Facebook has had a rather notorious reputation when it comes to guarding users’ privacy rights. In continuation of this reputation, it has now been revealed that the social network is exploring the option of collecting data about the cursor movements of the users.
Data about cursor movements is considered very significant. Such data essentially reveals where the users hover their cursor on the screen and what spot is most preferred by the users. In other words, cursor movements can reveal such spots on a page which are most interesting for the users.
This data, in turn, can be used to push out well-placed advertisements. It can also be used to tweak the existing products or create new products which will be more tailored to the user trends.
The problem with this feature is that it does infringe on the privacy rights of the users. Currently, Facebook is testing out this feature on a small group of users. If this beta phase shows that data about cursor movements can be useful, the social network may decide to roll the feature out to all its users.
Either way, the social network is poised to decide whether or not it wants to launch this feature within the next few months. This decision will be made based on the output from the test group. The big question for privacy activists would be, will the social network offer this feature with an opt-out choice or will it be forced upon all the users. Let’s wait and see, what happens.
Source: WSJ
Courtesy: Mashable
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