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Amidst the privacy policy debacle that Facebook is facing, another tip off from one of their employee is definitely not helping their current situation. An interview with an anonymous Facebook employee conducted on blogsite The Rumpus confirms that Facebook knows your every move. They know who you are stalking and when you do it; this information is stored permanently.

The full interview can be found here, and not all the information are new but there are a few shocking statements included.

1. Facebook Saves Things That Have Been Deleted

Whatever status updates or unglamorous pictures of you are still inside the server somewhere. A word of advice, think carefully and be tactful when uploading photos or making a status update.

2. Facebook Knows Your Viewing History

Log of clicks are used by Facebook to determine your viewing history. Hence, it knows whose photos you are going through.

3. Facebook Knows How Often You Interact With Or Click On The Profile Of A Given Person

Depending on the number of visits you made on your friend’s profile, Facebook uses this data as a method to judge who your good friends are. This is visible through Facebook search where your friends are not listed in alphabetical order but by the people who you interact most with.

4. Facebook Carries Out Psychological Tests On New Features

Instead of doing group sampling or beta testing on their new features, Facebook does the above plus eye ball tracking to get an idea of where you are looking at.

5. Facebook Employees Are Able To Retrieve Any Message You’ve Sent Out

Since all data are stored in the server, employees have the clearance to pull out any data about you through a simple query on your profile.

Whether the interview was a hoax or made-up, I think what’s more important is that people should be more tactful when they are online. In the real world, people may forgive and forget but in the virtual world, there are always traces of data that could be used against you.

What do you think of the interview conducted? Share with us by dropping your comments.

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  • Leon
    Do you think people will talk or exchange private ro secret things through face book?
  • I think people do; as a matter of fact, I do. What about you?
  • ahbraid
    Wow, good to know this information. Maybe the lesson to learn is--to stay off facebook if you can help it. Real friends are the people who you see in person and talk with on the phone, not in virtual space.
  • Personally, it's tough for me because people I know personally offline sometimes migrates to another country and Facebook is a great platform for me to keep in touch with them.
  • A.H.B.
    Wow, good to know this information. Maybe the lesson to learn is--to stay off facebook if you can help it. Real friends are the people who you see in person and talk with on the phone, not in virtual space.
  • Some people have blurred the lines between what's real and what's virtual.
  • Tom
    Horrifying. And the issue of not doing anything wrong is irrelevant. These are breaches of our privacy and civil liberties. Come on people. This isn't fun and games.

    A sad sign of the times. Perhaps I'll move to a cave and live by candlelight.
  • Perhaps we all should.
  • Buzz
    How does it do eyeball tracking remotely?
  • No idea.
  • Nunya Biz
    LOL
    "Is it a hoax or just made up..."
    SOMEONE needs help!

    Social networks and other 'posting ability' sites claim they own what you post because such posts are stored/saved on their system(s)/server(s). It does NOT give them the right to use ANY of it 'against' the poster(s) nor anyone else.

    Fact is, they don't know whether something said to one is true or not. One could say one thing to one and something different in the same regards to another.
    Ex:
    Susan to Johnny... I LOVE pickles.
    Susan to Joey... I only like sweet and sour pickles.
    Which is REALLY true? Who REALLY knows? Susan and Joey could be best friends while Susan and Johnny may have only just met.

    Consider it. Think about it.
  • hacked
    Wait wait wait.... Eyeball tracking? Either you actually mean "Mouseover" tracking, or that has to be illegal.
  • Jon
    Eyeball tracking? Because my monitor features the ability to capture images without a camera.

    That obvious joke aside, how is this different from any other online service anywhere? All your mail services are just like this - when I worked for yahoo I could get in to anyone's email without needing their password. There was even a link in one of our tools that said "read someone else's email."
  • May I know the reason behind that tool?
  • Jon
    Just to have the option. Occasionally it was needed for troubleshooting. Point is there are low-level administrators in every organization that can see everything you've done, this is nothing new.
  • Guest
    eye ball tracking?? LOL

    What hardware exactly do i have in my monitor that is allowing them to do that? lmao

    "Whether the interview was a hoax or made-up.." hmmmm makes me wonder about that then...
  • Maybe a controlled testing environment rather than the normal everyday users.
  • jorn
    This is really nothing new. Many sites, especially those who put ad banners on the site you visit, track your every move as much as they can. Welcome to the Internet.

    Also, let's be careful to be aware of the difference between what Facebook knows and what they can/will *divulge.* Not a single one of the OMG ONEOS BBQ! items in the list above have anything to do with the information that is publicly available on you.

    Oh, and one more thing: You're just not that interesting.
  • The above points made were based on the 'interview with a Facebook employee', I gave my opinion at the end of the post.

    It may be nothing new to you but for some, it is something that never cross their mind when they access social networking sites and disclosing their personal information freely. The post serves as a wake up call for these people.

    Obviously, you're not part of the target audience.

    Last point of yours: welcome to the Internet.
  • jorn
    Point taken; omgzam. I didn't mean to refute, but to contribute. :)
  • Thanks for the input Jorn :)
  • All lof this is comon sense.. any server operated by those who know how to use them can do any of these things. so should we not be careful of what we do on all computers that are not our own? I'm typing this at work. i'll delete this history, but it will still be there. What reason would these employees have to pull this type of info? I agree with the author - common sense and a few basic manners used by the majority would make us all feel safer...
  • Thanks for your input Erika :)
  • What should also be listed probably is how often other sites use your facebook acct. to authorize your acct. on that site. Just make sure your personal settings are as private as you can make them on Facebook. The only other way to be more private is to not use facebook.
  • Agreed. The amount of privacy that you're willing to disclose entirely depends on what you're doing over the Internet.

    Thanks for the input Joey.
  • Not really an issue for me. Sure, there's a lot about me out there, but seeing as I don't plan bank robberies via their platform, it really doesn't matter to me.
  • Agreed. If you're not doing anything wrong, there's nothing to hide.
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