Top Facebook Apps Violate Privacy Terms 95
cgriffin21 writes "No stranger to privacy concerns, Facebook is once again in the privacy spotlight, following a Wall Street Journal report that some popular Facebook applications leak personal information to advertisers. 'Many of the popular applications, or 'apps,' on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information — in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names — to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies,' according to The Wall Street Journal, which wrote about Facebook Sunday in the latest installment of its recent 'What They Know' series about advertising and the Internet."
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> but i want people to call me for a good time...but i dont want them to know who i am....i'll just write that my name is Jenny....
I know you think I'm like the others before
Who saw your name and number on the wall...
Jenny, Jenny, you're the girl for me.
You don't know me but you make me so happy...^__^
Re:Also in the news (Score:5, Funny)
I recently purchased an ad on facebook for my company's product.
I should have known something was awry when the following were offered as substitution variables in the ad copy:
$FIRST_NAME ...
$LAST_NAME
$WHAT_MOMMY_CALLS_THEM
$GENDER
$AGE_RANGE
$INCOME_LEVEL
$INCOME_LEVEL_REPORTED_ON_EHARMONY
$SEX_PARTNERS_IN_PAST_6_MONTHS
$SEX_PARTNERS_IN_PAST_6_MONTHS_REALLY
$POLITICAL_PARTY
$POLITICAL_PARTY_THEY_ACTUALLY_VOTE_FOR
$SPOUSE_BIRTHDAY
$MISTRESS_BIRTHDAY
$FACEBOOK_USER_THEY_STALK_MOST
$CREDIT_CARD_LAST_4_DIGITS
$CREDIT_CARD_FIRST_12_DIGITS
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Well, you're close, but you forgot four:
$EMBARRASSING_NICKNAME_CALLED_IN_ELEMENTARY_SCHOOL
$IS_CELEBRITY
And then, depending on whether $IS_CELEBRITY is true or not, one of the following:
$NAKED_CHILDHOOD_PICTURE_IN_BATHTUB
$CELEBRITY_SEX_TAPE_URL
Because if they're not famous, their parents always have a picture of them in the tub as an infant, and if they are famous, there's always a sex tape. Unless it's an under-18 female, in which case it is
$UNDERAGE_RACY_PICTURES_SENT_TO_HER_EX_BOYFRIEND
instead.
By t
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writing your phone-number in a public convenience with a marker pen can get you unwanted attention.
That's true, just ask Jenny.
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That's why I don't write mine there. I write yours.
Regards,
Mark Z.
facebook is the end of privacy as we know it... (Score:5, Funny)
Mark Zuckerberg sure has a predisposition to violating people's privacy and trust.
I would quit facebook but then I would risk losing my 300+ distant, casual acquaintances
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Facebook's policy writers can go fuck themselves (Score:2)
Now is like think twice if you want to use an app.
It's quite obnoxious. I never hopped on the facebook apps wagon.... mostly because a superior form of every single fucking app was available on a better website or native Windows app. However, when I wanted to read the "results" of someone else's use of one of those apps, it takes me to this extremely presumptuous page with lovely items like:
Hai guize! Your friend $RANDOM_LUSER has used $OUR_SHITTY_APP and you can too!
(But of course I don't want to, nor do I give a shit)
Facebook: To get started, this application needs access to the following information. Check or clear the [already checked] boxes to restrict this app's access to your information:
Deselecting any of the items on the list blocks access to the application. An application, which, I might add, doesn't need any of that info to operate correctly.
I
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However, when I wanted to read the "results" of someone else's use of one of those apps,
Why would you ever want to do that?
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However, when I wanted to read the "results" of someone else's use of one of those apps,
Why would you ever want to do that?
Because she's hot?
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Deselecting any of the items on the list blocks access to the application. An application, which, I might add, doesn't need any of that info to operate correctly.
Given that the sole purpose of those apps is to collect such information, they actually do need that info to operate correctly.
You didn't think they exist to entertain you, did you? Really?
Re:facebook is the end of privacy as we know it... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Ah, my life for a Mod point. The point of security is to enforce the rules, not to ask for them to be enforced. I've been forced to turn off almost everything across the board on facebook. It's become a joke in it's 'safety' features and 'privacy' (or lack thereof).
How long before we see the release of Diaspora?
