Like the topic says, did this ever become a thing?
I remember reading this a few years ago and honestly I've been paranoid ever since. If Facebook can do it then what's stopping Microsoft, Google or anyone else? Combine that with some (unverified) rumours that Microsoft creates and collects screenshots at set points of time and every computer basically becomes a spying machine that tracks your every single move down to the second.
I would be lying if I stated I knew that. I would say I expected the front end to a data center to do something like this.
"Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon. They all just save. Maybe one day someone asks and then they sell." - Some EU politician who is not that bad.
I would assume that they do; It could, with some math magic there is sure some psycological metric behind that could lead to even more infromation about users behavior; Links one hovered, or got close to but did not click... places where most users have their cursor so to put adds there...
I am sure they do it, as they save what you type while you do... even if you delete it without ever posting.
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Time to write a script that obfuscates the location/motion of the cursor.
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Courious if thats actually possible without fkn around with the whole browsing experience; I took a other route - no facebook the 4th year now almost up - I still live, I have not missed anything except stupid game invites - so yeah, no regrets
Only I can't get my freinds to not use whatsapp =/ signal would be so much better
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Just to throw something new into the mix
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I use Signal and so far have managed to get only one person to convert. One huge issue is that neither Signal nor Wire have an easy path to backing up messages on the phone and restoring them on another.
what is signal?
what is wire?
I can write SMS. Mostly I do good old phone calls.
Signal is a private messaging app by Open Whisper Systems. It has open source encryption so that it can be audited etc.
Wire is similar, and they can even do video which is cool.
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So do I; booted the android lollypop SMS/MMS app ...
That's literally the least secure / private thing you can do.
Some have something to hide, others:
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Before I checked the article date I was like "Hmm... sites already do this. Heat maps aren't a new thing." My first exposure was a former friend asking me to go to his website and move my mouse around, and then he sent me a screenshot of where I had moved my mouse around. This was circa 2011...... Then I clicked the article and noticed the 2013 date... ahh. Got it. :) I've worked for places that use it when doing A/B tests.
I really don't care if Facebook consumes all it's users info on their site. As long as they don't hide it in their user policy, it's their service... don't like it, don't use it. However, I do have issue with the fact they also track non-users. I use Ghostery, but I'm not sure how much that actually helps. Blind faith on my part with that.
Signal sounds cool... but the issue is getting people to switch what they already use and like. The majority of my friends that I actually text use WhatsApp... so that's now what I use. Aside from it's parent company, it's been my favorite "popular" messenger client. I like the supposed end-to-end encryption they now use.... but again that's more blind faith on my part assuming that it's legit. I'd still like to check out Signal or Wire though.
Facebook and privacy don't go hand in hand. Despite that luring people away is difficult. Pretty much impossible for me to have an active social life without it, especially for those overseas.
Did some Googling and stumbled across their WhatsApp's whitepaper on their encryption. This was kinda cool:
The Signal Protocol, designed by Open Whisper Systems, is the basis for
WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption. This end-to-end encryption protocol
is designed to prevent third parties and WhatsApp from having plaintext
access to messages or calls. What’s more, even if encryption keys
from a user’s device are ever physically compromised, they cannot be
used to go back in time to decrypt previously transmitted messages
The end-to-end encryption implemented by whatsapp is the same that is used in Signal - developed by Open Whisper Systems;
A german technews magazine - heise.de - has tested it and they conclude that it's truly end-to-end after the very first message; one can even meet in person, scan a QR code on the phones and thus ensure its realy the person your writing with;
The "only" problem that WhatsApp still is, is the meta data; the content of the communication is troughly secured (for now?) but they still track the: who with whom, when, where, how long, ... which is often more informational than the bare content of a communication.
I am so glad, that leaving FB did have almost no impact on my social life and my contacts; those I only saw on FB were acquaintances if at all; sure hardly friends.
I am pretty sure that this is already being done, yeah. IT would be really useful meta data for marketing and website layout/design.