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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.'"
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
What prevents these apps from keeping a copy of the info in their databases before changing the settings?
They run javascript on the facebook page, can they be used to steal my facebook password?
Just about everything about Web 2.0 sites is a bad idea.
The privacy problems are well known.
The general stupidity of the users is well known (and often exploited by both the sites themselves and others).
The technology the sites use is often shitty (NoSQL, mainly).
Web 2.0 sites are about doing things as wrong as possible, but becoming popular thanks to the stupidity of people as a whole.
Cue an endless series of phishing sites: "Did you know that anyone on the internet can see things you post on your Facebook page? Just type in your username and password and we'll scan your profile to see if it's secure..."
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account
It's not hard, just involved and convoluted. Facebook's settings are many, and some of them aren't in the obvious places. These tools make it easy to do what's time-consuming to do by hand.
Says the guy posting in a site written in Perl.
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The article you linked says that 27% of orgs have a policy and that 2% of them have actually fired someone over things like this.
It seems to me having an objectionable Facebook page might be an asset. It would definitely keep you away from employers who do not understand that you're there to earn a paycheck, and then you go home. Now if you're the sort that actually wants to be micromanaged without pay, heed the advice, but for the normal among us, maybe it isn't such a big deal. Take this:
That happened to a friend of mine. She was out with friends and wasn't drinking. Someone passed her shots to pass down the table. Of course, someone was taking pictures and guess what? Yep, the picture of her with the two shots got on her friends Facebook page. She had a Facebook page too which was linked to her friends .... Oy!
Maybe you want to work for an establishment that understand that bars exist and that adults go into them. If you are seeking employment from an organization that would like to see all bars burnt to their foundation, I'd suggest you never even drive past one, let alone go inside.
At which point it doesn't matter whether you, yourself, are on Facebook - as long as that 'friend' puts your name in an entry, you could be flagged in such an internet query. I.e. if you're laying face-down in vomit with a half-empty bottle of Absolut in your hands, it doesn't really matter whether that somebody 'tags' that photo with the 'friend' account 'dcm' or simply jots down 'lol dcm after a FUN night out!'
You'd rather your boss went 'lol' along with the rest of us. Trust me. If they don't understand that adults of a certain age do certain perfectly legal things on their own time then they likewise won't understand when your kids get sick, when you want to vote your conscience, or when you land that really great promotion in another firm and want to say goodbye.