A young Wollongong man and his computer have exposed secret monitoring by one of the world's biggest companies.Nik Cubrilovic become an overnight sensation yesterday after revealing Facebook is tracking users after they have logged off the social networking site.The University of Wollongong drop-out blew the lid in a blog post, which triggered a panic among users and reignited debate over online privacy.

Facebook denies tracking claims

Born in Wollongong and educated at Hayes Park Public School and Kanahooka High, Mr Cubrilovic spent yesterday at home, coming to grips with his new-found global notoriety."From where I'm sitting right now, I have no idea how big this story is, all I'm seeing is the media requests coming in from all over the world," Mr Cubrilovic said."I'm used to privacy not being a big issue [but] an increased awareness from Facebook users is what's made things really blow up this time."Tests the 31-year-old conducted last year revealed that, when somebody logs off Facebook, rather than deleting tracking "cookies" the site maintains account information and other unique tokens that can be used to identify users.When a user visits another website containing a Facebook button or "widget", the browser sends details back to Facebook.Mr Cubrilovic only released the test results on Sunday in a bid to tell users how to avoid the privacy implications of Facebook's latest upgrade."I thought it was my obligation," he said.He tried to contact Facebook to inform it of his discovery, but did not get a reply. Facebook is expected to formally respond to his claims today.The social networking giant is under pressure to make its operations more transparent.Acting NSW Privacy Commissioner John McAteer said he was troubled by Mr Cubrilovic's research, but said internet privacy was a challenge for legislators because the online environment was always evolving.Mr Cubrilovic said Facebook was "front-and-centre" in the new privacy debate."But because the world is made up of 200 legal jurisdictions nobody really knows who has oversight on the collected data ... [Facebook] are not beholden to Australian law in any way."Stephen Collins, spokesman for the online user group Electronic Frontiers Australia, said he did not believe Mr Cubrilovic's revelations would turn people away from the site in droves."Facebook, once again, are doing things ... beyond most users' capacity to understand, while reducing their privacy. That's just not cool. I'd go so far as to say it's specifically unethical," he said.