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Facebook Notification Spam Has Crossed the Line (wired.com)

Posted by msmash on from the meeting-sales-targets dept.

Facebook has always nudged truant users back to its platform though emails and notifications. But recently, those prods have evolved beyond comments related to activity on your own profile. From a report: Now Facebook will nag you when an acquaintance comments on someone else's photo, or when a distant family member updates their status. The spamming has even extended to those who sign up for two-factor authentication -- which is a great way to turn people off to that extra layer of security. "The part of it that bugs me is that two-factor authentication is something [Facebook] should be encouraging people to use, but instead the way this is working here is that they're driving people away from two-factor and making people less secure," says Matt Green, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute, who has done contracted security work for Facebook in the past.

"It's abusive, people's attention is deliberately tweaked by what looks like a two-factor authentication message." Green says he's received near-daily SMS messages from Facebook since January alerting him that one of his friends performed some action on the platform. Before he started receiving the messages, Green says he hadn't logged into Facebook for a long time and had actually forgotten his password. The weirdest part about the SMS notifications is what happens if you reply to them. If you respond, your message is posted to your own profile. Further reading: Facebook Really Wants You To Come Back, Facebook Is Spamming Users Via Their 2FA Phone Numbers, and Facebook Makes Moves On Instagram's Users.

10 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Secure? by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why should Facebook be "secure"? I don't get it. You are giving all your data away. The idea is to make it frictionless and make it easier to login so you will give more data away. I doubt Facebook corporations wants to make it HARDER to log in.

    1. Re:Secure? by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What high school/college did you go to?
      What was the name of your first date?
      What is your mother's maiden name?

      All of this published at Facebook... Oops. That's enough to reset your bank password.

    2. Re:Secure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Only if you answer those questions truthfully.

      Be like Creed Braxton. Don't be honest with authority.

    3. Re:Secure? by sjames · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I doubt they care all that much, but they need to convince their buyers that the data is accurate.

    4. Re:Secure? by suutar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      yeah, but google doesn't send me messages for non-login related activities.

  2. Facebook is a cancer by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lol, when will you learn that Facebook doesn't give a shit about its users.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  3. What a maroon by DerekLyons · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Green says he's received near-daily SMS messages from Facebook since January alerting him that one of his friends performed some action on the platform.

    Then turn off SMS messaging you moron. It's not Facebook's fault that you're an idiot, nor that you're an idiot looking for your fifteen minutes.

  4. Useless notifications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I turned off notification on almost every app, most of the notifications are time wasting bulls**t, like below:

    -I do not need notifcations of new stories
    -I do not need notifications of new profiles
    -I do not need notifications..period

    Facebook Notification: someone has tagged you!
    Facebook Notification: someone has commented on your post!
    Facebook Notification: someone has commented on the comment on your post!
    Facebook Notification: someone has commented on the comment of the comment on your post!
    Facebook Notification: someone has posted a new pic!
    Facebook Notification: someone has posted a comment on a new pic!
    Facebook Notification: someone has posted a comment on a new pic and commented on it!
    Facebook Notification: someone has updated their profile!
    Facebook Notification: someone has a comment on their updated profile!
    Facebook Notification: someone has a comment on on the comment of their updated profile!

  5. Another abusive relationship. by SeaFox · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Facebook is like Trump: No matter what atrocities they commit, no one takes action and they are allowed to continue to make people's lives miserable.

  6. Zuckerbook's Doomsday clock is ticking by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Don't you love me anymore? I love you, still, more than ever! Please, please, PLEASE don't leave me! I know I've been bad, I know I've hurt you, I know I've screwed up time and time again, but really, honestly, I've changed this time, I'm a totally different social-media site than I was before, things will be different this time, just please don't walk out on me!

    Sound familiar?

    Face it, Zuckerbook: IT'S OVER. No one wants to continue in this destructive relationship anymore. Some are having the veil lifted from their eyes slower than others, but it's inevitable, you can't stop it, and worse, you know it's true and are flailing about in desperation, fighting a delaying action, deeply in denial that It's Over Now, and only the long, cold night is what lies before you now.

    Denial
    Anger
    Bargaining
    Depression
    Acceptance

    That's where you''re at right now, Zuckerbook: Trying, desperately, to bargain your way out of your imminent demise. So sad! It won't work.
    That's okay, you're more than halfway through the process. It won't take long now.