Amerikanska lagstiftare ifrågasätter nu varför Facebook fortsätter att spåra användare, även om de slagit av funktionen i inställningarna.

Facebook medger i ett blogginlägg från september i år att den sociala mediajätten kan spåra användare även om funktionen slagits av. Det kan ske genom inloggningar, statusuppdateringar och uppkoppling. Senatorerna ifrågasätter varför Facebook inte respekterar användarnas inställningar och varför Facebook fortfarande samlar in positionsdata.

“If a user has decided to limit Facebook’s access to his or her location, Facebook should respect these privacy choices,” the senators, members of the Judiciary Committee, wrote in the letter to Zuckerberg. “The language in the blog post, however, indicates that Facebook may continue to collect location data despite user preferences, even if the user is not engaging with the app, and Facebook is simply deducing the user’s location from information about his or her internet connection. Given that most mobile devices are connected to the internet nearly all the time, whether through a cellular network or a Wi-Fi connection, this practice would allow Facebook to collect user location data almost constantly, irrespective of the user’s privacy preferences. Users who have selected a restrictive location services option could reasonably be under the misimpression that their selection limits all of Facebook’s efforts to extract location information.”

CNBC

Förklaring

Rob Sherman, Chief Privacy Officer, förklarar för iMore hur Facebook kan spåra användare, även om funktionerna slagits av:

“When location services are off, Facebook may still understand people’s locations using information people share through their activities on Facebook or through IP addresses and other network connections they use … as part of using Facebook, people may provide Facebook with specific information about their location … they may check-in at a restaurant or a store, or apply a location tag to a photo, or their friend might tag them in a check-in post.”

iMore