Facebook's Plan To Automatically Share Your Data 142
Giosuele sends in this excerpt from TechCrunch:
"In anticipation of a slew of new features that will be launching at f8, today Facebook announced that it was once again making changes to its privacy policy. One of the biggest changes that Facebook is making involves applications and third-party websites. We've been hearing whispers from multiple sources about these changes, and the announcement all but confirms what Facebook is planning to do. In short, it sounds like Facebook is going to be automatically opting users into a reduced form of Facebook Connect on certain third party sites — a bold change that may well unnerve users, at least at first."
Nooooo! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Nooooo! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nooooo! (Score:4, Interesting)
That's ok, you don't have any friends.
I deleted all of my friends. At least from my Facebook account.
Then I made all information on FB visible to friends only, and nothing accessible to applications, advertisers, etc. Then I deleted all photos, personal data, posts, and so forth. It takes a while, as Facebook has settings links for different things in several places. The account remains active, but is utterly devoid of content (even my birth date has "typographical errors"). That must make me a Facebook zombie, of sorts.
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Shouldn't this be modded as funny?
I mean, it is the same as not being on Facebook, with the pointlessness of having an account.
As for me: What is this Facebook you speak of?
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So what's the purpose of the account?
Facebook needs more zombies! Haven't you heard?
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FB does have an "Only Me" privacy setting available if you'd like to tighten that account up a bit more. You have to select the "Customise" option on most of the privacy settings to actually see it.
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FB does have an "Only Me" privacy setting available if you'd like to tighten that account up a bit more. You have to select the "Customise" option on most of the privacy settings to actually see it.
Yep, did that too, everywhere the option existed. But for some items, Facebook does not give an "Only me" option, so "Only friends" is the best available. If you also delete all your friends, then there is no real difference between the two options :)
Facebook needs more zombies!!!
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I don't think my Mom will mind.
Re:Nooooo! (Score:5, Funny)
Do you realize in your attempt to go on a racist troll, you pretty much described the plot of Crocodile Dundee?
As for Facebook, all this means is that I have to double check that all the info I've given them is erroneous.
Re:Nooooo! (Score:5, Insightful)
As for Facebook, all this means is that I have to double check that all the info I've given them is erroneous.
Including name? Having a fake name makes it really awkward to use Facebook with your friends and relatives and so on.
But this is finally a thing that really made me thinking of just closing my Facebook account. Not just opt-out from the new features again and again, since they just seem to always be more and more privacy intrusive.
This doesn't use any kind of login button but shares the data automatically to a website when you visit it, so they instantly know who you are along with other data. IP data is still anonymous enough (from the view point of website operator - they don't know who you are without going through police with a valid reason), but now the third party website owners have your name and other details without you never giving them those.
And just wait until every website will start to require you to use this. A good path for throwing all the anonymous cowards off the net and to get everyone comment and visit websites under their real name.
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Really less than you'd think.
I started going by "PopeRatzo" after being nominated for an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor Category in Twelve Monkeys back in '96 and told all my friends that I'd be going by that handle. This way, they realize it's me whenever I post on Facebook and I don't get bothered by fans or butter-face Jennifer Aniston.
Now you'll have to excuse me. Ange is coming out of the tub and
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Sorry, that last line was supposed to read: "screaming effing kids", but I was having trouble typing with one hand in my lap.
I love being AC (Score:1, Insightful)
Precisely for things like this.
Agreed, 110% (Score:1, Insightful)
"You will dress only in attire specially sanctioned by M.I.B. special services. You'll conform to the identity we give you. Eat where we tell you. Live where we tell you.
From now on, you'll have no identifying marks of any kind. You will not stand out in any way.
Your entire image is crafted to leave no lasting memory with anyone you encounter. You are a rumor, recognizable only as deja vu, and dismissed just as quickly. You don't exist. You were never even born. Anonymity is your name, silence is your native tongue.
You are no longer part of the system. You are above the system, over it, beyond it. We're "them." We're "they." We are the Men in Black." - Zed, to Agent J & Agent K from the film "MEN IN BLACK"
See subject-line above...
facebook, myspace, friendster, orkut (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand what is wrong with everyone on the internet. You cry about privacy but willingly give out your real-life information to these websites. Each and every one of these social networking websites exists for one purpose and that's to sell your information, your demographics to advertisers and generate revenue.
None of these sites are altruistic establishments who seek to serve the public good guarding one's privacy. At the end of the day you're engaging in opt-in Big Brother and it's far more disturbing than the advanced police state that exists in the UK and is growing in the United States of America.
