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Facebook's "Evil Interfaces"
An anonymous reader writes "Tim Jones over at the EFF's Deep Links Blog just posted an interesting article on the widespread use of deceptive interface techniques on the Web. He began by polling his Twitter and Facebook audience for an appropriate term for this condition and received responses like 'Bait-and-Click' and 'Zuckerpunched.' Ultimately, he chose 'Evil Interfaces' from Greg Conti's HOPE talk on malicious interface design and follow-up interview with media-savvy puppet Weena. Tim then goes on to dissect Facebook (with pictures). So, what evil interfaces have you encountered on (or off) the Web?"
For those interested, there are two related research papers available by Conti and Sobiesk. The first Malicious Interface Design: Exploiting the User was just published this week at the 2010 WWW Conference. The other is from IEEE Security and Privacy Magazine, Malicious Interfaces and Personalization's Uninviting Future. (PDF)
That doesn't stop 'friends' putting information about you on their profile or tagging photos with your name.
Not really. The main privacy problems aren't what they do but rather that they do it without notifying users and thus not obtaining their consent.
Imagine if I signed a contract that stated I would pay $500 in rent every month. Seven months later I get a letter saying that I owed back rent despite paying my $500 every month. Would it really hold up in court that the landlords had a 'right' to change the contract without notifying their tenants? But that is exactly what Facebook is doing. It is nothing more than online bait-and-switch only worse because generally with bait and switch you know that a change is taking place before you fork over the cash.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Here is what I found reprehensible is that when I choose to not store my credit card information on their site, a pop up window with the their privacy policy pops up. Clearly, if it so important to them that I keep my credit card information on their site, then it stands to reason that they intend to misuse it in some way. Ticketmaster already lied to me about the amount they were going to charge to credit card, who knows what else they lie about. Perhaps I was being enrolled in a club that would charge me $50 a month to have priority access to future purchase opportunities. I don't know. I don't know why they would confuse the user and kill a sale just to get to keep my credit information.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
...You mean like how right by every single post in the news feed there is a button where you can hide posts from certain people, groups, etc?
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I actually deleted my facebook profile last week. But that doesn't mean they are actually going to delete my information or prevent anyone from tagging/talking about me.
Try the contact: delete account page. I did this a year ago and my account is as permanently gone as it can be. Although, I read that
I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
Did you unfriend everyone, delete all messages, pictures, etc?
If no, log back in (your account will likely reactivate automatically) and delete everything out of it, and then DELETE the account.
Note that "deactivation" (the acct will persist indefinitely; reactivate automatically) is different than "deletion"; prime example of an "evil interface".
If delete is truly want you seek, use the delete account link shown below.
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account
After "Deleting", do not attempt to log in for at least 2 weeks to test it's gone (I'd suggest waiting even longer, such as a month), because otherwise FB may think you're changing your mind and reactivate the account even despite choosing to delete it.
Ron
Yep, in one word, "Apps".
Furthermore, the privacy settings are not as straight forward as they seem. Case in point is Facebook's new instant personalization feature that will show one's interests to others, including the general public - see link for more details.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/195385/facebook_gets_a_little_too_personal.html
On a related note, the number of Facebook friends one has is a risk in of itself ... you may have your privacy settings locked down tight, but what about all your friends?
The more "friends", the more risk of one or more of them being "hacked" and your "private" information being leaked out as a result. Then there's the related issue of "friends of friends", which is in and of itself is seemingly innocuous, but can become a privacy threat when one of them uses the same app you and/or friend does. "Rogue" friends are another privacy hole - very easy for one or more to slip in, especially for members who already have large friend lists.
Ron
I see your Outlook Express and raise you a Lotus Notes.