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Top Facebook Apps Violate Privacy Terms
cgriffin21 writes "No stranger to privacy concerns, Facebook is once again in the privacy spotlight, following a Wall Street Journal report that some popular Facebook applications leak personal information to advertisers. 'Many of the popular applications, or 'apps,' on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information — in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names — to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies,' according to The Wall Street Journal, which wrote about Facebook Sunday in the latest installment of its recent 'What They Know' series about advertising and the Internet."
Also in the news; writing your phone-number in a public convenience with a marker pen can get you unwanted attention.
...and it is the end of privacy as we DON'T know it! :(
Mark Zuckerberg sure has a predisposition to violating people's privacy and trust.
I would quit facebook but then I would risk losing my 300+ distant, casual acquaintances
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
linux is for gay people only. straight people need not apply.
Yes, I'm surprised. Not at the fact that "private" data (in this case a UID that identifies a user that can be used to get their profile page and anything that they haven't hidden) has been released. No, I'm surprised at the fact that they are reporting it as an "inadvertent" release from the games and that people are shocked.
If Facebook let data slip to the games when they didn't mean to then that'd be news. The fact that games (which, lets face it, appear to rely on either a) horrible advertising or b) selling your details, because there's no other way they could make it so profitable) give out extra data to advertisers that Facebook policy says that they weren't meant to seems like just another day at the office for many of those time wasting game developers.
From my interpretation of TFA, it just looks like some apps were accidentally passing a referrer containing the user's Facebook ID.
"Recently, it has come to our attention that several applications built on Facebook Platform were passing the User ID (UID), an identifier that we use within our APIs, in a manner that violated this policy," Vernal wrote. "In most cases, developers did not intend to pass the information, but did so because of the technical details of how the browsers work."
"Press reports have exaggerated the implication of sharing at UID [user ID]. Knowledge of a UID does not enable anyone to access private user information without explicit user consent. Nevertheless, we are committed to ensuring that even the inadvertent passing of UIDs is prevented and all applications are in compliance with our policy."
Omnes stulti sunt.
No stranger to privacy concerns, Facebook is one again in in the privacy spotlight...
Isn't "privacy spotlight" an oxymoron?
If one must use failbook then they are obviously too fucking stupid to even exist let alone use a computer. . Failbook must be shut down so fucktards will fucking self destruct and the gene pool can be fucking cleansed.
All of the data brokers scraped facebook back when it had basically no privacy, and so they already have all of your stuff. It's scary. They get pictures and everything. Just try to call up mylife, etc. and see what they have on you from your own facebook, even if it's marked private now.
It's good to understand the power structure and who is reporting on who.
One thing that pisses me off are the endless "Joe Blow has scored 100283 points on Fist the Goatse Guy"-type messages. You have to block that type of shit manually. They should have a default deny for that garbage.
End of Rant.
Trolling is a art,
The people affected deserve it. EVERY application on facebook wants ALL of your personal information before they will let you participate. Did people really think they needed all of that information before the cow clicky program could work? If they did then they are stupid and deserve their fate. You even get a nice warning before running the apps "you must agree to let this app rape all of your personal information to play cow clicker 5.0". Only an idiot would be surprised when that data is monetized. The collection of that data was probably the entire purpose of the "app".
In other news, submitting your private data to Facebook will result in a breach of your privacy anyway
Would like to know, what measures others have taken, to preserve a modicum of 'privacy' on FB, short of not using it at all.
Things that have worked for me:
- sign up under a different name / fantasy handle (tell people directly who you are instead)
- sign up using a temporary e-mail address or throw-away web mail account
- don't do apps
- don't befriend people you never heard of
- don't post any kind of picture of yourself/family (and tell people you know to honor that too). Untag any such pix immediately if uploaded anyway by others.
- leave all identifying 'Info' out, like year of birth, employer, relatives, town etc..
- be careful what you post and cleanse of identifying information before submitting
Any other ideas?
Over the past few years, modern Linux distributions such as Ubuntu have utterly transformed the open-source desktop user experience into something sleek and simple, while arguably surpassing Windows and Mac OS in both security and stability.
...and usability. I installed and played a new A list title on Windows last week and every minute of the experience made me want to scream. From the surprise reboot due to virus patches to the 25 digit "authorization" code that has to be entered manually, to the many step, go back to the beginning and try to figure it out again installation process, to the jerky video, to the clumsy user interface, it all trails the modern Linux desktop experience by a wide country mile. I swear, this is the last time I will ever run a game of any description on Windows, or any application that I am not absolutely forced to. These days that happens about once every two years, and fallilng.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
You mean Zynga actually is the money hungry whore everyone thought it was?
Firefox, greasemonkey add-on, and FBPurity. The "FB" stands for "Fluff Busting" not "facebook" for legal reasons...
It blocks app messages, groups joined, events attended, everything. You can whitelist some things that you might want to see and create your own list of blocked words if you want. It's the only thing that makes facebook vaguely usable in my book...
http://www.fbpurity.com/
Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
It's not a "privacy leak" if you type the $#!% in yourself!
MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
This a passing of a user ID only. If that user has setup their profile correctly nothing can be gained from that user ID. It's no different than typing a random name in the search and going to the returned user's pages.
I've got nine hours to harvest my Peanut Butter & Jelly co-op in order to earn my Biplane, so I can easily fertilize my crops, pal! If fly-by spreading of sh|t far and wide over virtual crappy crops isn't more important than sending out resumés, than I'll be a Facebook CEO!
-=- Many seek good nights and lose good days.
That the apps with problems are the top ones.
How do they become top apps?
They work, are designed well, and are appealing to their audience both graphically and functionally.
How do apps that best meet these criteria get built? By hiring top-notch programmers, web designers, and marketers.
What do you need to hire top-notch programmers, designers, and marketers? Lots of financial backing?
How do you get lots of financial backing and excellent investors? By selling a very good business plan.
How do you get lots of money to fund development? Advertising and information brokering.
What do advertisers pay a lot for? Extremely well-targetted ads that take into account specific characteristics of the audience.
What do information brokers pay a lot for? Private information about your users.
Imagine going through this crap.
Chuck in Fargo needs help building his barn.
Mary in New York needs to borrow some fertilizer.
Some data miner for Farmville hates his life.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
Now is like think twice if you want to use an app.
It's quite obnoxious. I never hopped on the facebook apps wagon.... mostly because a superior form of every single fucking app was available on a better website or native Windows app. However, when I wanted to read the "results" of someone else's use of one of those apps, it takes me to this extremely presumptuous page with lovely items like:
Hai guize! Your friend $RANDOM_LUSER has used $OUR_SHITTY_APP and you can too!
(But of course I don't want to, nor do I give a shit)
Facebook: To get started, this application needs access to the following information. Check or clear the [already checked] boxes to restrict this app's access to your information:
Deselecting any of the items on the list blocks access to the application. An application, which, I might add, doesn't need any of that info to operate correctly.
...Not to mention nearly every one I've seen is completely retarded.
I had presumed that particular app has just been written by some assho^H^H developer who was stupid, but further attempts to use apps at later points in time have all yielded the same result. I still haven't used one to this day out of principle.
By the way... anyone find that "Block all App notifications from your feed" button yet? I tried asking the facebook staff but they couldn't hear me because Zuckerberg was making too much noise swimming in a pool full of money.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
The link in the article leads to a spam link page with a big timed Flash ad. The actual Wall Street Journal article mentioned is here.
"I am shocked - SHOCKED - to find out private information is being used by developers" - Mark Zuckerberg
However, when I wanted to read the "results" of someone else's use of one of those apps,
Why would you ever want to do that?
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
However, when I wanted to read the "results" of someone else's use of one of those apps,
Why would you ever want to do that?
Because she's hot?
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
Deselecting any of the items on the list blocks access to the application. An application, which, I might add, doesn't need any of that info to operate correctly.
Given that the sole purpose of those apps is to collect such information, they actually do need that info to operate correctly.
You didn't think they exist to entertain you, did you? Really?
I have a facebook account. It's not so bad. I don't use it very often but it's useful for some things. From time to time in the past I've gotten invitations to start using some app or another, and in rare circumstances it was an app which appealed to me for one reason or another. But, when I click to install it, I'm always confronted by a scary warning message saying that the app was going to steal my identity and rape my grandmother -- or something like that, it's hard to remember after something so scary. So I've never confirmed a facebook app because I've always been scared away by that warning. I guess I was right to be scared, huh? I think I'll keep being careful.
What is this "Facebook" of which you speak?
Is it some kind of computer thing?
I think it's pretty clear that facebook has broken the law. It's not OK for businesses to keep breaking the law simply because the penalties are lower than the gain.
If this doesn't stop, penalties will increase, and maybe one should go with tough criminal penalties after the owners and managers.
I noticed the Beetles reference. I've read (on the interwebz so don't quote me) that it's supposed to be a reference to the Christian parable of the Walrus and the Carpenter. John Lennon claims he got the two parties confused and meant to be the carpenter. You decide ;)
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
It's the cross-pollination of data that concerns me the most. You don't know where one link of your Facebook account will turn up. This is a Google example, but I HAD a YouTube account and after Google bought them out I got a prompt to share my Google login info, which I did. So, now the YouTube account that allowed me to semi-anonymously comment on videos, pick favorites, and rate those I liked is rolled into my Google "screw your privacy" profile. A few weeks ago, I log in to see that somehow Google had scanned my email folder for people I had email contacts with and displayed their YouTube videos under a "people your probably know" panel. One of these was a casual inquiry on an item I had for sale on Facebook! So, one careless link I made from one account to another had now opened up quite a bit of my personal life to any yahoo out there who I've exchange email with. Needless to say, I deleted that YouTube account and if I didn't have an Android phone I'd be deleting my Gmail account too.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!