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Open Source Utilities For Facebook Privacy
dward90 writes "Two online projects will scan and edit Facebook privacy settings for maximum protection: ReclaimPrivacy (reclaimprivacy.org) and SaveFace (untangle.com). The article says: 'Several new applications have launched this week that are designed to easily reset a Facebook member's privacy settings, following new changes from the company that make a sizable chunk of profile content public by default when it was once kept under lock and key.'"
The fact that they are open source and you can view the code before you run it? If you're not comfortable with it, don't use it.
Account->privacy settings->Apps and websites Disable "Instant Personalization Pilot Program"
RTFM you moron. It plainly states on the download page that it resets all your settings to friends only.
No comprende? Let me type that a little slower for you...
You can't. And neither of these tools do.
You have to drag them from their website to your toolbar. Go to facebook, click on them. The javascript scrapes the website and either validates the settings (reclaim) or just sets everything to 'friends only' (save face).
I've tested both and they seem to work just fine.
I bet facebook releases a change in the html to break the scraper soon though.
I wish it were that easy. I have the "Instant Personalization Pilot Program" disabled on my account, but FB Connect popped up on CNN Money this morning.
What did I do? I specifically blocked any URL containing "fbconnect". Problem solved. OmniWeb let me do this using RegEx, but I'm sure the same can be done with AdBlock.
Per Square Mile, a blog about density
SaveFace automatically goes through and sets your privacy to "Only Friends" for everything. This may undo certain privacy measures you've already taken. For example, I set up a Limited Profile friend list for people who don't need to have access to my e-mail addresses, screen names, etc and blocked those items for them. SaveFace went through and removed those restrictions, so any of my friends could see my e-mail addresses, screen names, phone number, etc.
This tool would work fine if everyone on your friends list are actually friends who you'd like to share all of this with. On the other hand, all those folks from high school I added don't need to be able to IM me, call/text me, or use my e-mail address for anything.
My mistake, that is only for 2-3 sites that use your FB id to store profile settings
However, the other sites seem to be taking the data with explicit permission from FB. See http://www.microsoftteched.in/
On the bottom right there is a FB app click on the privacy button in it, there is a 4-5 page long document, but since it is on facebook.com, I assume that it is only for selected partners, so it should be as safe as your data is on FB itself
I ran them in the following order:
reclaim
saveface
reclaim
on the 2nd run recalim reported everything as "good"
Ditto. It appears reclaim didn't really change my settings (hence why it still showed red). Saveface did all the work.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
See here under "Yes, Facebook can get you fired."
Mr. Fulmer and his wife made fun of a local church sermon in a podcast they posted online in 2005. Mr. Fulmer says it got so much attention, his boss listened to it, thought it was offensive and fired him.
The thing is, sharing things about yourself can be objectionable to an employer - and you don't know what they could be.
What may be completely harmless or even your God given right to say or do, may make you unhirable for an employer or even fired. Against the law in some cases - prove it. They can always find a legitimate and legal excuse to not hire you or fire you.
The best thing to do is pass on Facebook.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
Is it really so hard to simply go through Facebook's privacy settings yourself and consciously set them to whatever you want (as far as that's possible)?
Yes, it really is "so hard". Intentionally so. Take a look at this NY Times graphic showing all the privacy settings options that exist throughout a Facebook profile. (Or, at least, the options the NY Times was able to find.) You can see that the options behave in inconsistent ways. You can set "maximum privacy" on one page without realizing that an option at a different level over-rides this (e.g. third-party ads may still have access).
To really insure maximum privacy, you not only have to navigate this maze of options (the NY Times graphic helps to make sure you've nailed them all), but you have to repeatedly re-check your settings since Facebook can (and does) change the settings interface (and thus the default settings) from time to time. So a previously "highly private" profile can have information leak unless you are actively checking whenever there are changes.
As I said before, this is probably intentional. Facebook would prefer to have more access to data and more ability to redistribute personal data for profit. So it is to their advantage if people don't have maximally-private settings. A plugin that actually produces a clean, sane, and useful privacy settings interface can thus make it much easier to control those settings. It also points out just had bad Facebook's settings and customization pages really are: you need third-party apps and newspaper flow-charts to make sense of them.
And it couldn't before? Any trojan could go and change your settings for any website that you're currently logged into. It's not like this is something new with facebook.
Heck, the fundamental way they work is the entire idea behind GreaseMonkey & UserScripts (for Chrome/Opera)
Is that a serious question?
Relational databases can do anything and everything that any NoSQL "database" can do. But unlike NoSQL "databases", relational databases don't go randomly losing data, don't go corrupting data, allow for proper normalization, allow for much better performance, allow for transactions, and in general are always a much better idea.
The only reasons people gravitate to NoSQL databases and architectures are:
1) They're ignorant of how to properly use a relational database.
2) They're doing it just because it's the "cool" or "trendy" thing to do.
The fact that SQL hasn't been replaced in 40 years shows that it's working okay for most people, even if it isn't perfect.
Even if you turn off instant personalization, facebook still knows every time you visit one of those partner sites. But NoScript (I leave scripts enabled globally) has a cute feature called Application Boundary Enforcer. Here's (some of) my config:
Site .facebook.com .facebook.com
Accept from
Deny
Site .fbcdn.net .facebook.com .fbcdn.net
Accept from
Accept from
Deny
Enjoy!
Yep, easily done with AdBlock here's the filter: http://dev.mathiasbaert.be/misc/facebook-connect-opt-out.html
it will block facebook.com, fbcdn.net and facebook.net on third party sites
For privoxy, I added the following to my user.action file:
{ +block{Facebook privacy invasions} }
http://api.facebook.com/restserver.php
http://www.facebook.com/connect.php/js/FB.SharePro/
http://www.facebook.com/ajax/connect/
http://www.facebook.com/plugins/
http://www.facebook.com/connect/
http://connect.facebook.net/
and saved.
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
And the script itself is nicely formatted. Look towards the end for the actual code that matters. Have fun.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.