From: dannyb@panix.com   
      
   In <612403b6.11437826@news.dslextreme.com> usenet@only.tnx (Questor) writes:   
      
   >>>You can't avoid facebook.   
   >>   
   >>If you don't have an account and don't go to their website, you still   
   >>can't avoid them?  How does that work?   
      
   >If you load a web page with Facebook button such as "like" or "share," it   
   sends   
   >a request to Facebook servers -- unless, as mentioned elsewhere, you   
   explicitly   
   >block the scripts from running or access to Facebook servers.  Facebook then   
   has   
   >your operating system version, browser version, and the web page you hit,   
   which   
   >it associates with your IP address.  And yes, Facebook does build such   
   profiles   
   >where someone never logs into Facebook.   
      
   >Most web programmers are lazy, in the sense that for tracking people they rely   
   >on things like cookies, which reside on the users' computers.  But if they   
   take   
   >the trouble to store data on their own servers, there's little you can do to   
   >prevent being profiled by your browser's "fingerprint."  In addition to the   
   >browser version, a web site can query what plug-ins and fonts are installed,   
   and   
   >their order.  This information usually uniquely identifies a single person.   
      
   There's a fascinating tool from the EFF that demonstrates this:   
      
   (EFF + Electronic Frontier Foundatio.  Kind of a tech/computer   
    third cousin to the ACLU.  Good guys)   
      
   https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/   
      
      
   --   
   _____________________________________________________   
   Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key   
   		     dannyb@panix.com   
   [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)