Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#21

Post by ljk » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 10:19 PM UTC

bogomipz wrote: post #16

>"For instance, opting out of Oracle’s Datalogix, which provides about 350 types of data to Facebook according to our analysis, requires “sending a written request, along with a copy of government-issued identification” in postal mail to Oracle’s chief privacy officer." This is outrageous. Why is the onus on a user who never gave permission to a data broker in the first place? They deal in digitial domain when it com…

iirc it's the same for facebook: if they think you're using a fake name, you'll have to mail them your government-issued identification to get your account back.

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#22

Post by rl3 » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 10:22 PM UTC

soared wrote: post #11

O5vYtytb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They know your location and proximity to other facebook users.

This is the actual answer. Your phone tried to connect to their wifi and knows they've also connected to that same wifi. With few other quality friend suggestions, these ones popped up.

Or, if one or both parties were running the Facebook app with location services enabled, it could also have been GPS too.

I wrote about this a few days ago.[0] Basically, new Facebook accounts that you run on the app with location services enabled will provide creepy location-based friend suggestions by default.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13252568

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#23

Post by confounded » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 10:30 PM UTC

polyomino wrote: post #9

confounded wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangential question: Do you know if it's possible to identify financial institutions which don't sell this kind of data? Credit unions?

Up until a few years ago, credit card networks had divisions that were trading on transaction data, but they've had to shut those down. So now they sell the anonymized data to prop trading firms and advertisers. I think cash is your best bet.

Hah, I actually did a small project on some of this data for one of those companies. Pretty amazing what you can get out of 50 char descriptions at scale.

Do you happen to know the law that caused them to stop trading PII? Is it only the networks, as opposed to the issuers who trade information?

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#24

Post by petters » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 10:32 PM UTC

lalos wrote: post #14

Sort of related, have people noticed or have they officially announced that they are tagging photos on the alt html field with a description of the actual photo? It's pretty accurate with texts like "two people smiling, with baby".

https://code.facebook.com/posts/457605107772545/under-the-ho...

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#25

Post by alanh » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 10:46 PM UTC

Ironically, I cannot read this article as I am immediately redirected to https://www.facebook.com/plugins/share_button.php?app_id=229...

(likely due to a script having a bad reaction with one of the browser extensions granting me a small illusion of privacy)

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#26

Post by PrimeDirective » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 10:48 PM UTC

I'm sorry but NO DUH

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#27

Post by mathattack » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 11:03 PM UTC

soared wrote: post #2

You can replace "Facebook" with thousands of other companies. Everyone is doing this because the cost is low, its easy, and the return is massive. The sole service my roommate's company does is match your customer with data about them from countless other sources. If you want a peek into a small section of this type of data, go build a facebook ad. You can see all the targeting options. You can upload a list of email…

I think you mean Cardalytics.

The amazing thing is that hedge funds trade on aggregate credit card purchase data.

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#28

Post by pwnna » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 11:16 PM UTC

Speaking of which, perhaps someone can shed some light on the suggested friends feature. Many people suspected it uses GPS/Wifi to perform location based friend suggestions, as well as contact book uploading. However, it doesn't really explain my own case:

I recently encountered a friend suggestion for someone that I only know online (IRC and later, Google Hangout). I don't really know who they are other than a name (as exposed by GHangout). I've never met them as they are in a completely different country. I don't have the facebook app and the messenger app is forbidden to read my contacts as per CyanogenMod's Privacy Guard. I fail to understand how FB can suggest this? The only possible reason I can think of is when they searched my name on Facebook. How else can they do it?

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#29

Post by TallGuyShort » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 11:28 PM UTC

kminehart wrote: post #3

That might explain a pretty creepy thing Facebook did the other day to me. I just created a new Facebook account after maybe 4 years of radio silence. Two years ago, I had a job doing IT contracting; often I would go to businesses and repair laptops or run cable to a COM room. We had very very few residential clients since they weren't worth our time; the few that we did have were really just courtesy for doing busin…

I suspect they do this if that client has your email address (even a previous one using the same first / last name) and gave Facebook access to their address book.

LinkedIn did this. Registered, also after years of silence on any kind of social media website other than email: "Would you like to connect with your ex-girlfriend who only emailed you one time at a different address?"

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#30

Post by emptybits » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 11:30 PM UTC

> "He said users can visit a page in Facebook’s help center, which provides links to the opt-outs for six data brokers that sell personal data to Facebook."

The link provided is: https://m.facebook.com/help/494750870625830?helpref=uf_perma....

LOL. The amount of personal information requested at those "opt-out" links is suspicious and/or ironic.

Examples of information requested to "opt-out" of the USA partners' reach include: Social Security Number (!), date of birth, "all variations" of full name, all recent mailing addresses, ... (!!)