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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 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. :)
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.
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
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.
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?