Doesn't matter if you're using a throwaway freemail account because even then it's ridiculously easy to find one's real-life information. Just stop going there, delete your information and send their company a strongly-worded letter demanding they remove your information.
Re:facebook, myspace, friendster, orkut (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, in this case the sharing of information to third party websites will be done automatically and you are automatically opted-in to the feature. I don't cry about privacy when I can decide when, what and how I give it out. When it happens automatically like here, then I'm sure as hell will complain about it.
You opted in when you gave them your data. (Score:3, Insightful)
Their policy means nothing, since they can always change it on a whim. The only way to have control over your information and privacy is to control it yourself.
Anyone feel like making a distributed peer to peer facebook clone where each user runs (or at least has the ability to run) their own server?
Re:facebook, myspace, friendster, orkut (Score:4, Interesting)
Exactly!
Quoting the draft from TC's report:
In order to provide you with useful social experiences off of Facebook, we occasionally need to provide General Information about you to pre-approved third party websites and applications that use Platform at the time you visit them (if you are still logged in to Facebook). Similarly, when one of your friends visits a pre-approved website or application, it will receive General Information about you so you and your friend can be connected on that website as well (if you also have an account with that website).
Wait, Facebook, you don't "occasionally need to provide" anything. I did not ask or want you to provide "useful social experiences off of Facebook".
P.S. THIS STINKS OF BEACON
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Mmmm, bacon.
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My thought exactly lol.
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What if I switched to using a browser only for facebook?
Probably won't matter because they'll find a new way to share my info.
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your response is not valid in the case when you are OPTED IN by default to have your previously restricted information given away
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But it's irrelevant.
Most of the people bitching about this don't use FB. The people who do either don't care or "opt-out" as they are free to do.
It's a non-issue.
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Well... yes and no.
A large chunk of FB users might not know what this means and then not go through the effort of opting out, some might even use FB from their mobile phone most of the time (I know of a few of my friends who are on the road a lot and FB/Tweet from their phones) and might not know about this for a few weeks.
If the opt-out option is there it is certainly less of an issue than sensationalised in TFA, but there is still opportunity for peoples personal information that they would like to have r
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A large chunk of FB users might not know what this means and then not go through the effort of opting out...
We hate it when Government tries to play Big Daddy and tell us what to do like children, how about we all let people fend for themselves with Facebook? They send out an email letting users know about things like this. If FB users can't figure it out, well, there's more trouble than this brewing for them. I think most will have a clue. Most will do nothing as is their right, the rest will lock things down or stop using FB. Choice!
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Case in point: Users clicking on dodge links or opening dangerous attachments in e-mails.
Or how about people STILL falling for those 419 emails? Heck Oprah had a show dedicated to it and yet people STILL fall for the most basic scams.
Why would someone who ignores a notice from their bank not to send out personal information or reply to a mail asking for their banking details take heed of a facebook mail telling them they can opt out from giving personal information?
You have to cater to the lowest common den
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they opt you in and lob your information to all their partners. then you come along after notification and opt out. see the problem?
Re:Quit WHINING. (Score:5, Insightful)
When Facebook adds a new feature that shares my information in a new way:
(a) Share my information automatically, I can stop sharing later
(b) Do not automatically share, I can begin sharing later.
That way those who care can keep their data private or at least not be surprised by the new way their data is being shared, and those who find that they enjoy sharing their data in new ways can always be on the cutting edge.
Once you set your default, you can go back at your leisure and change the setting to share or to not share. Usually you will not have to do anything because the default sets the sharing the way you like it.
Ob Disclaimer: I don't use Facebook or any of those other new-fangled things.
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Why is it every time Facebook gets a new idea, everyone must scramble to update their settings - why not just assume people want to keep their information private?
Because the basic purpose of facebook is to share information. An assumption that you desire privacy is counter to the idea of using facebook.
Also its far more profitable to sell your information upfront before giving you the "opt out" choice than to only sell the information of the few people who choose to "opt in".
Re:Quit WHINING. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is it every time Facebook gets a new idea, everyone must scramble to update their settings
Because it's far easier for the site to make money that way, and they really don't care about your privacy (although it is wise for them to maintain the facade of caring).
Re:Quit WHINING. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Correction. Selling their user's data to anyone who's willing to pay (spammers anyone?) is their primary revenue source. Any advertisement slots they sell on the site itself is just a secondary revenue stream, and considering the amount of people using ad-blocking of some sort, negligible.
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"...why not just assume people want to keep their information private?"
