The Backend of Privacy: Facebook Knows Your Every Move

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Writing for The Rumpus, Phil Wong met an anonymous Facebook employee for drinks at a Palo Alto watering hole called the Dutch Goose. Over two pitchers of beer, that anonymous employee provided Wong with an enlightening (if guarded) look at what goes on behind the silicon curtain and just how much Facebook knows about you (hint: everything). If you use Facebook (and to some extent, even if you don't) that company has access to every click you make.

See, the thing is - and I don't know how much you know about it - it's all stored in a database on the backend. Literally everything. Your messages are stored in a database, whether deleted or not. So we can just query the database, and easily look at it without every logging into your account. That's what most people don't understand.

The employee says that people have been fired for abusing their access privileges. That said, Facebook not only uses "eye-tracking to see where your eyes move while you browse Facebook," but also tracks "everything. Every photo you view, every person you're tagged with, every wall-post you make, and so forth."Granted, this isn't exactly new information, it's just incredible to hear it discussed so frankly. I'm not sure we need to regard Facebook as a sinister corporation or that we should panic, but I do wonder how it's come to pass that we're comfortable with a corporation monitoring our every moves. Should we be?Photo: still of Sandra Bullock in The Net by catchspider2003.