How do the Like button statistics work?

Hello Melissa and Alex,

Curious, how does the Facebook Like button gather statistics?

This is just a general question. When I share my Joomla article on my Facebook profile, page and other social media sites such as Twitter, I've noticed that my actual JFBConnect article page registers more 'Likes' on it than the shared content on my Facebook. Could it be that users are clicking Like on my actual site article and these are register on Facebook. Guessing there is no way of knowing who has 'publicly' liked the content.

Feel welcome to link me off to any articles on the subject. Couldn't find any answers in this forum.

Thanks!

Thanks Alex.

Yes, this basically explains it.

Essentially JFBConnet is helping Facebook gather 'Like' data about a URL external to Facebook. The number of 'Likes' on my Joomla article reflect how many people have visited my article, presumably read it, and then clicked the Like button. The fact that this article is shared has no relation to the actual data, only a possible indirect relationship in having helped direct traffic to the site.

Now, do appreciate the importance of privacy. Why it perhaps seems like JFBConnet has user information is that when I click 'Like' as a logged in Facebook user, my profile picture appears as a tiny thumb below the Like button (with the Like button greyed out). Based on what you've said, can only I see my own profile picture and nobody else (unless perhaps my Friends have clicked Like too)? Similarly, when a user clicks Like on my article, how is this reflected on the user's Facebook account, presumably it is added to their Timeline?

Thanks for helping understand what the data represents.