Because that doesn't make money. Exploiting and making public any personal information people offer is how they make money. It's the only way they can make money. They have a fiduciary duty to their stakeholders to do so. Telling them not to do so is like telling water not to be wet.
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I don't understand what is wrong with everyone on the internet. You cry about privacy but willingly give out your real-life information to these websites.
I am putting my information up on a widely used platform where I can easily exchange information with the people I want. The fact that the platform is a 3rd-party website is not at all voluntary.
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I don't understand what is wrong with everyone on the internet. You cry about privacy but willingly give out your real-life information to these websites.
"We" (I'm not part of the "we") willingly give it away, because that's what their TOS say: if you use false information, you don't exist, therefore your account will be deleted, because it doesn't belong to anyone (or you are impersonating someone, which is against the law in any country on Earth).
What real life information really? (Score:5, Funny)
They know my full name and the name of my wife; my birthday and home town and a google email address. That's it. What's the big deal about that? It's not like they have access to any of my bank details, credit cards, NI number, passport number, or anything that would really cause me grief if it got into the wrong hands.
Stop making a mountain out of a mole hill. Sheesh !
Re:What real life information really? (Score:5, Insightful)
You're kidding, right? Those are the details that an identity thief needs to impersonate you. Social engineering is a well-understood art, and the people you do it to are still living in the 20th century and don't realize that everybody's birthdays and relationships are effectively public knowledge, so if you can give them that information about a person you want to impersonate, they will believe that you are that person and then give you the information you need to get the other details.
Some institutions are starting to wise up to this, but it's hard to know which institutions you do business with are wise to this, and most people don't check, even if they are among the very small percentage of people who realize they should. Do you know what your bank's information protection policy is, what an employee has to do to get fired for violating it, and whether or not that policy is actually enforced?
Subtle satire is subtle (Score:5, Insightful)
Whoosh.
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Please say "fraud artist", identity exists separately from documentation (at best, documents merely confirm that the issuer has certain beliefs about the person depicted on the documents, at worst, they don't mean anything).
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I have noticed that my bank does not ask me for picture ID when I make a deposit.
The receipt shows not only the deposit amount but also the resulting account balance.
Anyone who wants to know how much I have in my account has merely to know the account number and deposit one dollar to the account.
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It's not like they have access to any of my bank details, credit cards, NI number, passport number, or anything that would really cause me grief if it got into the wrong hands.
Yet.
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The naivete displayed in the replies to your comment are astound
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I don't understand what is wrong with everyone on the internet. You cry about privacy but willingly give out your real-life information to these websites.
I absolutely disagree with this, but I don't have time to discuss it now. If you want to discuss this further, you can reach me here:
Dan Cruz
656 Maple Ave.
San Diego, CA
Home: (901) 271-5342
Work: (901) 887-4040 x523
Cell: (901) 279-8601
You can reach me at my $65k/yr job from 8 to 2, and then I go to the gym for an hour. If you have to reach me next week, I'll be on vacation with my wife Julia for six days, so call my cell. Also, this reuben sandwich is dee-licious!
Re:info (Score:3, Interesting)
That's interesting.
Your address is in CA and your phone number is from Tennessee?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_code_901 [wikipedia.org]
Yahoo maps says there is no Maple Ave in San Diego.
So you are demonstrating the point of how easy it is to frame someone?
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Maybe my post wasn't as humorous as I had expected, but I've never seen somebody put so much effort into not getting a joke!
Also, who am I framing for what now?
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Social networks allow me to stay in contact with my friends in a better and easier way than by phone. If I would not have such sites, I would have to call them or send them mails. And because modern economy forces people to move often, you cannot visit your friends every weekend, because they live in another country or state or continent. And I have not given them my data under agreement A and then they change it and then they could sell it or give my data to people I do not want to.
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..but willingly give out your real-life information..
I, for one, don't. I know other people who also do not. I do have many friends who say "I have nothing to hide so why should I care?", and I don't bother trying to explain it to them because they just don't get the basic concept. Some of them may one day have a rude awakening when they discover that there is something about their lives they don't want the whole wide world knowing, but most will not. I will continue to use pseudonyms online, and carefully screen my own postings to such sites so as to mainta
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> advanced police state that exists in the UK
Please explain.
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as much as i have enjoyed touching base with people on facebook, i deleted all my other social networking accounts except for facebook and linked in tonight. and i am seriously considering dumping the other two. i dunno, i'm kind of tired of being humped by business and then told it's a good thing for me to have happen.
