Facebook Responds to Logged Out Tracking Allegations

By Gilbert Falso :: 8:42 PM

We published this article last night about Facebook’s ability to track a user’s activity after they had logged off of the system. Facebook contacted us this afternoon to offer their side of the story. A statement from Facebook’s spokesperson is below:

Facebook does not track users across the web.  Instead, we use cookies on social plugins to personalize content (e.g. Show you what your friends liked), to help maintain and improve what we do (e.g. Measure click-through rate), or for safety and security (e.g. Keeping underage kids from trying to signup with a different age).  No information we receive when you see a social plugins is used to target ads, we delete or anonymize this information within 90 days, and we never sell your information.

Specific to logged out cookies, they are used for safety and protection, including identifying spammers and phishers, detecting when somebody unauthorized is trying to access your account, helping you get back into your account if you get hacked, disabling registration for a under-age users who try to re-register with a different birthdate, powering account security features such as 2nd factor login approvals and notification, and identifying shared computers to discourage the use of ‘keep me logged in’.