back to article Facebook cookies 'fixed' as Oz privacy bureaucrats investigate

While Facebook flip-flops over whether or not its track-after-logout cookies were or were not benign, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner is reportedly taking a look at whether or not the cookies breached privacy laws. The OAIC is the renamed Australian Privacy Commissioner, whose wet-slap punishments inspire …

COMMENTS

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  1. Charles Manning

    Unless you're actually attacked, a stalker is also benign.

    I'd expect this is just the thin end of the wedge. First track but do nothing.... after a bit add some small feature, then a bit later give the details to the FB apps,....

    Within a year you're on a FB leash where ever you go.

  2. Big-nosed Pengie

    Transliation:

    "Oh shit - we got caught."

  3. Dani Eder

    Faceborg

    http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-u6XdJiTMGdk/ToH-WiuYc1I/AAAAAAAAApQ/Cp8NpQmp0eM/FaceBorg2.jpg

  4. Winkypop Silver badge
    Stop

    Cookie Monster

    And people still trust this outfit?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Heh heh

    "Oh, we did not actually use these cookies, they were just added by mistake whenever the user logged out."

  6. Chris Miller

    Oopsy

    Does this sound familiar? We may have monitored and stored your WiFi traffic, but we didn't mean to and we haven't done anything with the data, honest!

  7. JimC

    Depressingly similar to the Google packet sniffing spin

    Don't you think?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Facebook got caught with a hand in the "cookie" jar...

    They're running a business in an extremely competitive environment. Based on that—and their behaviour—I think it foolish to trust them.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "some users' computers that inadvertently included unique identifiers when the user had logged out of Facebook. However, we did not store these identifiers for logged out users."

    If you leave your tray on the table when you've finished your meal and left your seat, I can tell what you've eaten. So bus your damn tray.

  10. This post has been deleted by its author

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So they didn't explain how in his research other websites still recognised him or 'people he might know' based on the fact that they'd been using the same computer, I guess that's down to IP address logging or something similar then..

    The point I always make to my friends that complain about every time they do an update to the site is that they don't have to use the website, they can just delete their accounts if they're unhappy with how it's going. That is of course assuming that deleting your account would remove your data.. which it probably wouldn't.

  12. Rovindi

    Am I the only one amazed that these fuckers apparently don't document their code? Effectively, that's what they're implying in their response.

    Bellends...

  13. Andrew Moore

    Well...

    'Generally, Facebook does not lie'

  14. Wize

    The title is too long.

    "The Register has offered Facebook the opportunity to comment – twice – but has yet to receive a response."

    They probably couldn't see it as it wasn't on their list as a top story.

  15. Qu Dawei
    Headmaster

    test

    "The Register has offered Facebook the opportunity to comment – twice – but has yet to receive a response."

    Try putting the request in one of the cookies under discussion somehow and see if a response then emerges...

  16. Bradley Hardleigh-Hadderchance
    Devil

    Consistent M.O.

    They push it to the edge.

    Little bit further.

    Hand gets slapped.

    They back off.

    They wait a while.

    They push a little bit.

    Then a little further.

    Then they push it to the edge.

    And then they push it over.

    Hand gets slapped...

    If you don't see a consistent pattern emerging here, you need to update that pattern- matching software in your massively-parallel neural network.

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