It has not been long ago, when the Belgian Privacy Commission accused Facebook for tracking both users and non-users browsing data. The social media giant was put under scrutiny for its growing integration with numerous websites that has in turn allowed it to track user’s online activity.
Now, to answer all the allegations, Facebook’s corporate blog has published a post, which claims that the shocking behavior discovered by the commission was actually a bug in their social media plugin. The most used social media website has answered the allegations made by the researchers about opting out of ads, it says that Facebook users are absolutely free to opt out of the social ads and the option for opting out is active across all the devices.
One of the most serious allegations was that Facebook was adding cookies to the users devices, even to those who don’t even have a Facebook account, by setting a unique advertising ID for them and in turn collecting information about their browsing habits.
This allegation has come out as authentic, as Facebook has admitted that it was a bug in their social plugin. So, we can easily assume that until now, through a so-called bug, the website has been collecting and tracking all the personal user information, although unintentionally, according to Facebook.
The blog post has also answered other allegations such as, Facebook not being clear about how their advertising works, the blog post answered the allegation with links to detailed descriptions about the working of their ads along with the European audits of those practices.
For more details about the entire list of allegations and their answers by Facebook, one must read the entire blog post.
Many critics would find it an alarming revelation that Facebook was tracking many users and their browsing activities for a brief period of time without even seeking their permission. However, there was no widespread user backlash.
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