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Facebook data harvester speaks out
http://www.x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9744		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 9:02 am ]
Post subject:  Facebook data harvester speaks out
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10802730

Quote:
The man who harvested and published the personal details of 100m Facebook users has spoken out about his motives.

Ron Bowes, a security consultant, used a piece of code to scan Facebook profiles, collecting data not hidden by the user's privacy settings.

The list, which contains the URL of every searchable Facebook user's profile, name and unique ID, has been shared as a downloadable file.

Mr Bowes told BBC News that he did it as part of his work on a security tool.

I am glad that I have a randomly generated password and absolutely minimal information on Facebook, plus have the maximum privacy settings as well.
Author:  big_D [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 9:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
I deleted my Facebook account a few months back. The constant move from "share information with your friends" to "we'll share all your information with our marketing partners" turned me off.
Author:  Zippy [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:05 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
My comment would be that all that information is public anyway. If you've got your privacy settings updated then having your ID and URL isn't going to help anyone get acccess to you is it?
Author:  big_D [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
Zippy wrote:
My comment would be that all that information is public anyway. If you've got your privacy settings updated then having your ID and URL isn't going to help anyone get acccess to you is it?

The problem is, or was, that Facebook would add new settings and make everything public by default - which considering the original aims of Facebook, offended a lot of users.

And making them so complex that a lot of people can't follow what is going on doesn't help. I locked all my settings down, each time, but it was a pain.
Author:  timark_uk [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
Zippy wrote:
My comment would be that all that information is public anyway. If you've got your privacy settings updated then having your ID and URL isn't going to help anyone get acccess to you is it?
No, it's not.
This whole '100 million Facebook user detail' story is a non-starter.
If it's all publicly available anyway what's the point. *shrug*

Mark
Author:  soddit112 [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
all i have set as fully public are my statuses, photos, posts, and religious views. and since my statuses are inane, my photos are horrible and my religious views are from Half-Life, i dont feel too threatened by this :lol:

oh and my website, but that is jut a link to the Catface episode list :P

as Zippy said, this information is public anyway, i wouldnt allow anything to be viewable by "everyone" if i thought it could be used to attack me, as i highly doubt anyone would be stupid enough to try and blackmail me over my anger at oven chips :wink:

timark_uk wrote:
Zippy wrote:
My comment would be that all that information is public anyway. If you've got your privacy settings updated then having your ID and URL isn't going to help anyone get access to you is it?
No, it's not.
This whole '100 million Facebook user detail' story is a non-starter.
If it's all publicly available anyway what's the point. *shrug*

Mark


the article states that the guy is a security researcher, hes probably just looking for some attention, or a job :?
Author:  timark_uk [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:43 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
soddit112 wrote:
the article states that the guy is a security researcher, hes probably just looking for some attention, or a job :?
That was my thinking too.

Mark
Author:  timark_uk [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
soddit112 wrote:
oh and my website, but that is jut a link to the Catface episode list :P
Catface is brilliant. (8+)

Mark
Author:  Spreadie [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
Amnesia10 wrote:
I am glad that I have a randomly generated password and absolutely minimal information on Facebook, plus have the maximum privacy settings as well.

I'm glad I don't have a Facebook account. ;)

I agree with earlier comments that he just done this for publicity and personal gain.
Author:  pcernie [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 12:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
The list is supposedly quite popular on torrent sites :|
Author:  okenobi [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 12:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
pcernie wrote:
The list is supposedly quite popular on torrent sites :|


Finished it this morning. Wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Gonna go have a look...
Author:  l3v1ck [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 1:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
I check my security settings on a regular basis because every time they change them slightly, they seem to default to "share with everyone" even if the previous settings were at "friends only". For a while there was some personal data that you couldn't stop them sharing (you can now) so I just deleted it.
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 3:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
I am so minimalistic about what goes on mine that it is not really a problem but I still would not want everyone to see it.
Author:  Linux_User [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 8:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
All of my settings are "friends only" and my tweets are protected, so there will be no harvesting for me. ;)
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Facebook data harvester speaks out
Linux_User wrote:
All of my settings are "friends only" and my tweets are protected, so there will be no harvesting for me. ;)

Same here but who knows what is available during those spells when Facebook changes its user settings.
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