Joe Cadillic sends along this news story by Tim Collins, Aaron Brown, and Cheyenne MacDonald about a massive report to Congress by Facebook. Of note, their reporting includes a list of 18 ways Facebook tracks users:
1. ‘Device information’ from ‘computers, phones, connected TVs, and other web-connected devices,’ as well as your ‘internet service provider or mobile operator’
2. ‘Mouse movements’, which can help distinguish humans from bots
3. ‘App and file names’, including the types of files on your devices
4. ‘Device operations’ such as whether a window running Facebook is ‘foregrounded or backgrounded’
5. ‘Device signals’, including ‘nearby Wi-Fi access points, beacons, and cell towers’ and ‘signal strength’ as well as Bluetooth signals
6. ‘Other devices that are nearby or on their network’
7. ‘Battery level’
8. ‘Available storage space’
9. ‘Plugins’ installed
10. ‘Connection speed’
11. ‘Purchases’ Facebook users make on third-party websites
12. Contact information ‘such as an address book’ and ‘call log or SMS log history’ for Android users with these settings synced
13. Information ‘about how users use features like our camera’
14. The ‘location of a photo or the date a file was created’ through the file’s metadata
15. ‘GPS location, camera, or photo’ information found through your device’s settings
16. Purchases from third-party data providers as well as other information about your ‘online and offline actions’
17. ‘Device IDs, and other identifiers, such as from games, apps or accounts users use’
18. ‘When others share or comment on a photo of them, send a message to them, or upload, sync or import their contact information’ text
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