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Old Facebook Apps Still Plunder Your Privacy
tcd004 writes "If you added the YouTube Facebook app prior to 2009, you've given YouTube free access to nearly all the data in your profile (as well as many of your friends). But if you install the same app today, it gets very limited access. Older versions of Facebook apps, it turns out, still have 'grandfathered' access to data that the social networking service has restricted for new apps. If you're protective of your privacy, it might be a good idea to delete and reinstall any older apps in your profile."
"If you're protective of your privacy, it might be a good idea to delete your profile."
Fixed that for you. No need to thank me.
Almost everything in my profile is either lies (born in 1900), or left intentionally blank (Favorite Hobbies: _______). I give as little information as possible to Facebook and its partners.
FREE magazine : http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prior/
I deleted my profile but not before changing me name and deleting lots of stuff.
One thing you should know is that Facebook never deletes anything. Even if you tell it to. The new visibility is just 'appended' to the end of your account. Bit like a journal. TFA does not surprise me.
So if they really wanted to rewind your profile, they could. I imagine the authorities have this privilege.
Think how much time you'll save yourself from FB if you delete it now. I mean you could spend that time on Slashdot instead!
Slashdot needs Geekcode | Can anyone recommend any good SCIFI? My tastes: Foundation, Startide Rising, CITY, Ringworld,
I recommend people keep multiple profiles:
One profile is what they show to prospective employers that is sanitized and easy for people to see.
One profile that is either under a nickname, or a slight misspelling of the normal name, and private. This is for friends only, and for the usual socializing. Make sure to use group permissions so you can friend someone, but they don't have to see all your postings unless you give them access.
Neither of the above have platform apps turned on.
Then, one profile, not connected in any to the above two, using a nickname or alias, and using a different E-mail address (preferably different domain), perhaps in a separate Web browser and sandbox. This profile is for fertilizing your donkey in Farmville and playing all the FB games. Since this has no friends attached, an app slurping up all the gory details to hand over to the advertising companies isn't going to obtain much.
Just don't put anything up there that you don't want somebody else's lawyer holding up in court.
Also, if you're worried about FB apps getting access to your schitt don't use them, any of them.
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
Are FB apps just an external web page in an internal frame? If they are, surely they're vulnerable to the same attacks as any webapp.
My point being I certainly would not cry if a vigilante blackhat dropped some databases...
Slashdot needs Geekcode | Can anyone recommend any good SCIFI? My tastes: Foundation, Startide Rising, CITY, Ringworld,
I have 'grandfathered' oblivion. I don't exist. I don't have a Facebook account. Zapped future. Amen Ho Tep.
I guess the standard internet rules still apply. Once you put something on the internet, it's out there forever. The big problem with Facebook is that now that info is likely linked to your real name which makes it easier for script kiddie level "hackers" to make trouble for you. With that in mind, I think the best advice is to make sure that there's a lot more good stuff that comes up about you than bad! Facebook is too pervasive right now to just ignore, so you just have to engage in more aggressive information management to protect and enhance your image.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Who, other than bored housewives and tweens, use facebook apps anyway?
While "delete your apps periodically and re-add them as needed" is probably very good advice most of the time, are there any cases where apps are getting worse with respect to privacy, and so having a newer version of an app is worse than having the older version?
It seems likely that someone out there, having gotten a whiff of the money that might be made, is actually getting worse about this...
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
I always felt that using third party apps in Facebook was a little like playing flash games on random websites -- you're giving alien code full access to whatever information you have on Facebook, and may even be opening attack vectors on your local computer.
The friends and family in my close circle range from promoting social networks for a living, to distrusting them entirely and refusing to participate even under an assumed name. I'm somewhere in the middle -- I have a small circle of friends whom I actually know, I have security locked down appropriately with periodic reviews, and I never play the games or use any of the apps. No interest in virtual organized crime, virtual farms, virtual restaurants, or today's fortune, and I don't care that someone has answered a question about me that I need to click to unlock. And I have absolutely no interest in revealing my Netflix queue to my mom. Like any tool, you can use it properly or poke your eye out, your choice.
For the facebook user swamped with lonely little cows and pillow fights in their news feed, do this: Mouse over the little "x" in the upper corner of the item. Observe a popup allowing you to "block user-name" or "block application-name". Choose the latter, and that particular app will never be seen again. Do this consistently for a week or so and you find that your news feed has been reduced from a firehose of banality to a trickle of genuine social interaction. In the rare cases where your nephew finds new crap to plaster on your wall faster than you can update your blacklist, you can always "block user-name" and ban him from your news feed. He'll never know.
Stop using Facebook? It's a little like saying "Why don't you avoid the spam and 419 scams and viruses -- just stop using email!" If you said that in 1995 you might get a few people nodding their heads. In 2010 it's a ridiculous statement.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Facebook and privacy are mutually exclusive. You can have one or the other but not both. Personally, I think all the worry about "privacy" is extremely exaggerated and overblown. What are they going to do? Show me targeted ads? That's what AdBlock is for.
Unless you're actually stupid enough to put all sorts of personal info on Facebook, like your real name, address, etc. In that case you're a moron who deserves to be ass-raped by every script kiddie hacker wannabe.. The bottom line is very simple. If you really care about privacy, you don't have a Facebook account in the first place.
If you're protective of your privacy,
...then what the hell are you doing on Facebook???
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I use facebook to just converse with friends I used to go to school with, relatives. Do I ever feel like I'm being "data mined"? No...? I really honestly don't get this whole "omgz 10010011 you don't care about privacy, they hackorz youuu"...well um its 2010...get used to it. You can't escape this stuff, its the digital age, nothing is private nor should you expect it to. I log on to facebook, check some things out leave. I dont cringe and have a heart attack at what is on my profile, as long as you keep it clean, do I bleed out my eyes if I see an add? No. Do I add stupid apps? No. Use it for what facebook was when it first started out, to keep in touch. If you do that and stop shitting your pants over this bullshit, then you'll be just fine. Grow up paranoids.
Sorry could not resist. Sue me! Look if you need to join a social networking site, you need a "Reality Check". Buy your own domain name and get hosted or host yourself if you know apache. It is not that hard. Start you own blog etc and people will find you. Not fake "E" friends, then you might make some true friends.
All cows eat grass!
"If you're protective of your privacy", you will avoid Facebook altogether. Facebook's privacy protections are nonexistant until somebody complains about a particular violation, then fixed only piecemeal and under protest and only as much as necessary to satisfy the current complaint. And no data already gathered is ever deleted.
If you have failed to avoid FB at any time in the past, too late. Your privacy is gone. You will never get it back. Welcome to the brave new world.
Forget Big Sis--it turns out Big Brother is some pimple-faced kid who snookered his friends into giving up their real data for virtual tokens, while he sold their real data for real money.