Facebook is NOT your friend... It's your BIG BROTHER

[Precarious]

Austrian student takes on Facebook over privacy

VIENNA (AP) — Max Schrems wasn't sure what he would get when he asked Facebook to send him a record of his personal data from three years of using the site.

What the 24-year-old Austrian law student didn't expect, though, was 1,222 pages of data on a CD. It included chats he had deleted more than a year ago, "pokes" dating back to 2008, invitations to which he had never responded, let alone attended, and hundreds of other details.

Time for an "aha" moment.

...

Schrems also disputes that the Facebook has given him all of the information it holds about him, arguing that he has only received information from 23 out of a possible 57 data categories.

Facebook insists it has given Schrems and others in his group all of the information that is legally required. Still, Facebook insists it is allowed to hold back data that includes "a range of other things that are not personal information, including Facebook's proprietary fraud protection measures, and 'any other analytical procedure that Facebook runs,'" a Facebook spokesman said.

...

More:

http://news.yahoo.co...-061003250.html

 

[azn567]

Not surpising.

 

[meaganelise9]

If you throw something out there on the internet, why would you not expect police to have access to that information? I don't see what the problem is. Someone from my hometown was just arrested for murder recently. Her friend overdosed on heroin, and she is the one that shot him up. Dumb*** posted this stuff on FB within minutes or hours. Duh!

 

[angelofdeathzz]

Call me square but I knew Facebook was bad from day one, never fell into that cult, lol !?!?!

And I build computers!

 

[Precarious]

Call me square but I knew Facebook was bad from day one, never fell into that cult, lol !?!?!

And I build computers!

Same here. I was on MySpace which was a lot of fun for a while there. Met a lot of great people. But I'd never posted too much personal info. I'm paranoid by nature (and for good reason, apparently) so I sometimes geek out just over posting photos here or videos on YouTube. Some people post everything on Facebook; photos of their home, their friends and family - and they even "tag" the photos which is identifying people for Big Brother.

The police state has so far been a voluntary venture. Count me out.

If you throw something out there on the internet, why would you not expect police to have access to that information? I don't see what the problem is. Someone from my hometown was just arrested for murder recently. Her friend overdosed on heroin, and she is the one that shot him up. Dumb*** posted this stuff on FB within minutes or hours. Duh!

Do you know how many people post photos of themselves doing illegal substances? I see news articles every day of people losing their jobs over what they've posted on Facebook. It's like allowing ANYBODY to get an inside look at your personal life. I read another article about a guy that was on the run for over year. The cops could not find him. Then the dope posts an update on Facebook. They picked him up the next day. I'm not saying he didn't deserve to be captured, but things can be turned against any one of us if the wrong people in power decide to see us as criminals.

 

[meaganelise9]

Well, honestly, if someone posts photos of themselves doing drugs or other illegal activities, that's idiotic. I use Facebook every day. I never ever post anything negative or proprietary about work because I will get fired. I don't do many illegal things, but when I do, I don't post about it for the same reason I wouldn't walk down the street announcing it. Posting mundane ###### is harmless. It's the only way I can keep in touch with old friends anymore. I love feeling like they're still a part of my life. Posting something incriminating is like turning yourself in to the police. It's not facebook's fault if you're bad at being a criminal. The internet is a public place for the most part. People shouldn't forget.

 

[angelofdeathzz]

That was fun let's do twitter next, LOL! Or do you need to be in a "That's 70's" show to fail at that too?!?!?

 

[meaganelise9]

...I thought I used a pretty g-rated word there. Apparently not.

 

[twolfe]

That's an interesting article.

I do use Facebook but am very careful what I post and when I post. I don't like to announce when I'm not home. I use it mostly to share my photos from my photo shoots, but I don't like to use it for email. And I'm worried about copyright issues with my images. So, I only post a few now and then.

I'm not worried about any potential employer reading my posts, though I should have my privacy set to friends of friends, though it defaulted once back to public after an update.

 

[Mr.Mantid]

I deactivated my "book of faces" for a while. I don't trust em either, although I use it minimally. I keep it minimal as to the information I have on there, and I try not to put anything too personal on there.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Yeah, I use Facebook occasionally, too, but i take the same sensible precautions as Tammy.

If you show that you are doing drugs on facebook, Youtube or anywhere else on the net, the police can raid you but they can't bust on the strength of the video (surely you guys know this?), but if someone at work sees it and turns you in to the boss, of course he'll have a screen done and bust your arse.

There's an old saying: "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime."

Here's a newer version: "If you can't do the time , don't post your crimes on the internet."

 

[guapoalto049]

I have a solution: Don't do things that you may not want people seeing. Then, if a picture happens to be taken and posted for all to see, you won't regret it.

Maybe facebook is a good thing in some regard, in that we are catching criminals that would otherwise go free and employees that have less-than-respectable lives outside of the workplace.

 

[guapoalto049]

Well, honestly, if someone posts photos of themselves doing drugs or other illegal activities, that's idiotic. I use Facebook every day. I never ever post anything negative or proprietary about work because I will get fired. I don't do many illegal things, but when I do, I don't post about it for the same reason I wouldn't walk down the street announcing it. Posting mundane ###### is harmless. It's the only way I can keep in touch with old friends anymore. I love feeling like they're still a part of my life. Posting something incriminating is like turning yourself in to the police. It's not facebook's fault if you're bad at being a criminal. The internet is a public place for the most part. People shouldn't forget.

Bingo!

 

[Precarious]

Yes, yes... Don't ever do anything anyone else might disagree with or use against you. Good advice in a fantasy world. Different people have different ideas of right and wrong, as well as what's acceptable/unacceptable behavior. The bottom line is don't create a permanent record of your activities for all to see... not even your mundane activities. People's homes have been broken into because they post that they are going away.