Re:facebook is the end of privacy as we know it... (Score:5, Insightful)
It makes me wonder why Facebook had a privacy "policy" for app writers when they could have easily scrubbed data before letting Zinga et al get their grubby mitts on them. A "Do not walk on grass" sign carries less weight than a groundskeeper, security guard, or a fence.
Because that wouldn't have made Mark Zuckerberg stinking rich.
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I don't think it's nearly that nefarious. At least not directly.
Parts of this functionality are useful (or nearly necessary) for making good games and such. It just turns out that, surprise of surprises, people are assholes. Unique identification and communication with friends through the platform is part of the appeal for the user. No, we don't expect those co's to turn around and sell that same info.
Facebook, for their part, warns you very explicitly that any 3rd party you OK could rape the fuck out o
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Re:facebook is the end of privacy as we know it... (Score:5, Informative)
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Facebook isn't in the privacy business, its in the business business and until told to stop it, in court, via a socking great fine, it will carry on regardless.
While I concur with this statement, the downside is that businesses like Facebook will often weigh the risk of getting fined versus how much they'll make selling all that information to advertising vultures. If the face value of the fine is less than the total profits made from selling private information to the highest bidders and the profit margin is big enough, I think the obvious result occurs. Facebook sells the information, Mark Zuckerberg pockets even more money, and they pay off the fine with whatev
tougher penalties (Score:1)
I think it's pretty clear that facebook has broken the law. It's not OK for businesses to keep breaking the law simply because the penalties are lower than the gain.
If this doesn't stop, penalties will increase, and maybe one should go with tough criminal penalties after the owners and managers.
OT: Your signature (Score:2)
I noticed the Beetles reference. I've read (on the interwebz so don't quote me) that it's supposed to be a reference to the Christian parable of the Walrus and the Carpenter. John Lennon claims he got the two parties confused and meant to be the carpenter. You decide ;)
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Facebook wouldn't be worth much if it was private. With all the Zuck stuff in the news lately, you would think people would know that. What do they think he sells?
Re:i'm gay for linux (Score:5, Funny)
Not only does "obvious troll is obvious" work here, but you posted in the wrong fucking thread. Linux thread is the next story down you raging idiot. What is the world coming to when people can't even troll properly.
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Are you suggesting that we need a new "ADD Troll" moderation?
I'm surprised (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, I'm surprised. Not at the fact that "private" data (in this case a UID that identifies a user that can be used to get their profile page and anything that they haven't hidden) has been released. No, I'm surprised at the fact that they are reporting it as an "inadvertent" release from the games and that people are shocked.
If Facebook let data slip to the games when they didn't mean to then that'd be news. The fact that games (which, lets face it, appear to rely on either a) horrible advertising or b) selling your details, because there's no other way they could make it so profitable) give out extra data to advertisers that Facebook policy says that they weren't meant to seems like just another day at the office for many of those time wasting game developers.
Time Wasting!!! (Score:1)
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FB games generally don't rely on advertising or selling your details to make a profit. It may be a nice icing on the cake to get a bonus for the VP of monetization, but the lion's share usually comes from direct user payments for various bonuses or pretty pixels. In a decent FB game at least some 1-2% of players become customers, and if you get multiple millions of active players (as many FB games do) then it easily adds up to very nice amounts.
Zynga earns more than a million dollars per day. It doesn't com
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The fact that games (which, lets face it, appear to rely on either a) horrible advertising or b) selling your details, because there's no other way they could make it so profitable)
Whoa, slow your roll there. I'm sure lots of apps make money on advertising, but it's unfair to say that their business model is based around violating user privacy.
The biggest games (Zynga games, especially) have proven that people are absolutely willing to engage in microtransactions in exchange for speed-ups and convenience.
Looks just like referrer passing (Score:4, Informative)
From my interpretation of TFA, it just looks like some apps were accidentally passing a referrer containing the user's Facebook ID.
"Recently, it has come to our attention that several applications built on Facebook Platform were passing the User ID (UID), an identifier that we use within our APIs, in a manner that violated this policy," Vernal wrote. "In most cases, developers did not intend to pass the information, but did so because of the technical details of how the browsers work."
"Press reports have exaggerated the implication of sharing at UID [user ID]. Knowledge of a UID does not enable anyone to access private user information without explicit user consent. Nevertheless, we are committed to ensuring that even the inadvertent passing of UIDs is prevented and all applications are in compliance with our policy."
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Yeah, the UID's primary use is in linking back user activities directly to a particular FB account. So while this doesn't expose private information in the FB account itself, it does make it trivial to correlate activities from various apps in order to build a more detailed profile of a given FB user.
