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Facebook Implements 'Download Your Profile' Option
eldavojohn writes "Facebook is rolling out some new changes (including groups) that are supposed to liberate user control. But something that might interest Slashdot readers even more is that they now allow you to download all your information from Facebook. That's everything — all your posts, pictures, videos, friend lists, etc. A video from David of the Open Source team at Facebook explains how it will work, although I don't see that option on my profile yet (they are slowly rolling it out). There's not a lot of details yet, but they at least require you to click a link from an e-mail and reenter your password to get this (to avoid spambots harvesting everyone's data and careless use of public computers resulting in data leaks). Perhaps competitors like Diaspora would be interested in using this base information to germinate user seeds?"
Well this certainly makes it much more easier to move your nonsense-data around, but how long untill all the data is available on piratebay?
I hope there is an option to disable this in case your account is hacked and someone wants to download all of your data, oh wait, doh....
Having a bookmark to Google does not make you an expert on everything.
Facebook used to have a feature to dump your entire profile and contacts list as a csv. They removed that in the fall of 04.
Perhaps competitors like Diaspora would be interested in using this base information to germinate user seeds?
Maybe, but it already looks like Diaspora development is starting to slow down. OK, there have been some commits today, but I expected to see more activity than what's currently going on.
Remember when the source to Gish was released? A lot of activity and releases for about a fortnight and then nothing...
Summation 2
So now hackers have even more reason to go after your Facebook account. All that data in one nice, neat little download? Hackers paradise.
Can anyone tell me why 99% of
This makes me glad to know that I will soon be able to download your profiles. They got the name just right.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
...because right now, their Ping thing is utterly useless. Downloading all your FB data, in particular, contacts, might make it easier to get started with Ping.
I read it and understood it without even thinking about it until your post here. It's concise and to the point, I don't see what's wrong with it?
which is totally what she said
Maybe, but it already looks like Diaspora development is starting to slow down. OK, there have been some commits today, but I expected to see more activity than what's currently going on.
Well, following the release of the Diaspora source code everyone did kind of rip them apart (myself included). We all sort of hoped that such criticism would be constructive and the developers would redouble their efforts or seek more help or new developers would aid them.
It's equally likely that after receiving black eyes instead of kudos, developers left Diaspora in droves. It might end up being a failed project with important lessons learned.
My work here is dung.
Facebook has 0 pictures and 0 info about me. Ha ha.
Unless your account (or their servers) get hacked ...
If your account gets hacked, they still need to have your e-mail hacked. The link to download the zip file is later sent to your e-mail address when the processing is done. Zipping up videos and images takes a while so basically you request this data and they put it in a queue and an hour/day/week/month later you get your data to download e-mailed to you in a link and you re-enter your user password. I thought I described this in my summary but that means that even if your account is hacked they would need access to your e-mail and for quite sometime unless you had already requested it and left that e-mail in your account. Yes, this means that if they know the e-mail associated with your Facebook account, they can just hack that and then request a new Facebook password sent to that account and then initiate the profile zipping.
... it just presents the possibility that a hacker could more easily zip up your data ... and then that requires time ... and access to another resource of yours. For me, this risk is acceptable consider the benefit involved. As I mentioned, I suspect this will allow you to move the history of your profile to another site, which is really really good.
Let's say their servers get hacked. Well, the data is still not zipped up unless they are retaining that data after someone requests it. So at most they'll have access to whoever is waiting to retrieve their data. And it's going to be a lot of data. So there are a lot of logistics involved to get access to only a few random person's data. And even if the hackers are smart enough to invoke the zip script for every single account, that's not something that will happen overnight.
Basically if they have access to your account or the Facebook servers, they already have access to everything on your profile or Facebook as a whole (respectively). So while this presents mild security issues, it's already assuming that everything is compromised
My work here is dung.
FINALLY!!! A way to preserve all the comments from people I havent seen in 20 years telling me we need to smoke a joint together,..
Does this download include all messages received and sent?
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
allow you to download all your information from Facebook
The question is, does it really allow you to download all of your data? Does it let you download everything anyone has ever posted on your profile? If it did, this could give you some idea of what Facebook has stored about you.
I don't want to have to continuously delete tags of myself, remove posts from my wall and other annoying things while I'm trying to stay off FB. It's like a god damned disease you can't get rid of. Worse yet, my wife's profile has the delete option but she's not about to use it.
-jp
One thing that seems to be in the same update is removal of the "Clear Chat History" button in the chat window.
There are thousands of complaints posted about this already.
It doesn't take much imagination to see how not having this feature when one is expecting it can lead to comedy.
This is absolutely shocking. For the past few years it seems every article I have read has advocated that data be soley kept 'in the cloud' and that users will never need to download their data to a perosnal machine ever....
