The Facebook Privacy Thread

[innerSpaceman]

I have roughly a zillion facebook friends, and I have this amazing ability to scroll past stuff I'm not interested in. I certainly don't have any among the zillions who never posts anything I'm interested in.

Alex, I find it ironic you would shy away from a site where using your real name is customary, since you have always been known by your real name on message boards where it was customary to have a moniker.

[Alex]

I too have a very good ability to scroll past the zillion things I'm not interested. But it is at the cost of scrolling past the many things I might actually be interested in.

On the name thing, I've only ever used my real name within the Disney community and that was only because there was a purpose in making sure people connected me to my role running MousePlanet. Everywhere else I have always used a set of names, varying depending on which sphere it's in.

You'll recall that as soon as I was no longer in that position I changed the names here and at MousePad. I would have gone with complete fabrications but since within these communities I was already well known I decided to keep using Alex.

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by Alex

I would have gone with complete fabrications but since within these communities I was already well known I decided to keep using Alex.

Well, if you ever decide to change it to "Curmudgeon" I promise to recognize you

[€uroMeinke]

I think the "hacker" vulnerability comes from 3rd party apps - such as the games and quizzes - but usually those involve getting past your privacy settings and getting ahold of your friends list so they can target spam to them that looks like you endorsed it. More an annoyance than anything else as long as you don't do things like use your date of birth, friend or pet names as passwords.

[Pirate Bill]

Originally Posted by €uroMeinke

More an annoyance than anything else as long as you don't do things like use your date of birth, friend or pet names as passwords.

It's not just passwords the black hat hackers are after. It's stuff like your home town, the city you were born in, the best man at your wedding, your mother's maiden name, etc. All such insights into your life can grant people backdoor access to your bank accounts or email (which can also help get back door access to bank accounts). No matter how secure your passwords are the weakest link is the security questions used to reset or remind you of your passwords.

[BarTopDancer]

Continued:

Spoiler:

Why do some of the things I like from other websites appear in my "Likes and Interests" section of my profile, while others don't?
Social plugins are a common set of tools from Facebook to bring social and personalized experiences to other websites you visit. However, each website may choose to implement them in different ways.

In some cases, your likes and recommendations become a part of your profile in the "Info" tab in the same way as the connections you make with Pages on Facebook. This occurs when you like or recommend a real world entity, such as a book, movie or athlete, where it makes more sense to form a lasting relationship.

Which sites use social plugins?
Any website can use social plugins. Learn more about adding social plugins to your website.

How do I opt-out of viewing social plugins?
No data is shared about you when you see a social plugin on an external website. You can choose to use social plugins when you click the "Like" or "Recommend" button on a piece of content you want to share. These actions are publicly available information, similar to public comments or reviews you might write on a website. Only click the "Like" or "Recommend" buttons if you want to share your likes and recommendations publicly.

How is this different from the "Log in with Facebook" or "Connect" features I see across the Web?
If you want to interact more deeply with a website, on some sites you’ll see ways to log in or sign in to that site using your Facebook information. This capability has been available since July 2008 and was previously called Facebook Connect. It provides you with ways to share your information with other websites and find your friends. In these cases, you are establishing a relationship directly with these websites and sharing your information with them after you choose to sign in; this includes your data from social plugins.

Instant personalization pilot program partnerships
How does instant personalization work on websites participating in the pilot program?
We have established a small pilot program with an exclusive set of partners—currently yelp.com, Microsoft Docs.com, and pandora.com—to offer a personalized experience as soon as you visit. These partners have been given access to public information on Facebook (e.g., names, friend lists and interests and likes) to personalize your experience.