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Agreed.
And although I really am determined to hate Facebook, someone should also point out that News Corp, who owns WSJ, also owns MySpace.
Top Facebook Apps Violate Privacy Terms (Score:5, Funny)
No stranger to privacy concerns, Facebook is one again in in the privacy spotlight...
Isn't "privacy spotlight" an oxymoron?
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Only if you're not using a Mac. I get 2880 results for "privacy".
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On the contrary.
Just yesterday some guy posted a picture on 4chan of a girl that he claimed he was fucking. This girl was wearing a cheerleader outfit that was emblazoned with the words “South” and her first name. The filename of the picture contained the Facebook user ID of another girl, who could be assumed to be on the same cheer squad. Her friends list was not public, but her first and last name, the girl from the picture’s first name, and the word “South” in a quick Google
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> Failbook must be shut down so fucktards will fucking self destruct and the gene pool can be fucking cleansed.
On the contrary, dear AC. Facebook must stay up and their users stay on as long as possible to reach your worthy goal! ;-)
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I agree wholeheartedly. Right now, millions of fucktards are using failbook to have a social life, get dates, and ultimately, have sex. How on earth will that further the human race!?
Murdoch Own's both WSJ and Myspace (Score:1, Informative)
It's good to understand the power structure and who is reporting on who.
Facebook needs a default block (Score:3, Insightful)
One thing that pisses me off are the endless "Joe Blow has scored 100283 points on Fist the Goatse Guy"-type messages. You have to block that type of shit manually. They should have a default deny for that garbage.
End of Rant.
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FBPurity (Score:5, Insightful)
Firefox, greasemonkey add-on, and FBPurity. The "FB" stands for "Fluff Busting" not "facebook" for legal reasons...
It blocks app messages, groups joined, events attended, everything. You can whitelist some things that you might want to see and create your own list of blocked words if you want. It's the only thing that makes facebook vaguely usable in my book...
http://www.fbpurity.com/ [fbpurity.com]
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Why do stupid people deserve their fate?
That's a serious question there. It's not like stupid people choose (necessarily) to be stupid. You might as well tell the guy in a wheelchair that he deserves to never walk again.
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That is a good question. Half of us only have two digit IQ's. Of the rest, most didn't study data mining in college, or their minds just don't work that way. That is not a character flaw. In fact, the word would be a nicer place if everyone could be so naive.
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Of course, set everything you can to 'friends only' ;-)
Re:FB Privacy...FWIW (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't post anything you wouldn't want all your friends to know. Remember that you have friends you don't know about, the one's who pay FB to be your "secret friends". Isn't it nice to have so many friends?
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> Remember that you have friends you don't know about, the one's who pay FB to be your "secret friends". Isn't it nice to have so many friends?
Not sure what you mean....please tell me more.
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> Any other ideas?
The EFF's HTTPS Everywhere Firefox plugin will SSL-encrypt, among other things, your connection to Facebook. Works OK (chat doesn't work and I had some issues here and there with some images, which apparently get loaded from somewhere else). Still worth it though and you can always unset FB temporarily in the Plugin Preferences if needed:
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere [eff.org]
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> The EFF's HTTPS Everywhere Firefox plugin will SSL-encrypt, among other things, your connection to Facebook.
Even without the plugin you can set your bookmark to https://www.facebook.com/ [facebook.com]
This will at least encrypt the login page and then go plain-text.
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> The EFF's HTTPS Everywhere Firefox plugin will SSL-encrypt, among other things, your connection to Facebook.
Even without the plugin you can set your bookmark to https://www.facebook.com/ [facebook.com]
This will at least encrypt the login page and then go plain-text.
And then your session-cookie can be hijacked.
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> HTTPS Everywhere Firefox plugin
> Works OK (chat doesn't work
I just read, you could use Pidgin + OTR for FB chat. Haven't tried it but might be an option. Not sure though about the login, since it doesn't use SSL apparently.
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At the extreme end, have a virtual machine with a Web browser in it that uses a proxy server, and have an account with zero friends whose only purpose in life is for FB apps. This way, they can send all the marketing crap they want to 22 acacia avenue. To boot, the VM will stop essentially all malware when rolled back, not to mention the persistent shared crap.
