Facebook is tracking you even if you’ve never had an account
Even though I’ve never had a Facebook account, I’ve wondered if Facebook is still tracking me? According to reporting by Geoffrey Fowler for the Washington Post on Sunday, August 29, 2021, the answer is YES.
Borovicka tried to use that same California privacy law, known as CCPA, to view the data about her 11-year-old son, who has never had an account on Facebook or on Instagram.
Facebook replied it wouldn’t comply with the access request because her son doesn’t have an account it could use to verify his identity. But if he had an account, he’d be giving Facebook the right to collect his data. “It feels like you’re trapped in some kind of logic circle,” said Borovicka.
In its emailed reply, Facebook acknowledged it could still be collecting the boy’s personal information. It said: “When a person visits a site or app that uses one or more of these Facebook services, these sites, and apps may send us information regardless of whether the person has a Facebook profile.”
Facebook told me it does not use this nonmember data to “create profiles” of people or target ads at them. But it doesn’t claim to delete the data — or preclude other uses for it.
I don’t know about you, but knowing this makes me fucking hate Facebook more than I already do.
