Technology & Innovation — October 4, 2011

New Furore over Facebook Cookies

Is Facebook again using a cookies that tracks users across different web properties and back to the Facebook site. Entrepreneur and hacker Nick Cubrilovic says yes and asks why.

bigthinkeditor

What’s the Latest Development?

In May, the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook like buttons and other website widgets were setting cookies on visiting browsers that could then be read later and used to track the user across different web properties and back to the Facebook site. As a result of that report, the cookie in question—datr—was removed. Now it is back, writes Nick Cubrilovic.

What’s the Big Idea?

Cubrilovic says Facebook keeps the data collected for up to 90 days and then deletes it. “I believe them when they say this and that they are not hiding anything, but I also believe that our definitions of tracking differ. …At a minimum they are tracking by reading the cookies, and if you look further into some of the patents that Facebook has filed, as well as their business model (advertising), it is not a big leap to make to conclude that Facebook are tracking users and analyzing that data.”

Two people walking past a dark brick wall with numerous security cameras pointing in various directions.

The Present

Are smart cities a wise idea?

When Google runs a smart city, who owns the data?

Illustration of a young woman with closed eyes, smiling, next to a large, detailed eye and surrounded by vibrant, abstract elements and smiley faces.

Neuropsych

Eyes wide shut: Why psychedelic trips intensify with eyes closed

Visual stimuli, like watching videos, can diminish the potentially therapeutic effects of psychedelics, recent research suggests.

Starts With A Bang

The big idea of Grand Unified Theories of physics

If the electromagnetic and weak forces unify to make the electroweak force, maybe, at higher energies, something even grander happens?

Microscopic image of a small electronic component with clear details of its structure and connections against a gray background.

The Future

Making microbots smart

What would it take to create a truly intelligent microbot, one that can operate independently?

Four-panel collage of historical philosophers in various artistic styles, including a sculpture, a sketch, and two realistic portraits.

Thinking

4 philosophers on how to live a happy life

From Taoism to hedonism, philosophers have devised all sorts of ways to live your best life.

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Can Women Change the Way We Think About War?

The story of war has always been told by men. But what happens when we look at war through the eyes of women? That’s the fundamental premise of an upcoming […]