I see; tit for tat... (Score:4, Insightful)
If you reserve the right to burden Facebook with the truth about yourself and your most sensitive information, then they reserve the right to relieve themselves of that burden by revealing it to whomever they see fit.
The e-reward for e-trust.
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Doubtful. The majority of the Facebook user base cares little about actual privacy, and instead just wants a way to show as many people as possible how sick the party was last night and how stoked they are about Friday, but get this - Wednesday is the new Thursday; how awesome are they for thinking that one up?
Their version of protest is creating a Facebook group titled "OMG stop our Facebook overlords!!! 100,000 members and we can change teh world!!!"
New law of physics? (Score:4, Funny)
I can see it now... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I can see it now... (Score:5, Funny)
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Tracking and XSS for the masses (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Tracking and XSS for the masses (Score:4, Insightful)
We already have examples of employers that demands access to prospective worker's Facebook accounts in real life.
We do? Is that legal? Easy answer: "I don't have a facebook account". It's none of their damn business.
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That's where you ignore the request. They contact you and ask about it "I don't know what you're talking about... I don't use Facebook.. must be someone else". (relies on your profile picture only being visible to friends)
Re:Tracking and XSS for the masses (Score:5, Informative)
Yup, we do.
Here's one from last year.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10268282-38.html [cnet.com]
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You'll be wanting folks to follow where they backed down [arstechnica.com], too. Or maybe the slashdot [slashdot.org] article...
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Happened to a friend of mine with his local Big Brothers/Big Sisters chapter. They told his Little that they were going to terminate their match of 6 years because my friend hadn't turned over his ID & password for any social networking sites he has an account on. They want access to it to make sure that Bigs aren't doing "bad" things and especially not posting information about/pictures of their Littles. Here's what he quoted from his chapter's policy (which he wasn't aware of previously):
But (Score:3, Insightful)
Are third party sites any more capable of doing anything complex with this information than Facebook? The extent to which I noticed facebook profiled me is the ads on the side would say "free gifts if you're male, 67 years old and live in Sausageville". Let's face it (no pun intended), Facebook probably gives prospective advertisers and third-party sites looking to use profile information some complex sounding presentation about the way that break down demographics to the point that an individual can be uniquely identified 24 seconds before they even think about logging into Facebook. But really, 99% of ads are based on sex, age and where they live, I'm sure a lot more companies than Facebook know this information, I think we're somewhat over-estimating technology companies' ability to mine data. OK, once I told a FB friend to not be such a baby and they got some ads about gifts for new parents. Maybe we should have a social experiment where we try to affect the ads by what we post. "Man, I wish I could get a cheap rate mobile, easy date in my area , cartoonize myself" should be a good starting point...
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I see you have Farmville Masteries in Onions, Peppers, and Corn as well as a stable full of horses. Here are free coupons for $.99 off your next Taco Bell purchase!
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I see you have Farmville Masteries in Onions, Peppers, and Corn as well as a stable full of horses. Here are free coupons for $.99 off your next Taco Bell purchase!
$.99 !? They're paying coupon holders a half dollar to eat as long as the have the ingredients?
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Perhaps they have an Facebook application that teaches basic math ?
Since when was 99 cents "half" a dollar ?
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Adult sites (Score:4, Funny)
Hopefully they won't partner with adult sites...
Richard is watching Porn Movie of the Day on SexSexSex.com, the dirty dirty bastard.
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Hopefully they won't partner with adult sites...
Richard is watching Porn Movie of the Day on SexSexSex.com, the dirty dirty bastard.
<3 Richard's wife likes this!
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That's not a real site! ...I checked.
It is now.
Think of Facebook as your press release (Score:2, Insightful)
Twitter/Facebook are flooded with advertisers so if you can't beat em join em. Use it as a press release page only.
i used to complain (Score:2, Insightful)
about the cranky losers who constantly trumpet the fact they don't have a television, whenever the subject comes up
however, i am now that cranky loser, for facebook: every time facebook comes up as an issue, i will trumpet the fact i don't have an account, and never will, and feel smugly superior for that fact
it's nothing but a bonfire of vanities. you're just not that interesting, none of us are, sorry
free your time and free yourself from endless navel gazing and obviously, get some privacy: lose facerbook
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I honestly do not like Facebook, although I have an account that I'll use about once a month. The problem with not having a Facebook account is the same problem with not eating out: Eating out every meal is expensive and, if you're a decent cook, you usually find the food pretty awful. However, if you work in an environment where everyone eats out every meal, you're pretty much forced to eat out as well unless you want to alienate yourself. Get new friends? In a job where you move every 6 months and your co
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I've got some news for you. Even though you're not on Facebook, you're still on Facebook.
