well in most cases.

Browser Fingerprints Threaten Privacy (Computing Now)

Is Every Browser Unique? Results Fom The Panopticlick Experiment (EFF)

[Anonymous Coward]

Bwahahahaha..

.. they're not going to get much in the way of data from me as I never actually see the ads other than on the iPhone app, and that I stopped using since they showed up..

[NomNomNom]

Re: Bwahahahaha..

this is all good until they decide to make viewing the ads a requirement of the user agreement and block people's accounts who don't. or maybe that's a dick move too far for facebook?

[Donald Becker]

Re: Bwahahahaha..

"or maybe that's a dick move too far for facebook?"

We'll take that as a rhetorical question...

[Magani]

"users of the free-content..."

Seeing we're talking Farcebook here, shouldn't that be 'content-free'?

Paris, as she's content free as well.

[John Tserkezis]

I see a repeat of MySpace happening...

Trying to drum up business, once you purchase something, a note is sent to your "friends" saying you did, and asking if you would be interested in buying one too. It sounds so good to marking droids on paper.

"Your friend JoanBloggs had just purchased a Dildo, would you like to purchase one too?"

I had heard of something like this happening at least a couple of times, once to a friend. And yes, she was suitably embarrassed.