We all semi-stalk people on Facebook. You think of somebody from high school, or an ex, or your sister’s former boyfriend and you think “Man, have the courts finally caught up with that monster, or is he still threatening the general public?” So you search for him on Facebook, just to make sure he’s safely locked away.
Well, now Facebook is keeping that in a search history for you.
No, seriously, now, on top of everything else the Internet logs about you, Facebook is logging who you search for, and will even offer helpful links to your profile.
The good news is only you and Facebook can see this. The bad news is that, well, Facebook is doing this in the first place.
Here’s what the Blue F had to say about its new feature:
Just as you can choose to delete any of your posts, you can use the same inline control on Activity Log to remove any of your searches at any time. It’s important to remember that no one else can see your Activity Log, including your search activity.
It’s fairly clear that this is little more than an internal feature made external, and at least you have the ability to delete your visible search history. Furthermore, this won’t be in your public profile: You and you alone will have to face what you’ve been doing. That said, it is more than a little troubling that Facebook is tracking this and that the information is available. So, maybe be careful who you search for from now on.