But all of that is common sense.

The real evil of Facebook is how they record all of your activities, chart your likes/dislikes, interactions, shopping habits, internet use, surfing habits, etc., etc., etc. They then make money by selling that information to the highest bidder. That includes advertisers so they can target you with ads, as well as governmental agencies or any organization that can profit from that data. And that's the end of the story. If you don't mind helping a faceless, money-grubbing corporate entity spying on you, quantifying you, and luring you into helping it accomplish its task than go for it. It's not about whether or not you break the law. It's whether or not you consider yourself a private individual or an object of study. More than anything else Facebook is an experiment in intelligence gathering.

That's all I've got to say on the subject. You can defend it all you want. Yeah, it's convenient. That's the whole idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMWz3G_gPhU

More detailed information here:

http://www.nzherald....lfriend#Scene_1

Facebook Reportedly Can Track Web Browsing Without Cookies

The Electronic Frontier Foundation cites a September 25th, 2011 blog post by hacker and writer Nik Cubrilovic that proved Facebook’s session cookie was not being deleted upon log-out. Facebook responded with a “fix-it,” but it raises serious concerns about whether one can effectively log-out of Facebook and whether or not Facebook can track users without the benefit of cookies.

According to Cubrilovic, he waited for a year to hear from Facebook on this privacy issue that he discovered, emailing them and reaching multiple dead-ends.

Two days later, on September 27th, Cubrilovic noted, “In summary, Facebook has made changes to the logout process and they have explained each part of the process and the cookies that the site uses in detail … They want to retain the ability to track browsers after logout for safety and spam purposes, and they want to be able to log page requests for performance reasons etc.”

EFF, however, is unequivocal in stating, “Facebook can track web browsing history without cookies.”

“Facebook is able to collect data about your browser – including your IP address and a range of facts about your browser – without ever installing a cookie. They can use this data to build a record of every time you load a page with embedded Facebook content,” added the EFF.

This ability to track users outside of Facebook is particularly troubling.

EFF states, “It’s clear that Facebook does extensive cross-domain tracking, with two types of cookies and even without. With this data, Facebook could create a detailed portrait of how you use the Internet: what sites you visit, how frequently you load them, what time of day you like to access them. This could point to more than your shopping habits – it could provide a candid window into health concerns, political interests, reading habits, sexual preferences, religious affiliations, and much more.”

That Facebook keeps this data on file for 90 days (before it’s discarded or made anonymous) is a legitimate privacy concern and it could certainly be useful in the event U.S. intelligence services desires to build a profile of a particular user’s web browsing.

This sort of ability has already raised concerns amongst lawmakers and privacy advocates.

http://cryptogon.com/?p=25460

Facebook quietly switches on facial recognition tech by default

Facebook has rolled out its facial recognition technology to countries outside of the US, but has switched the feature on by default without telling its users first.

UK-based security expert Graham Cluely noted earlier today that Facebook had slotted the tech into the social network.

The Mark Zuckerberg-run company started using its facial recognition software in December last year for its Stateside users in a move to automatically provide tags for the photos uploaded by Facebook users.

The tech works by scanning newly uploaded pics and then identifies faces from previously tagged photos already stored in Zuckerberg's internet silo.

When the software was introduced in the US late last year, Facebook pointed out that users could disable the function.

"If for any reason you don't want your name to be suggested, you will be able to disable suggested tags in your Privacy Settings," the company wrote on its blog post last December.

But now that the tech has reached other shores, Facebook clearly didn't feel the need to alert its international stalkerbase that its facial recognition software had been switched on by default within the social network.

The "Suggest photos of me to friends" feature in question is located in the company's privacy settings. Facebookers need to click on "customise settings" before being able to access the function and disable it, if they so wish.

"Unfortunately, once again, Facebook seems to be sharing personal information by default. Many people feel distinctly uncomfortable about a site like Facebook learning what they look like, and using that information without their permission," said Cluley.

"Most Facebook users still don't know how to set their privacy options safely, finding the whole system confusing. It's even harder though to keep control when Facebook changes the settings without your knowledge."

He said Facebook shouldn't require its users to constantly check their privacy settings to see what the company has changed since their last visit to the site.

"The onus should not be on Facebook users having to 'opt-out' of the facial recognition feature, but instead on users having to 'opt-in'," he said.

"Yet again, it feels like Facebook is eroding the online privacy of its users by stealth."

The Register asked Facebook to comment on this story, but at time of writing it had not got back to us. ®

http://www.theregist..._on_by_default/

 

[bobericc]

No fb

Havent even seen the flick

 

[Gill]

The real evil of Facebook is how they record all of your activities, chart your likes/dislikes, interactions, shopping habits, internet use, surfing habits, etc., etc., etc. They then make money by selling that information to the highest bidder. That includes advertisers so they can target you with ads, as well as governmental agencies or any organization that can profit from that data. And that's the end of the story. If you don't mind helping a faceless, money-grubbing corporate entity spying on you, quantifying you, and luring you into helping it accomplish its task than go for it.

Spot on. It is a company and it makes its money from the details you enter on its site and it doesn't seem to have any code of conduct.

 

[crucis]

'... not just play sidekick to local law enforcement who come to rely on social media, rather than do their own investigating.'

From a global perspective: hard not to love a country with news channels that can get away with that.

Kudos, people!

 

[ismart]

WOW! Some how none of this really surprises me.

 

[rs4guy]

This is not new to me, they have been doing variations of the above for years. I keep any online style profile's squeaky clean for that very reason....

Not to mention employers and others will also look for you etc...