Facebook Tests Software to Monitor All Mouse Activities
Xinhua News Agency, October 31st - According to reports from the U.S. tech blog Gizmodo, while everyone has heard that Facebook is upgrading its system, no one wants more monitoring software added. However, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, this is exactly what Facebook is doing.
Ken Rudin, Facebook's analytics director, recently explained to The Wall Street Journal how the social network plans to track user habits. In short, Facebook intends to closely monitor user activity. Currently, the company is testing software to record various user habits, including when the Newsfeed appears on users' screens and how long they spend on each part of the page, among other things.
In other words, Facebook wants to know how your mouse moves, with every movement being recorded.
Facebook is likely not the first company to do this, but it may be the largest. The image website Shutterstock records user clicks, including the images clicked on as well as those they considered clicking on. A few years ago, Microsoft developed a method to simplify mouse tracking using just a small piece of JS code. Given Facebook's close relationship with Microsoft, it’s likely that Facebook's software was influenced by this.
However, even though Facebook is testing this feature, it doesn't necessarily mean it will be put into use. "(Development) doesn't have an end date," Rudin said about the software. "I can't promise when it will be launched, but we might know in a few months." Given the situation, we estimate that users will be very upset when they realize their privacy is decreasing on this privacy-invading website.