aNewDomain — In Europe, a new privacy policy allows Facebook to track your activity even after you’re no longer on the site. The change applies to all users in the UK, unless they make a specific effort to back out. Tracking your mood, product preferences and other activity online has become more globally accepted and you are tracked not only on Facebook’s site, but also based on any links you choose to click.
According to a report issued by Bitly this week, Facebook’s numbers now reflect “dark social” links, those without referrer data that can’t be tracked by web analytics. According to the report,
Facebook’s influence jumped 8.6 percent during the fourth quarter overall and 30.2 percent on mobile. That doesn’t mean Facebook’s influence actually grew that much — it means that clicks formerly attributed to “dark social” are now being correctly counted as Facebook’s clicks.”
Big Brother Zuckerberg is actually bigger than even he realized, and he is awaiting your feedback.
Screenshot by David Michaelis Courtesy of SocialMediaToday
The change enables Facebook to gather data from your activity across the Internet, as well as the normal data gathered based on information you and your friends have added to the site itself. The change also allows Facebook to share the data with its other services, including Instagram and WhatsApp. The policy now states,
We receive information about you from companies that are owned or operated by Facebook, in accordance with their terms and policies.
We receive information about you and your activities on and off Facebook from third-party partners, such as information from a partner when we jointly offer services or from an advertiser about your experiences or interactions with them.
Facebook users in Europe have seven days to make comments to the company or to choose to escape tracking. You can click here to manage your privacy settings, but changing your settings will only enable a partial escape.
Critics in the EU
The European Union’s data protection authorities are getting serious about issues with Facebook’s new privacy policy. They have formed a task force, which will deal with the part of the policy that could very well violate EU privacy laws.
American policy makers seem to care more about NSA tracking than Facebook tracking. But if you like better targeted ads, than you are the customer of the week. See below for a handy infographic about the total social network users in 2015.
For aNewDomain, I’m David Michaelis
Total social network users in 2015 infographic: Carlos Monteiro, via Adweek
Featured Image Credit: “Thinking about net neutrality tonight…” by Roya Millard via Flickr Creative Commons
