Remember the days before Facebook’s ever-present “like” button, its off-site commenting system and its login showing up on every page? If you long for those days, an extension for Google Chrome can help wipe out any evidence of Facebook.
Facebook Disconnect is a quickly-developed plugin by Google engineer Brian Kennish that blocks all traffic from third-party sites to Facebook servers, but still lets you use Facebook itself.
“Facebook is notified whenever you visit one of the more than one million sites on the web that use Facebook Connect,” writes Kennish in the extension’s desciption, “and has a history of leaking personally identifiable information to third parties.”
Kennish told TechCrunch that he “created the extension to help quell his desire to delete his Facebook account”. So, if you’re feeling like Facebook is the all-seeing eye, but you just can’t wean yourself, give Facebook Disconnect a shot.
We installed the extension and made our way around the Web and found that it was quite effective. Almost all evidence of Facebook’s existence was wiped out from our perusing. “Like” buttons (like the one at the bottom of this article) were completely absent, as were buttons to share things on Facebook. Looking at CNN Money, we found that not only the entire Facebook commenting system had disappeared, but even all of the social network sharing buttons – including Twitter and LinkedIn – had gone blank.
If you aren’t a fan of Facebook’s controversial “Instant Personalization” program, which automatically customized content on sites like Pandora and Yelp, then this extension is for you. Again, Facebook was noticeably absent.
While the extension isn’t perfect (as with the disappearing Twitter and LinkedIn buttons), Kennish says that if you report it, he’ll “fix it on the double”.
