Does the Facebook app on iOS 8 track your browser history?

[Silly John Fatty]

Facebook is taking it, once again, too far for my taste. I was browsing through suggested groups on my Mac (Safari) and noticed how all suggested groups were stuff I had recently searched or posted on the internet not too long ago.

An example: I recently put up some old-timer car parts of sale on a small, local, Austrian site like Craigslist. Suddenly, Facebook suggests me a group for the car I was selling parts of.
It also suggested me other things I had searched for, not only on Google but also on other sites. I know that there's a trick to block it from following all your history.

I was wondering if the Facebook app on iOS 8 does the same, or is it safe to use it? I will no longer use Facebook on Safari for now.

I remember some times ago it was even more extreme. It suggested me stuff that I had typed into my Notes and Reminders (which get synced with iCloud).

Everything is connected people, it's sad.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Funny update: I searched for some Roses that you can send through the internet (to a certain address) for a person I know. I saw a bouquet that I liked and thought "Okay! I will buy this one".
I'm not registered at that site, but it was in my cart already. I didn't buy it yet.

Later, on Facebook, I noticed an ad in the right column. It showed the exact bouquet I had chosen (which was saved in my cart = in my cookies) and the ad came from the website I was on.

That's going a bit too far for my taste personally… where I live this is illegal actually, you are not allowed to track someone on the internet.

 

[LordQ]

Are you surprised? Is Facebook you're talking about. Just close your account, trust me

 

[Gav2k]

Funny update: I searched for some Roses that you can send through the internet (to a certain address) for a person I know. I saw a bouquet that I liked and thought "Okay! I will buy this one".
I'm not registered at that site, but it was in my cart already. I didn't buy it yet.

Later, on Facebook, I noticed an ad in the right column. It showed the exact bouquet I had chosen (which was saved in my cart = in my cookies) and the ad came from the website I was on.

That's going a bit too far for my taste personally… where I live this is illegal actually, you are not allowed to track someone on the internet.

Thats cookies and the same goes for the op. You visit a site and this generates cookies. Facebook and add banners are seeing these.

Op the Facebook app on iOS is isolated from your cookies you shouldn't have the same issue.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

If this issue doesn't exist on the iOS app, I suppose it isn't necessary to close my account I need it for some stuff sadly.

But I remember once that the iPad asked me, if Facebook was allowed to use my Cookies or something like that. Scary!

 

[FatPuppy]

Joke on facebook, I always clear the cache and cookies when I close the safari app

 

[brentmore]

Joke on facebook, I always clear the cache and cookies when I close the safari app

Hate to break it to you, but that doesn't do a whole lot nowadays. There are several techniques that are in use now. Here's just one (older) article about it:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtan...eres-the-creepier-technology-that-comes-next/

 

[FatPuppy]

Hate to break it to you, but that doesn't do a whole lot nowadays. There are several techniques that are in use now. Here's just one (older) article about it:



http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtan...eres-the-creepier-technology-that-comes-next/

Well that's just f great. Whatever, it's not like I have nuclear codes on my phone.

 

[FreeState]

Joke on facebook, I always clear the cache and cookies when I close the safari app

Actually this is not a Facebook specific thing. The same has happened to me on MacRumors. Its the AD frameworks that do this, companies pay more to have their sites show up to users who have done an action on their website (visited, places something in the shopping cart, etc). Companies pay lots of money for this because conversion rates using this method of advertising are much higher than traditional methods.

 

[afsnyder]

Facebook is taking it, once again, too far for my taste. I was browsing through suggested groups on my Mac (Safari) and noticed how all suggested groups were stuff I had recently searched or posted on the internet not too long ago.

An example: I recently put up some old-timer car parts of sale on a small, local, Austrian site like Craigslist. Suddenly, Facebook suggests me a group for the car I was selling parts of.
It also suggested me other things I had searched for, not only on Google but also on other sites. I know that there's a trick to block it from following all your history.

I was wondering if the Facebook app on iOS 8 does the same, or is it safe to use it? I will no longer use Facebook on Safari for now.

I remember some times ago it was even more extreme. It suggested me stuff that I had typed into my Notes and Reminders (which get synced with iCloud).

Everything is connected people, it's sad.

You must hate Google too then.

 

[magicMac]

Not sure about the notes and reminders, sounds like your making that up.

Regarding searches though, it seems the biggest tech company on the Internet seems to completely ignore the "do not track" option in Safari because they can't make money any other way. Just use duckduckgo instead, problem solved. But it also helps to block Adsense/Google and Facebook in general with a safari extension.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Not sure about the notes and reminders, sounds like your making that up.

Definitely not making that up, and it isn't the first time it happened actually. I have a list of reminders just for songs for example. It constantly suggested me to like pages of movies that had the same or partially same titles as some songs on my list.
Then I had once written down that I needed to pick up something at [store name]. The same day it suggested me to like their page on FB.
And that's just two cases of probably hundreds I've had.

But the most creepy one is that I was at an amusement park once – which I didn't write anywhere, to anyone or anything – and the day after that, this amusement park was suggested on Facebook to me. So apparently it even tracks your position. The park is enormous so it couldn't have had it confused when tracking my position.

Then when thinking of the store of earlier again, I can't remember writing the name of the store, but just the name of the item, so perhaps in that case it tracked my position as well and noticed I stayed there longer than I would if I'd have been at a red light or something like this.