Facebook Cookies Can Track Internet Browsing : US Judge

New York, July 4 (IANS): A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing the social networking giant of tracking user's browsing history while they log out of their accounts.

The lawsuit argued that the tracking amounted to violating federal and state laws on privacy and wiretapping by storing digital cookies on user's internet browsers that can track their visits to other websites that have the facebook’s “like” buttons, USA Today reported on Monday.

The lawsuit charged that Facebook's promise that logging out would delete the cookies is breached by this activity.

However, US District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, ruled that plaintiffs in the lawsuit "have not expressed that they have a reasonable expectation of privacy" or suffered any realistic economic harm or loss.

While pointing out that plaintiffs could have taken several steps to keep their browsing histories private if that is what they wanted, Davila also ruled that Facebook had not "intercepted" the electronic communications in potential violations of wiretap laws.

In response, Facebook said it was " pleased with the court's ruling".