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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.
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