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Facebook Backtracks, Now Says It Is Not Using Your Phone's Location To Suggest Friends
A report on Fusion on Monday, which cited a number of people, claimed that Facebook was using its users' phone location to suggest people to them. The publication also noted the privacy implications of this supposed feature. At the time of publishing, Facebook had noted that location was indeed one of the signals it looks into when suggesting new friends. But the social juggernaut has since backtracked on its statement with new assurances that it is not using anyone's location. In a statement to Slashdot, the company said:We're not using location data, such as device location and location information you add to your profile, to suggest people you may know. We may show you people based on mutual friends, work and education information, networks you are part of, contacts you've imported and other factors.
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don't know why.
Zuck: They "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb fucks
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/well-these-new-zuckerberg-ims-wont-help-facebooks-privacy-problems-2010-5
It's true? There's obvious evidence they were doing it (even if they've stopped now) and Facebook is about as honest as Hillary Clinton, so you can't believe a word they say.
But the social juggernaut has since backtracked on its statement with new assurances that it is not using anyone's location.
That's not what they said.
They don't state they're not using your location, although they're probably hoping people will read that into it. They merely made the very narrow statement that they're not using your location to suggest people you may know.
#DeleteChrome
Instead they're in every CCTV/IP camera on the planet and have this massive AI that is able to track you every hour of every day and distinguish victim from perpetrator, but everyone ends being irrelevant because facebook only want to know the brand of toothpaste you use.
We Are Your Friends!
ZZAAAAAAPPPPPP
- Mars Attacks
We hear people say they don't care about sharing their information or "meta data", sometimes even with the classic remark that they have nothing to hide.
But recently we have started to see stories about people being surprised when social media sites and others have started using their collected data better, it is kind of amusing.
I don't think that any of these companies all of the sudden have gotten better at mining their collected date, but rather that they choose to "turn up the dial" slowly because they need to get people used to it first and perhaps they have been a bit too quick about it recently. :)
...We're not using location data...
Note the present tense in their denial. Also note that they did not say they were never using location data for this purpose.
Oh, wait. I can't do that. I have never had a facebook account yet the facebook app is installed on my android phone and so intertwined with non-facebook functions that I do use that I am not allowed to uninstall facebook.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
"We", as in the techies who read /. and care about privacy and digital rights, are just a drop in the ocean compared to all the soccer moms, teenage whores, and computer illiterate grandmas who use FB. So no, if we all stopped using it, absolutely nothing would change. And getting the nontechnical 99% if FB to stop using it is impossible because they value the convenience it brings over the privacy one could save by not using it.
Root Root Root for your Android....
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Unfortunately Facebook et al. take too many liberties and ultimately the only solution is root / jailbreak and remove. The disturbing trend is that any app now seems to believe they have the right to your location data, your contacts and whatever they see fit. Installation permissions usually get clicked with "Hell Yes" and they'll change how they use it when they see fit is buried in the T's and C's of their user agreement which usually says "we can change this whenever we want"
There's a big line being crossed when "targeted advertising" becomes privacy invasion but then again we have the "oooh lookie new iPhone or Android."
I didn't sign up, opt-in or didn't agree to anybody doing this but that doesn't matter does it?
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
That's exactly how I read it. "We're not using your location, at this moment. We were using it yesterday and we'll be using it tomorrow, but we turned that off for today, for you (not for everyone else).
Perhaps even more likely they are internally using the same defense that recently SCOTUS allowed for racial discrimination in college admissions. SCOTUS bought the argument "we're not using race to decide admission; we're using combined race and SAT score".
Race A, SAT score 1500: admitted
Race B, SAT score 1600: denied
That's not using race to decide admissions, according to SCOTUS, because if the Race B lady had scored 2000 she would have been admitted. They aren't using race - they are using a combination of race and SAT score. Facebook probably isn't using location, they're using a combination of location, friends-of-friends, blah blah blah.
My wife and I moved a few towns over 2 months ago; neither of us have updated out address info on Facebook since before out last move. Within a week of the move, she had Facebook suggest that she might know each and every one of our neighbors, while I've still not had a single such suggestion in two months. The difference? She has the Facebook app on her phone and I do not.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
"We noticed you send a lot of random girls dick pics. We noticed that this girl seems to like receiving random dick pics. Why don't you two be friends?"
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
For reference, see SCO.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
A privacy elimination tool disguised as a place where you can play pay-to-win games.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Call someone who cares or even believes what you say.
Hey! Stop that! Gimme my cellphone back now, willya!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
In case anybody is trying to figure out what the "other factors" are, here is a few additional data points:
1. Facebook suggested my next-door neighbor to me as a potential friend.
2. I have fewer than 20 Facebook friends, and none of them are my neighbors, most are family and relatives in other cities.
3. My Facebook account is linked to a unique email address which I created only for Facebook, and which has not been revealed to any other person or website.
4. I have never imported any contacts into Facebook from any other source.
5. I do not have the Facebook app installed on my phone, and I have never connected to Facebook from my phone using the browser.
6. I have virtually no other apps installed on my phone except for Google Mail, Google Calendar, and Google Maps.
7. No other apps on my phone have been given access to location data, and the GPS is always disabled (to save battery) except when I am actively using Google Maps somewhere I am unfamiliar, (so never anywhere near my own neighborhood).
8. I provide an open wi-fi access point (no password), which is easily accessible from my next-door neighbor's house.
9. I have logged into Facebook using a computer connected to that open wi-fi network.
Could the "other factors" be as simple as IP address?
Do you have a Facebook phone, or is it a carrier thing?
At my last job, I walked a coworker through setting up a LinkedIn account. As soon as he had created the account, but before he had entered any information (beyond an email that had never been shared with coworkers), he was getting suggestions from lots of coworkers, not including me. Why? Presumably because our network was behind a NAT, so these people had all connected from the same IP address. (I wasn't suggested because I used a proxy to surf the web.)
IP addresses are decently telling. If I were Facebook or LinkedIn, I'd certainly leverage IP CIDRs (or else ASN + GeoIP) as a part of the friend suggestion algorithm, and if it was the only data available, it'd end up being decently obvious to anybody thinking about where their suggestions come from. Of course, I'd also filter that list of suggestions by perceived "social hubs," people who tend to be well connected, as that's the best way to grow a social network.
Phones' locations may be too specific for this sort of thing – unless they're kept in a database to note the places you frequent (are you at the festival, or are you passing by it to go to the store? are you regularly at auto parts stores, or do you just need new tires?). There's enough information from photo geotagging, check-ins, likes, and IP CIDR/ASN/geolocation to sufficiently boost the more informative social network itself.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
Sure Facebook, we believe you.
Facebook: Oh, gee, did we say "we're tracking you"? What we actually meant to say is that "we're not tracking you". Heh heh, silly us, slip of the tongue and all that. k thnx bai
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Does someone care to explain to me how the above comment is flamebait? Informative, perhaps, but not flamebait...
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
I took a new job and did two weeks of training in California with a bunch of people I've never met. Anyway, we carpooled, had dinners together, and all stayed at the hotel. Today I see Facebook recommending a few of them to me with no common friends and really nothing tying me to them other than where we work (if they disclose it to FB), where we all were the past two weeks, or perhaps they were Facebook stalking me.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
And, yet, I'm not having my neighbors suggested as friends, while my wife (who does run the app) is. I'd say it's a safe bet that my method works, at least for Facebook.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
I work from home, I'm sure I'd pick up on that.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.