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Facebook Data Miner Will Shock You

Posted by samzenpus on from the or-maybe-it-won't dept.

MojoKid (1002251) writes "A new website sponsored by Ubisoft as part of its advertising campaign for the upcoming hacking-themed game Watch Dogs isn't just a plug for the title — it's a chilling example of exactly how easy it is for companies to mine your data. While most folks are normally averse to giving any application or service access to their Facebook account, the app can come back with some interesting results if you dare. Facebook's claims that it can identify you with 98.3% accuracy based on images.The Datashadow app also offers the ability to compare various character traits and gives a great deal of information about total number of posts, post times and inferred values about income, location, and lifestyle. Is Ubisoft actually performing some kind of data analysis? Almost certainly not. This is far from an exhaustive, comprehensive examination of someone's personality or FB posting habits. The companies that actually perform that kind of data analysis are anything but cheap. The point Ubisoft is making, however, is that your FB profile contains enormous amounts of information in a single place that can be mined in any number of ways. All of this information absolutely is combined and collated to create detailed digital profiles of all of us, and the more we engage with various online services (from Facebook to Google Plus), the larger the data pool becomes."

20 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. And this is why.... by AltGrendel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...I don't use Facebook. I'd keep away from it all if I could, but it's hard to be in the tech industry these days and have no/minimal online presence.

    --
    The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination

    - Douglas Adams

    1. Re:And this is why.... by erikkemperman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ...I don't use Facebook.

      Me neither, but don't forget that FB does keep profiles on non-members too. And your friends who are on FB might mention you by name, upload photo's with you in it, and so on.

      --
      Gosh, thanks. That must be why the other ships call me Meatfucker -- GCU Grey Area (Eccentric)
    2. Re:And this is why.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's why I don't have any friends, in addition to not using Facebook. (Seriously.)

    3. Re:And this is why.... by Travis+Mansbridge · · Score: 5, Informative

      And thanks to "like" embedding in every other page on the net, they can use a cookie to follow you (nearly) everywhere you go without you needing an account.

    4. Re:And this is why.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Firefox plugin "Disconnect" is excellent for blocking this.

    5. Re:And this is why.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's what Ghostery is for...

    6. Re:And this is why.... by Charliemopps · · Score: 5, Interesting

      ...I don't use Facebook. I'd keep away from it all if I could, but it's hard to be in the tech industry these days and have no/minimal online presence.

      It doesn't matter. Everything you do online is tracked and logged by a handful of large marketing software firms. Googles probably the biggest. They log key data points about you as you do this. Lots of things you probably don't even think about like which fonts you have installed, your preferred OS, monitor resolution. All of this data on it's own seems harmless but combined it creates a very unique fingerprint for you.

      The marketing software has plugins that websites can install, then the data about you is collected and stored in a centralized database. It's shared between all of the marketing companies clients. The end result is almost all of your data ends up in the same place regardless of what you do. You may have separate logins for Slashdot and that porns site, but that doesn't matter. They know your 2 separate accounts are for the same person. They might not know exactly who you are, but they don't need to. They just need to know you're shopping for tube socks, and display lots of adds for that. Oh, and by the way, once you finally buy the tube socks? Now all your accounts really are linked to your name.

  2. You think? by adam525 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You send ALL of your pictures and your phone number and your email address to this site..

    Every morning you post everything that little mitzi and junior did at the ball game yesterday, as if anyone cares. You're favorite movies, books, TV shows, who you are in a relationship with. People will put EVERYTHING about them in their Facebook profile, and then they're surprised that it's easy for this company to track your habits, or for potential employers to screen you?

  3. The actual website by SigmundFreud · · Score: 5, Informative

    Pity the article did not mention it: the site can be found at http://digitalshadow.com/ It seems to be US only, though.

    --
    Sic transit gloria mundi.
    1. Re:The actual website by weave · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Watch Dogs Digital Shadow will receive the following info: your public profile, friend list, News Feed, relationships, birthday, work history, status updates, education history, groups, hometown, interests, current city, photos, religious and political views, follows and followers, personal description and likes and your friends' status updates and photos.

      So basically you give them access to all of your data, and then they tell you all about you.

      What a shock.

    2. Re:The actual website by weave · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Not really shocking. In the permissions you give it:

      and your friends' status updates and photos.

      So if one of your friends gave them permission, then they can grab the photos that way.

      So yeah, what you share put to your friends can be given away by them.

      Opinion: Facebook shouldn't allow an app to gain access to friend's data like this unless that data is marked public.

  4. You can avoid facebook data miners... by kcmastrpc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Using this one weird trick!!!

    1. Re:You can avoid facebook data miners... by tippe · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That is exactly what I was thinking when I read that title. I expect the next slashdot story to be about a Columbus mom who is hated by computer anti-virus experts because she discovered one simple trick to rid your computer of viruses (with shocking results!!!).

  5. Re:link by bemenaker · · Score: 4, Informative

    digitalshadow.com It's interesting to see what it says. I was suprised more by how much it got wrong, than by what it got right.

  6. Where is the privacy policy of that site? by aviators99 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's like a sick joke! They have a site that shows how much data they can mine (with your permission) and then they can do whatever they want with it?

  7. Completely useless information by z_gringo · · Score: 4, Informative

    I use Facebook quite a bit. I also leave nearly all of my information as viewable publicly. This digital shadow app couldn't even accurately present information that is publicly posted or information to which it was given implicit access by logging in through Facebook. Location, Active times, close friends, income.. All completely wrong. I think that page is just a ruse to gain access to your Facebook information, which will then be used for other purposes.

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    -- -- Warning. Do not stare directly at the sun.
  8. Shock me? No by fascismforthepeople · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would be shocked if it drove people to stop giving up private information for free to facebook.

  9. Sidenote: 6 trackers on /. yro.slashdot.org by Qbertino · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sidenote: While you are reading this, 6 trackers on slashdot.org are tracking you.

    Just saying.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
  10. blocking FB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's what Ghostery is for...

    Also:

    echo "127.0.0.1 facebook.com" >> /etc/hosts
    echo "127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com" >> /etc/hosts
    echo "127.0.0.1 facebook.net" >> /etc/hosts
    echo "127.0.0.1 www.facebook.net" >> /etc/hosts
    echo "127.0.0.1 s-static.ak.facebook.com" >> /etc/hosts

  11. Shocking!! Indeed Very Shocking!! by kgskgs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What shocked me indeed was the headline of the posting.
    We have seen enough of these "This will shock you" in tabloids and lately even on CNN.
    I am shocked to see this at Slashdot on consecutive two days.
    Yesterday there was some other headline about how some rubber band shapes shocked scientists.

    Let me read the headline and let me decide whether I want to be shocked or not. Why are you telling me that I will be shocked?
    Pathetic!! Real pathetic!! Nothing turns me off more than the following three types of headlines.

    "What this person said will shock you"
    "XXX did what to stop XXX ?"
    "The five things every should ..."

    Slashdot is turning into tabloid. Instead of printing about trashy reality shows and gossip about royal families, they somehow find things related to technology. That's the only difference.
    Slashdot, this had been a major turnoff.

    Sigh!!