When you first visit any of these three partner sites while logged into Facebook, you’ll see a blue bar appear at the top of the site letting you know that your experience is being personalized. You can choose to learn more, remove the personalized experience or click "x" to remove the bar. If you don't want your experience personalized on these limited number of sites, you can opt out by clicking here. You can also navigate there by going to 'Account' -> 'Privacy settings' -> 'Applications and Websites' -> 'Instant Personalization Pilot Program'

What data is shared with instant personalization pilot program websites?
When you and your friends visit an instantly personalized partner site - currently including yelp.com, Microsoft Docs.com, and pandora.com the partner can use your public Facebook information, which includes your name, profile picture, gender, and connections. To access any non-public information, the website is required to ask for you or your friend's explicit permission.

Will my actions on instant personalization pilot program websites be published back to Facebook?
No information is published back to Facebook unless you click on a "Like" button or other social plugin or explicitly authorize the website to publish to Facebook on your behalf.

How did Facebook select partners for its instant personalization pilot program?
Facebook has carefully selected and reviewed the partners in the instant personalization pilot program. These partners are contractually required to respect people's privacy preferences. Additionally, they are required to provide an easy and prominent method for opting out directly from their website and delete data if people choose do opt out.

Is there a complete list of which websites are participating in the instant personalization pilot program?
Instant personalization is enabled only for the following partner websites: yelp.com, docs.com, and pandora.com.

How will I know that I've arrived on an instant personalization pilot program website?
Each instant personalization partner is required to display a blue Facebook notification at the top of their website when you first arrive on their site.

How do I opt-out of the instant personalization pilot program?
You can opt-out of instant personalization by disallowing it here. By clicking "No Thanks" on the Facebook notification on partner sites, partners will delete your data. To prevent your friends from sharing any of your information with an instant personalization partner, block the application: Microsoft Docs.com, Pandora, Yelp.

How do I block individual sites in the instant personalization pilot program from accessing my public information my friends share?
You can block each site individually by clicking on "Block Application" link on the following pages: Microsoft Docs.com, Pandora, Yelp.

[BarTopDancer]

After reading all that, it seems that if you log out of Facebook before going out to the web you can avoid having your data pulled. Your data is accessed via FB code on the other website (as GD explained earlier).

Before these changes Yelp and Pandora were already doing this type of data sharing. I think OpenTable was too.

I get why the changes are raising questions and concerns but it seems to be a lot of uproar about the lack of privacy when your data isn't being broadcast to the rest of the internet.

[bewitched]

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

After reading all that, it seems that if you log out of Facebook before going out to the web you can avoid having your data pulled. Your data is accessed via FB code on the other website (as GD explained earlier).

Well yeah...unless your friends visit certain websites.

I guess my problem isn't so much that a website I have chosen to log into looks at my info (if I don't opt/log out) but I have a big problem with a website I've never even visited pulling whatever info my FB friends are privy to (different from public, i.e. "everyone" info) whenever one of them goes to visit (without ever even pressing a "like" button.)

I mean honestly, with all of the uproar about the "like" thing, how many people even know that there are 3 sites out there that require nothing more than a visit by a friend (and is FB going to say when they add more or do I need to go check everyday?)? And how big of a leap is it before it doesn't matter whether or not you're logged in or out...that you are IDed by FB by your IP?

I don't mind having to opt in or out when I am informed of privacy changes but I resent having to go on a treasure hunt to find what the new policy really is. And frankly, has FB said how long they've been partners with Yelp, Pandora and MS docs? They could have been pulling info for months before anyone noticed.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

After reading all that, it seems that if you log out of Facebook before going out to the web you can avoid having your data pulled. Your data is accessed via FB code on the other website (as GD explained earlier).

Before these changes Yelp and Pandora were already doing this type of data sharing. I think OpenTable was too.

I get why the changes are raising questions and concerns but it seems to be a lot of uproar about the lack of privacy when your data isn't being broadcast to the rest of the internet.

Humm.... So in theory, if I isolate Facebook into it's own virtual machine. I might bypass a lot of what bugs me about it.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

Humm.... So in theory, if I isolate Facebook into it's own virtual machine. I might bypass a lot of what bugs me about it.

Virtually, yes