I did an experiment some 3 years back from within a corporate network -- the difference being that it was done on a desktop, not mobile. The sequence of events was roughly:
- Spin off a new VM
- Create a brand new email address with fictitious identity
- Sign up to Facebook using the newly created fictitious identity
Result: The suggested "friends" were folks in that building (who were on the same network).
(The experiment was performed to demo how creepy such networks are.)
I don't understand why people use the Facebook native app at all. Their mobile website works quite well and should avoid many of the issues with the app (location sharing, battery drain, etc).
Facebook recently disabled their messenger platform on the website, when you click the messages tab it brings you directly to the app store to install their app. This means you have to use the App to message people. The app requires such egregious permissions that I absolutely refuse to install it. It's a shame because it worked perfectly in the past.
Because it offers a far superior user experience...for the times I find myself in self-loathing after checking Facebook for the nth time, at least I want to not be struggling with the interface.
The thing with Facebook is that I use it when I know I want to give away information. For example, when I'm at an airport about to takeoff to an unfamiliar city but I'm not sure which of my casual friends (too casual to send out an email blast) are at the destination, I appreciate the location-based feature of Facebook that detects that you're at an airport and makes it easy to autofill origin and destination. I want my location to be known and so, I might as well use the native app.
I really thought this was already a well-established and known fact. I saw friend suggestions quite often after attending events where I ran into very loose acquaintances I never spoke to but share a few friends with. That by itself isn't too surprising, but the fact that this happens after we were geographically close led me to believe that this is common knowledge.
Goddamned Facebook!! Creating environments filled with unintended consequences everyday of the week.
There are so many untrained, misguided, semi-literate people in the world, who just get thrown into these environments totally unprepared. It literally sickens me.
Parents get blamed. Police get blamed. Govts get blamed. Blame goes around. People get defensive rather than constructive. What a mess! Seriously how the fuck is anyone supposed to be prepared technically and socially to deal with this stuff?
That's a shitty story, but blaming Facebook for it seems a bit of a stretch. By that logic, photo editing software is responsible; computers; electricity, etc. A horrible society is definitley responsible for that one.
Linkedin does this too. It suggested that I connect with an academic copy editor. My only other connection? We sat next to each other at a co-working space. Of course Linkedin was not using geo-location. They must have noticed that we were both on the same network.
What if I moved out from a neighbourhood because I had enemies there, we didn't like each other? Now I'm coming back to my parents house and facebook reminds me about them and them about me?
Well, there are several levels of non-privacy to expect:
- Facebook collects data about me
- Facebook shares my data with big corporations who want to sell me stuff
- Facebook shares my data with my friends
- Facebook shares my data with people who aren't my friends
For many people, this is a surprising escalation of their expectations. For some, it is outright dangerous.
Just yesterday somebody warned that Facebook does location-based friends suggestion (was suggested to friend a taxi driver) and promptly accused to be tin foil hatter.
They probably aren't using location but IP block. In fact, I'm almost certain your IP block is used for both suggested friends and your Newsfeed.
I used to see my coworkers all the time in my Newsfeed, but now that I don't work there (and therefore we don't share an IP anymore) I suddenly started seeing them a lot less.
I go to their page and see they are posting, and after interacting with a few posts they started showing up again, but I have to go to their page and interact every few weeks to get them to keep showing up.
Also, whenever I go and visit the old office, if I use Facebook there, all of a sudden I get them all showing up in my Newsfeed again.
"Location information by itself doesn’t indicate that two people might be friends" - interesting, and guessing it was IP based so they might put more weight behind it, but I keep getting this for an ex-housemate. Nothing else in common, no common friends, just the fact we were both regularly in the same place/same network.
The man from the article attended a common event with the other man who appeared on his friends suggestion list. Maybe facebook has a rule that if the event is small, the attendees can be assumed to have met IRL.
[+] [-] 0xmohit|9 years ago|reply
I did an experiment some 3 years back from within a corporate network -- the difference being that it was done on a desktop, not mobile. The sequence of events was roughly:
- Spin off a new VM
- Create a brand new email address with fictitious identity
- Sign up to Facebook using the newly created fictitious identity
Result: The suggested "friends" were folks in that building (who were on the same network).
(The experiment was performed to demo how creepy such networks are.)
[+] [-] brett40324|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ourmandave|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gmarx|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alistairSH|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drcross|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danso|9 years ago|reply
The thing with Facebook is that I use it when I know I want to give away information. For example, when I'm at an airport about to takeoff to an unfamiliar city but I'm not sure which of my casual friends (too casual to send out an email blast) are at the destination, I appreciate the location-based feature of Facebook that detects that you're at an airport and makes it easy to autofill origin and destination. I want my location to be known and so, I might as well use the native app.
[+] [-] drcongo|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thirdsun|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ulli|9 years ago|reply
There are so many untrained, misguided, semi-literate people in the world, who just get thrown into these environments totally unprepared. It literally sickens me.
Sorry I woke up today morning to read this - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/salem/21-yr-old-woma...
Parents get blamed. Police get blamed. Govts get blamed. Blame goes around. People get defensive rather than constructive. What a mess! Seriously how the fuck is anyone supposed to be prepared technically and socially to deal with this stuff?
[+] [-] jasonkostempski|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 9935c101ab17a66|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] netman21|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0xmohit|9 years ago|reply
> Delete email account
> Sell house, live in woods
> Find bottle in river
> Has note inside
> It's from LinkedIn
Source: https://twitter.com/darylginn/status/590664399041519617
[+] [-] Jdam|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cylinder|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] creshal|9 years ago|reply
No, the privacy disaster happened when Facebook was allowed to collect all that data in the first place.
[+] [-] akerro|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m0v_eax|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gmarx|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] HBreakhh|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] braythwayt|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smokeyj|9 years ago|reply
Zuck: They "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb fucks
[+] [-] gcb0|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] guard-of-terra|9 years ago|reply
That's just how it goes every time.
[+] [-] jedberg|9 years ago|reply
I used to see my coworkers all the time in my Newsfeed, but now that I don't work there (and therefore we don't share an IP anymore) I suddenly started seeing them a lot less.
I go to their page and see they are posting, and after interacting with a few posts they started showing up again, but I have to go to their page and interact every few weeks to get them to keep showing up.
Also, whenever I go and visit the old office, if I use Facebook there, all of a sudden I get them all showing up in my Newsfeed again.
[+] [-] wastedhours|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xuhu|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m0v_eax|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zeeshanm|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmlnr|9 years ago|reply
Too bad I don't have the Facebook app installed any more.
[+] [-] skynetv2|9 years ago|reply
i use it because of how many people are on there, but i wont let them snoop on me
[+] [-] 0xmohit|9 years ago|reply
Has Google stopped identifying a given Chrome installation using unique IDs?