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The Independent

Facebook Admits Tracking Non-Users — and Offers an Excuse

Apr 10, 2015  •  Post A Comment

Responding to new accusations that it has been tracking non-Facebook users, along with people who have opted out of tracking, Facebook admitted that it has happened, according to a report in the U.K. publication The Independent.

Facebook, which posted a long piece in response to the accusations, offers the explanation that it was an accident.

The accusations surfaced last week in a report published by Belgian academics, who “alleged that Facebook had been secretly installing tracking cookies on users’ computers, even when they had deleted their account and asked not to be followed,” The Independent reports. “Facebook this week responded that such cookies may have been placed in ‘a few instances,’ but that the team is addressing those ‘inadvertent instances.'”

Facebook denied the rest of the report’s claims.

“The academics had claimed that Facebook continued tracking people when they opted out of ads, but the site said it only kept information like ‘web impressions’ — the fact that certain pages have been visited — and the authors of the report had misleadingly called that ‘tracking,’” The Independent notes.

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