[edoloughlin]

This doesn't seem to be the full story. If I log out of FB I still have multiple cookies for the .facebook.com domain (e.g., c_user, which seems to contain my user id).

The like/comment/etc. 'widgets' are served from facebook.com, so presumably they are still tracking me.

Don't know why this article didn't mention Ghostery or http://disconnect.me

[wladimir]

You could also use multiple profiles (at least in Firefox), one for browsing around and one for social network sites.

In that case there will be guaranteed no cookie cross-pollution as the sites are completely isolated from each other.

Just logging out is indeed simply ineffective.

[RexRollman]

My wife is a Google Chrome user and she logs into Facebook and Twitter in an incognito window. Everything else she does in a regular Chrome window (which is set to delete all cookie when the browser is turned off).

Another option would be to install a second browser and use it solely for FB/Twitter.

[code_duck]

If only... Facebook uses a Flash LSO, which is of course shared between browsers.

[wladimir]

"of course shared between browsers"

Is it? Are saying that the flash crap doesn't distinguish between browsers/profiles?

That's another very bad security problem with flash. For me, it's the final straw. I'm going to wipe flash from all my machines now.

[nikcub]

Brian Kennish, who is mentioned in the story, is the author of disconnect. He helped the WSJ do the research, here is the original article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870428150457632...

for some reason the Y! version trimmed some parts of the story