I finally gave up on the idea of internet anonymity a few months ago, realizing that if I didn't take charge of my own PR, someone else would.
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Been there, feel your pain.
I've already had my personal information involuntarily published on the internet...by someone untouchable that knew I couldn't do a damn thing about it.
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My Facebook profile identifies my religious and political views, my intellectual interests, and past and present occupations. What part of any of that obtains in "shallowness?"
A computer isn't a trivial toy, even though you can use one to play video games and argue on Slashdot all day. By the same token, Facebook isn't "endless navel gazing" even though you can use it to trumpet your superiority to your fellow man, whether that comes from flashy clothes or smug overgeneralizations like yours. Facebook is a
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lose facebook. you're life will improve
I made the decision to drop off Facebook on February 17th (nothing special about the date, my brain just remembers little details like that). I had in excess of 200 family, friends, and acquaintances, about 125 of which updated semi-regularly. Facebook's "push" mechanism and its critical mass of people was a very convenient way to keep up with the people I care about. For me, it wasn't a bonfire of vanities or shallow, like you suggest, because keeping up on the lives of friends is interesting and valuab
reductio ad absurdum (Score:5, Funny)
I know exactly what you mean! I feel the same way about the telephone!
Sure you can use it to keep up with friends and family who live far away, but that's what letters are for. If you have real friends, they wont need this contrivance to maintain their friendship with you. And think about all the things you'll be able to talk about as if they were new if they come to visit. Ah the joys of limited connectivity!
And I mean, talk about annoying! I know that as soon as I install one in my house, it's gonna start ringing, interrupting work, interrupting dinner, interrupting sleep. And nine times out of ten it's going to be someone I don't know trying to sell me something I don't need. And what do you want to bet that the phone company isn't listening in?
That's why I say,
lose the telephone, you're (sic) life will improve
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That's a nice diatribe, wrong, but nice.
Perhaps what you're describing is how many people use Facebook, and perhaps that's just how you envision all users using Facebook.
My family uses it somewhat differently. It's an excellent way to share pictures, stay involved with each others lives by sharing highlights (and lowlights) of what's happening, and just generally be social with each other. I also communicate with my brother who is stationed in Iraq. The soccer team my son plays on uses it much the same way.
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What I find really useful in facebook is its search function, as it allows you to e.g. reconnect with people who graduated in the same year at the same school/college as you.
The photo sharing abilities are not all that great (poor resolution, cumbersome interface to restrict visibili
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You'll get used to it (Score:2)
a bold change that may well unnerve users, at least at first.
Now give me a moment while I slowly turn up the burner under my stew pot full of live frogs.
Oblig Colbert (Score:4, Funny)
- Stephen Colbert
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/267560/march-17-2010/united-states-census-2010 [colbertnation.com]
Only a fool would publish personal info (Score:2)
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Certain data like name, address, and date of birth are often public records that can be mined by anyone who's willing to look for it. Check the site http://www.lookupanyone.com/ for instance, you just might find yourself and your family members and friends in there (I actually found that site by googling my full name). They say they use sources like "courthouses, county and other government offices". Apparently the government's privacy policy is a lot worse than that of Facebook.
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What fucking pisses me off is I do that and yet I have one _ex_ friend who is dumb enough to go posting all over Facebook wherever that stuff comes up with "corrections". Fucking idiot. No matter how often I told her there was a reason I'd put incorrect information in there she kept doing it. Deleted that moron from the friends list and also from the phonebook, and my life.
You may think you're doing a good job of being private, but I bet everybody on here has at least one friend who has loaded up their Goog
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Can I say that you are a fool?
Who are your friends? That is now known.
Topics? Any you discuss are known.
How long do you spend on line on facebook? Now known.
When are you on holidays? Easy to extrapolate. Calculate your average logon frequency. When it changes noticeably, the system could predict you're away. The system could then use your IP address and other information to calculate where you live.
For f*** sake. Are people this stupid? You think it's about birth dates?
AC
PS For those saying "yeah,
My 2p worth of rambling (Score:2)
To be honest I don't care about the info I have on FB. All they have is my name, an incorrect birth date, a low resolution indication of my general location, and a list of people that I am linked with in some way. Nothing of much value to any third party that I can think of.
What does bother me though is the idea of someone passing on my information (whether I care about the information or not) for profit. I I'm to be hored out to the world I'll do the horing and have the profit thankyouverymuch. If someone
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Re:UK Data protection rules (Score:5, Interesting)