So if I buy a watch from someone on Craigslist, he's no longer a "stranger" and the onus is now on me to explicitly inform him to not follow me around? Doing business with someone or some business should not imply consent to their monitoring you.
You describe a one-off transaction in which no expectation of future contact is anticipated. Facebook is an account with an on going relationship. Its the difference between seeing someone multiple times and saying hello to a stranger on the train.
I'm not saying they don't take it too far, but certainly someone with an account has invited facebook to do some data collection and tracking.
Fine, so instead of Craigslist Guy, let's use Home Depot, where I shop often. Just shopping there does not imply my consent to them tracking where else I go and shop throughout my day. Merely having an account somewhere or regularly doing business somewhere should not imply consent to tracking and data collection, to which I must opt out.
ADD: I probably have 100+ accounts at various sites online. Do these guys all get free passes to collect data and track me because I happen to have created an account there?
If you opened a credit account with Home Depot or had their loyalty card you'd be literally consenting to more tracking. That's the difference between an account and a one off transaction.
Facebook certainly operates outside of even this rather liberal framework so I wouldn't defend them wholesale. However I don't like false equivalencies.
