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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.

19 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 doconnor · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They don't want some hacker to hijack your account and start generating inaccurate data.

    2. Re:Secure? by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      Good point, but I don't think they really care about accuracy as much as volume. There are so many fake profiles on Facebook I don't think the accuracy is very high.

    3. 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.

    4. 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.

    5. Re:Secure? by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Exactly. 2FA is just there so they can get your mobile number. Gmail does this too (actually every "free cloud service" does now).

    6. 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.

    7. 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.

    1. Re:What a maroon by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      He forgot his password and doesn't want to log in again. What people are complaining about is that the SMS is supposed to be for 2FA, but they are using it to try to get you back onto Facebook. But you gave them the right to do whatever they wanted with your phone number (including selling it to data collectors), so I don't think these people can complain.

    2. Re:What a maroon by Khyber · · Score: 3, Informative

      "Then turn off SMS messaging you moron"

      Read and comprehend the next sentence of the summary, where it is EXPLICITLY stated "Before he started receiving the messages, Green says he hadn't logged into Facebook for a long time and had actually forgotten his password."

      Only moron I see here is you. He's a professor at John Hopkins, what are your credentials?

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    3. Re:What a maroon by darkain · · Score: 4, Informative

      All he had to do was reply with a text with "Stop" in the body to disable the SMS service. Pretty much every single SMS subscription service supports this and other similar commands to a normal text console. Sending a message of "Help" will list this and various other commands. This was figured out from a quick 5 second Google search. There is no need to even log into the account to disable these notifications.

  4. Oh they did that years ago by ruddk · · Score: 2

    "Now Facebook will nag you when an acquaintance comments on someone else's photo, or when a distant family member"
    They did that years ago. Both Facebook and Twitter. I assumed that it was part of their "conditioning" system to get me to check out facebook all the time.
    After about 24 hours without looking at facebook, it would make those notifications on my phone. And when I turned that off, they arrived as mails. At the time, I could turn off mails, but that ment that I would not get notifications when people DID write directly to me.
    So it ment that I could not use Facebook as a communication channel without getting these constant nagging messages, one way or another.

    I assume that most people won't see this because they have a lot of "friends" on Facebook and so they will get constant notifications from messages and times they have been tagged in a image(there something unsettling about that "being tagged").
    But I had only around 30 "friends" when I closed my account a year and a half ago and the ones I talk to often still calls and uses SMS or email(so old, I know), so it could be weeks between anyone writing to me there, to Facebook, I was still "getting started" on their platform and they needed to "train me" to use it all the time.

    --
    L'Idiot
  5. Facebook's ratings... by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 2

    Facebook is a lot like a TV or radio station trying to drive people to their channel. Sure, they'll give you a secure logon then publish your data into your insecure e-mail account because that drives you back to the site, and they can show you a few more ads, which is how they're paid.

    Facebook isn't doing what's right or best, they're doing what moves the ad meter. Somehow, this site isn't as intended.

  6. It's outright lying is what it is doing by Khyber · · Score: 4, Interesting

    On my FB business page, I keep getting notifications of likes on my posts - I don't HAVE any posts yet, just store items, and none of those have any likes on them. The notification also doesn't tell you who liked the post like it should.

    FB is flat-out lying to get people to use its platform, and this should count as false advertisement.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  7. 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!

  8. 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.

  9. 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.