According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook’s head of company analytics said Tuesday that the social media giant is looking to collect more data on its over 1.2 billion users’ interactions.
This data collection will include:
-how long a user’s cursor hovers over a certain part of the site
-whether a user’s newsfeed is visible at a given on the user’s mobile phone screen
Mr. Rudin, head of the company’s analytics has been preparing the company for a tremendous surge in the amount of data. Or to put it simply, they’re getting ready to track more data about their users than ever before.
Facebook is currently using an open-source framework called Hadoop. This system is already used by stock footage website, Shutterstock, to track its users every single movement in the precise way Rudin is interested in implementing.
It’s unknown when and even if this system will come into full realization according to Hadin, but there is certainly momentum toward it happening unless there is some sort of user revolt or media backlash.
In any case, it will be several months before Facebook is able to integrate the enhanced tracking, reports engadget.com.
There is also a large risk of the data being so massive as to be useless, something Hadin describes as a “data junkyard.”
Maybe, if we all rapidly move our mouses back and forth on facebook we will force the social media giant to lay off the 1984-ing.
