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Comment by silverbax88 | Hacker News Reader

I don't want to sound mean, but if people aren't smart enough to keep their lives out of Facebook, then let them get burned.

It's not rocket science. I've had a Facebook account for years and there is nothing - absolutely NOTHING -on my Facebook account that I would worry about an employer seeing. That means no political views, no off-color humor, NOTHING that I would not say or post in public, in broad daylight. I will never understand why some people can't get this through their heads.

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Keep in mind that FB can, and does, track your browser usage whether you are logged in or not. So even though some info may not currently be in the graph, they certainly have a pretty good dossier covering everything you do on the internet.

It's not only what you put on your FB that counts, it's anything you have done on the internet from a browser.

Facebook uses that information to target ads. If you're going to claim that Facebook makes that data available to prospective employers, prove it.

that claim was not made.

Guy...

What are you talking about?

I never made that claim.

Are you arguing with someone else? That claim was never made.

Is there a reliable way to stop this browser tracking, apart from quitting Facebook?

Blocking the "Like" button should hopefully do the trick. In Firefox you can use Ghostery or RequestPolicy (stops cross-site requests unless you specifically allow them) for that.

I think it's not entirely clear that quitting Facebook will stop them from tracking you.

I might be wrong, but you could use a dedicate browser for facebook and nothing else.

On a Mac you could use fluid with a separate cookie store for this.

I didn't realize they could track you even when logged out. I only ever log into FB with Chromium Incognito mode, but apparently that's not enough.

I believe -and people can correct me if I'm wrong- the way they do it is through all the sites with integrated Facebook items: "Share this", "Comment" etc. The cookies they use to track you are sitting on your drive regardless of your facebook status (logged in/out) and can simply be retrieved the next time you log in or link accounts.

So they can track your visits to any site with a FB Like or Share button on it, but only when you next login to FB?

If you log in with incognito mode, the cookies created in that session will be deleted at the end of that session (when you close your last incognito window) and will not be available to non-incognito browser windows.

Right, that's what I thought was the reason FB can't track you outside of Incognito mode, but if they can track you even when you're logged out of FB then it sounds like it's irrelevant whether you're using Incognito or not.

If I remember correctly, the way they track you is that they retain certain cookies that identify you even after you log off. But if you delete all the cookies you have from FB once and then delete any new cookies you get from them after each session (via incognito mode), wouldn't that fix the problem?

I suppose that they could also track you by IP address, but that would be pretty unreliable since most home users have dynamic IPs.

If you really want to avoid tracking, you can use a browser extension like NoScript (or the similar NotScripts for Chrome) to prevent the JavaScript code that puts their buttons on third-party web sites from loading.

Interesting that you believe FB can magically track 100% of your browsing history even if you are not logged into facebook and not on a site with FB integration. However, this is something google does for sure. Thanks to chrome and search integrations in other browsers.

It is actually possible and Facebook does do it. Everywhere you see a facebook like button, javascript is loaded from Facebook. Facebook logs certain browser characteristics[1] with the request and uses this to identify you. Then when you log in it can match your account(s) to your browser identity. There's more complex data mining going on at Facebook but it is happening.

[1] - https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/tracking-by-user-agent

The article is about what OTHER people can find out you, not FaceBook. But I am also aware of browser tracking as well, which is why I'm still not worried at all - I pay the same amount of attention as if I was walking down a crowded Manhattan street.

People tend to learn things the hard way. I feel that if I were to be myself on facebook, it would disservice me down the road immensely. Because I cannot be myself on facebook, any goal I may have has to be cast through an obfuscation process to strip out anything that may cause problems gaining foreign work visas, jobs anywhere, any political process that I may want to engage in to bring positive change, etc etc etc etc etc... Because I cannot be myself on facebook, it is a logical conclusion (for me) that I should not have a facebook account. So I don't. I call friends on the phone and use email, and the smaller set of more intimate friendships that I maintain are deeply satisfying and efficient.

> That means no political views, no off-color humor, NOTHING that I would not say or post in public

Yikes! I totally get not posting things on public websites that you wouldn't post in public. But you really shouldn't be afraid to make your political views public, and even off-color humor has its place. I don't share the same political views as my employer, but we have mutual respect for each other.

I guess if you're a holocaust denier or a birther or a 9/11 truther or something you may not want to make too much noise about it. But even if your views are somewhat fringe, you shouldn't be ashamed of what you believe.

Depends on your situation.

While we all want to think its nice we have political freedom and can make jokes among friends, if the information leaked to the wrong person (anal boss out to get you?) it isn't anymore about where the information comes from, its about protecting your rights and (possibly) source of income. If everyone played by the rules and kept their nose out of everyone else's business this wouldn't be a problem but I'm sure you know just as well as I do that there are always people out there looking for ways to bend the rules.

Yes, it does depend on the situation. If you depend on your job and you think your boss is looking for an excuse to fire you, I wouldn't blame you for keeping your head down. But that should be a somewhat exceptional circumstance. For typical work situations, that shouldn't be the default mode. Society is what we make of it and we should push back against repression. Naturally, this means tolerating views we disagree with.

No matter what you believe in, someone will disagree with you. Many employers have people in positions of power who can, and will, try to hurt you, legally and/or financially, if they don't like how you believe.

Is it right? No. Does it happen? Oh, heck yeah.

That means no political views, no off-color humor, NOTHING that I would not say or post in public, in broad daylight.

I also have no fear of an employer "finding" my Facebook profile (actually, my boss at my current job is Facebook friends with me, as is his wife, the co-owner of the company)... but I have a different take on it than you do. I absolutely post political opinions, off-color humour and all manner of controversial items to my FB wall. I just don't care who sees any of that stuff, since A. I doubt most potential future employers are going to care about any of it and B. IF by some amazing chance they did, then - by definition - I don't want to work for them.

So, if $BIGCORP is bothered by the fact that I'm a pro-gun, Libertarian atheist with a "thing" for tall redheads that look like Karen Gillan, then f%^# $BIGCORP, as far as I'm concerned. There are enough other employers out there, I'm not going to waste my time trying to appease every Tom, Dick and Harry that comes along.

> I will never understand why some people can't get this through their heads.

I enjoy working at a place where I don't have to worry about these things because I work with real human beings.

Alternatively, I'd never want to work for someone who judged me entirely on some off color humor or silly photos on Facebook.

Many people need to work for someone they don't want to work for.

Why do you think it's really anything to with being intelligent or not?

When you're using Facebook it feels like a social situation, so you behave as you would with your friends.

The internet's weird because parts of it feel part of your private life, parts your professional.

If you act as a normal human being with a normal social brain and a normal understanding of computers, which, not being mean, you are probably not because you're using HN, it's very easy to get caught like this.

so why are you not posting with your real name on here then?

For exactly the same reason. That should be obvious.

Set everything to private, don't let your profile show up publicly and don't add anyone from work - problem solved?

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