'The Cloud' is hype. Just like all the other hyped techs in the last 15 years (ATM will change networking, Java will be out OS, thin clients will rule the business world)
I? do think it will be interesting if real competition comes to FB how this will be used to transfer data.
If I hack your FB account, can't I change the email associated with it?
Yes, but the original e-mail address associated with your account gets e-mailed a notification allowing that to be blocked and if you do block it you have to change your password:
Now, you'd probably prefer that the original e-mail address has to okay the transition but that's how they have it implemented. So you're right, they could change the account associated with it if they know your Facebook password (it asks you at every step of the way). Then they could request the zip and wait to get the e-mail. But if you checked your e-mail in that time and canceled the new e-mail and changed your password you'd be safe.
That's definitely something they could do -- block the request of a new e-mail until an old one is okayed. But then you run into the trouble of someone hacking your e-mail account and gaining access to your Facebook account that way. In that case, they could change your Facebook account over to their e-mail account and then okay it in your hacked e-mail account. Once that's done, how would you reclaim your profile? They would always have the account associated with it.
Also if your old e-mail gets hacked and you have no way of getting it back, you're kind of at the mercy of the person who has your old e-mail as you'll never be able to change the e-mail address associated with your Facebook status and if you do, you'll tip them off that they also have your Facebook account to do with as they please.
What it usually boils down to is if your account is compromised, your account is compromised.
My work here is dung.
I can't think of any compelling reason for Facebook, as the clear market leader, to provide this service. I'm glad they did though, and it makes me feel a lot more comfortable about posting pictures, etc. there for family members without having to keep a mirror somewhere else.
I saw they're also adding some type of sub-networks or groups, so you can make a post about video games and leave out your parents, or congratulate someone about a job offer without including their coworkers. I can think of a lot of tricks to making a good implementation of this, so can't wait to see how they did it.
Those are probably the two most important features that have made me frown on facebook, so seeing both in one day is a big surprise.
To be fair, we are probably talking about people who use the same password for everything.
Well then in your suggested case, to be fair, where is the real security issue? Is it Facebook or is it the user?
The best and most flawless computer security systems will always have a human being as a security hole. The best 'hackers' reported in the news these days are those that use social hacks like sweet talking and shoulder surfing to gain access to very secure systems.
I wouldn't go around faulting Facebook for catering to the lowest common denominator. Their security measures are okay. They probably could be better but, hey, it's a mostly free service.
My work here is dung.
Thank you Facebook for supporting data portability and not use it as lame anti-competitive lock-in feature like Yahoo and M$ does.. I don't care how other slashdotters think, but you will earn more of my respect as you make your platform more open and release more open source projects. Well done for your effort, keep it on!
How long until spambots start sending you messages looking just like the one from Facebook directing you to a fake URL?
Facebook has 500 million users. At this point, they have few places to go, but down is a very likely possibility if they don't extend themselves into the fabric of the net and collaborate so they will always stick around in some form or another. Zuckerberg reportedly even made a contribution to the Diaspora guys in an undisclosed amount because he thinks the idea has merit... or, more likely, he wants to make sure there's cross-compatibility for years to come.
One other point, sort of tangential to the topic... Some of the comments in preceding discussions about Diaspora keep falling back on the "oh sure four guys in a garage with no professional experience EVER got a project off the ground" sort of sarcasm. Ok, I know it's all wonderful and cool to us nerds to rely on sarcasm and cynicism, but a little perspective should be in order as well: Facebook, Apple, Google, Yahoo and other "garage" startups... There's a reason there's only a handful of them. There are a ton of coders, but not everyone is Harvard educated, massively talented, in the right place at the right time or any combination of these. Not every coder who thinks he has a great idea can execute... ... Conversely, not everyone needs to be a Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Wozniak. In this Age of Entitlement, we all like to think life is a choice between either being rich or being nothing... but there's plenty of respectable room in between, even if all your project does is get you solid employment at someone else's company.
Anything at all to make people think they actually own and control the things they post to Facebook.
See? I can get it all back, that means it's mine.....
Facebook's had a run of bad press regarding lack of user control over posted content. This is just a feature nobody will use, dedicated to persisting the illusion of control that hides the fact that Facebook is "a place for Friending marketers".
No, they have 500 million *user accounts*.
Many of which are fake (spammers) or empty.
Granted the "author" of this story eldavojohn isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the box, there wasn't anything really wrong with that statement. Perhaps you should brush up on some reading?
I don't think this matters much unless they release these profiles in a free and open format. Otherwise it won't be much different than the way Microsoft has locked people into .doc format.
"check SSL certificates". Yeah, right. I'm sure that this is the easiest concept to teach to non-computer poeple.
just ask them always log-in manually by typing the site's home page (www.facebook.com, www.ubs.ch, etc.). If it's really something important, it will be available there too.
don't mess explaining them small details of computer security they don't grasp.
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