This will work up to a point... if someone has to purchase cow clicks, most likely they will have to give their real ID info, which will immediatel
Linux wins on usability too (Score:1, Offtopic)
Over the past few years, modern Linux distributions such as Ubuntu have utterly transformed the open-source desktop user experience into something sleek and simple, while arguably surpassing Windows and Mac OS in both security and stability.
...and usability. I installed and played a new A list title on Windows last week and every minute of the experience made me want to scream. From the surprise reboot due to virus patches to the 25 digit "authorization" code that has to be entered manually, to the many step, go back to the beginning and try to figure it out again installation process, to the jerky video, to the clumsy user interface, it all trails the modern Linux desktop experience by a wide country mile. I swear, this is the last time I
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What a precious gift to humanity you are.
Really? (sarcasm) (Score:4, Informative)
You mean Zynga actually is the money hungry whore everyone thought it was?
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His dog?
99% chance his favorite password has "zynga" in it.
For the nth time already (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not a "privacy leak" if you type the $#!% in yourself!
Re:For the nth time already (Score:4, Insightful)
What about when acquaintances release personal information about you on Facebook?
That's the real problem with these apps that violate privacy, if it violates an individuals privacy it violates everyones (to some degree).
Like it or not there is shared information that defines you, with our without your input.
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You're wrong.
I type my credit card in when I buy stuff online. I expect that only the appropriate employees at the cc processor have access to that information.
I type my telephone number in on facebook. I expect that only people on my friends' list can see my phone number, but sure enough, it's accessible by Zynga et. al. because one (or several) of my friends played farmville or whatever during the day or so after facebook auto-reset everyone's privacy settings.
You may be right that the term 'privacy leak'
Overhyped BS (Score:3, Informative)
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It has privacy issues similar to tracking cookies. It is like a tracking cookie you cannot delete.
It's not necessarily that it contains private information in itself, but it can be used to uniquely identify you.
If someone records what information goes with that UID once, then it's possible to match your UID to that information in the future, either by a past or future gathering from that party, or by purchasing the information to match against the UID from an information broker
I don't think it's a coincidence (Score:4, Insightful)
That the apps with problems are the top ones.
How do they become top apps?
They work, are designed well, and are appealing to their audience both graphically and functionally.
How do apps that best meet these criteria get built? By hiring top-notch programmers, web designers, and marketers.
What do you need to hire top-notch programmers, designers, and marketers? Lots of financial backing?
How do you get lots of financial backing and excellent investors? By selling a very good business plan.
How do you get lots of money to fund development? Advertising and information brokering.
What do advertisers pay a lot for? Extremely well-targetted ads that take into account specific characteristics of the audience.
What do information brokers pay a lot for? Private information about your users.
Farmville Stats for Advertisers (Score:2, Funny)
Imagine going through this crap.
Chuck in Fargo needs help building his barn.
Mary in New York needs to borrow some fertilizer.
Some data miner for Farmville hates his life.
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Imagine going through this crap. [..] Mary in New York needs to borrow some fertilizer.
Ship the big pile of crap to Mary. Problem solved!
Article contains spam link to ad page (Score:2)
The link in the article leads to a spam link page with a big timed Flash ad. The actual Wall Street Journal article mentioned is here. [wsj.com]
Casablanca (Score:1)
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Minion-to-Zuckerberg enters and hands him a huge wad of bills. "You're winnings, sir".
Scary warning keeps me away (Score:2)
I have a facebook account. It's not so bad. I don't use it very often but it's useful for some things. From time to time in the past I've gotten invitations to start using some app or another, and in rare circumstances it was an app which appealed to me for one reason or another. But, when I click to install it, I'm always confronted by a scary warning message saying that the app was going to steal my identity and rape my grandmother -- or something like that, it's hard to remember after something so scary.
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So if such a warning is attached to every FB "app" what are the grounds for all the outrage?
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Outrage? I don't know, I would call myself outraged.
But I think the issue is that the individual apps have data sharing policies, which would be more restrictive than the warning I stopped at, and those policies were not respected. I have never gotten to that point, though, so I couldn't be outraged about that.
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For those not concerned about privacy (Score:2)
It's the cross-pollination of data that concerns me the most. You don't know where one link of your Facebook account will turn up. This is a Google example, but I HAD a YouTube account and after Google bought them out I got a prompt to share my Google login info, which I did. So, now the YouTube account that allowed me to semi-anonymously comment on videos, pick favorites, and rate those I liked is rolled into my Google "screw your privacy" profile. A few weeks ago, I log in to see that somehow Google h