Facebook updates, good and bad

TRACKING

Nik Cubrilovic posted a very interesting article that shows even after you log out of Facebook, cookies are still present that track every web page you visit. Should you be concerned? It’s never a good idea for any company or website to know too much about you, especially when you think you are browsing alone. Take small and free steps to protect your privacy now, you never know what could be revealed as a “feature” later.

Facebook engineers claim to have fixed this issue, but many people are still unsatisfied with the results. The only real way to block these types of trackers is to use a browser that is up to date and secure. The Monkey recommends using Google Chrome and a free extension like Disconnect. It not only stops Facebook but many other sites too, so you can do anonymous searches, and browsing. Here is an excerpt from the developer

• Disable tracking by third parties like Digg, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Yahoo, without requiring any setup or significantly degrading the usability of the web.

 • Truly depersonalize searches on search engines like Google and Yahoo (by blocking identifying cookies not just changing the appearance of results pages), while staying logged into other services — e.g., so you can search anonymously on Google and access iGoogle at once.

 • See how many resource and cookie requests are blocked, in real time.

• Easily unblock services, by clicking the toolbar button then services (and reloading current pages) — e.g., so you can play games on Facebook.

FACEBOOK WILL CHARGE

Many people have been posting about Facebook charging and to pass a bogus message that will stop it. The Monkey will tell you this is as FALSE as the emails you get about having a rich relative that died and is leaving you an inheritance. Facebook needs you more than you need them.

TIMELINE

Timeline is an animated feature on the top right side that shows photos and posts by your friends. People have been mistakenly thinking this is available to everyone, even people they dont know or have friended. Its not true, the only people who can see your posts are people you authorize or friend. If you have allowed friends of friends then they can see your photos too. But your wall posts are still private. You can pick what you want to show on the timeline, just like how you can customize your feed.