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DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

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Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#261

Post by kickopotomus »

isostatic wrote: post #174
idlewords wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has no incentive to provide access to third parties. This data is their source of revenue; they sell services off of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica

They did not sell information to Cambridge Analytica. As stated in the page you linked, the data was scraped using a 3rd party application requiring user opt-in. Now, there was a bug that allowed the app developer to also scrape data from the friends of the actual users but that has been patched and the developer's license has been revoked as the entire ordeal was against FB's licensing agreement.

I am not a fan of Facebook but this entire thread is just filled with misinformation.

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#262

Post by LinuxBender »

moccachino wrote: post #230
cyphar wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that it is technically illegal, but if the most recent example of a conviction (that you can think of) was almost 30 years ago that tells you that it's effectively unenforced.

Michael Cohen was sentenced for exactly this [1] just a few months ago. [1] https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/12/13/michael-c...

Didn't that also involve lying to federal investigators?

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#263

Post by davvolun »

code_duck wrote: post #126
davvolun wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since they store edit history, too, replacing it with other text would simply be an indication that you’re trying to cover it up. It's text you wrote, why would there be any problem "covering up" your own text? Note that, I'm not arguing you should have a right to use Selenium to scrape their site and replace the text, but if you went through every post in a non-automated fashion and changed the text, from a perspe…

If you’re trying to hide the content from someone who has access to the edit history, editing it is ineffective and simply shows that you wish for it to be hidden. When would this be an issue? In court. It’s true that editing could serve to hide it from other users, but privacy settings could do that also.

I'm still not following -- in court for what?

This is information that you originally put out, wrote down on Facebook, so it's not that you're hiding something you didn't want anyone to know originally. If it was libelous or something so you wanted to delete it after the fact, it's still likely possible to get it back -- even if Facebook deleted the actual message in the database, there's likely a number of methods -- server logs, db logs, cached resources, db backups, or even a simple screenshot -- that would likely be sufficient proof.

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#264

Post by IggleSniggle »

z3c0 wrote: post #132
z3c0 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was the nature of deletion explicitly defined as "deleted records are removed from all databases, data warehouses included"? They technically wouldn't be lying if they only deleted the record from application systems, but retained it in historical data by simply setting a bit flag (eg "IsDeleted") to 1. The question about what motive they have comes down to whether or not the types of posts a person deletes indicate…

I read the audit, and here's something I noticed (other than that it's 8 years old): "In determining appropriate retention periods for personal information, data controllers can have due regard to any statutory obligations to retain data. However, if the purpose for which the information was obtained has ceased and the personal information is no longer required for that purpose, the data must be deleted or disposed o…

But “if the purpose for which the information was obtained” was to enable better ad targeting, then “data retention” is still “appropriate”, eh?

Under this reading, is there even an obligation to anonymize? And how anonymous does anonymous need to be? Does a simple base64 encoding count as “anonymized”?

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#265

Post by z3c0 »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #264
z3c0 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the audit, and here's something I noticed (other than that it's 8 years old): "In determining appropriate retention periods for personal information, data controllers can have due regard to any statutory obligations to retain data. However, if the purpose for which the information was obtained has ceased and the personal information is no longer required for that purpose, the data must be deleted or disposed o…

But “if the purpose for which the information was obtained” was to enable better ad targeting, then “data retention” is still “appropriate”, eh? Under this reading, is there even an obligation to anonymize? And how anonymous does anonymous need to be? Does a simple base64 encoding count as “anonymized”?

I had that thought originally too - however the keywords here are "statutory obligation" (basically, legal reasons.) So if the FBI asked them to retain the data, they can do so as long as the FBI needs it.

And the matter of anonymisation is a great question - "irrevocable" anonymisation certainly has a different meaning back in 2011, when swapping a name for a guid would do the job. Nowadays, it would require at least deleting all relationships as well, since social network analysis is much more advanced these days (especially at FB, of all places.) It wouldn't be impossible to derive the identity of an anonymous account/record based on the undeleted data associated with it. And since FB's "ghost profiles" are something we know exist, I think it's safe to assume those relationships are being maintained somehow.

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#266

Post by kylehotchkiss »

way66 wrote: post #260
kylehotchkiss wrote: post #233

Love this script! I'm trying to use it to wipe 10 years of Facebook dumbness. It can handle about a month's worth of posts before it crashes though. Is there any try/catch/repeat loops you could add to resolve this? Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"class name","selector":"layerConfirm"} Or... is there a Python equivalent of "nodemon" I could run it behind? Thanks for the great work! I wa…

we are working on facebook.... :) CEO, Jumbo Privacy.

Super excited to test it, didn't intend for facebook piece to be a criticism of your app, which I highly enjoy and use regularly.

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#267

Post by code_duck »

davvolun wrote: post #263
code_duck wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re trying to hide the content from someone who has access to the edit history, editing it is ineffective and simply shows that you wish for it to be hidden. When would this be an issue? In court. It’s true that editing could serve to hide it from other users, but privacy settings could do that also.

I'm still not following -- in court for what? This is information that you originally put out, wrote down on Facebook, so it's not that you're hiding something you didn't want anyone to know originally . If it was libelous or something so you wanted to delete it after the fact, it's still likely possible to get it back -- even if Facebook deleted the actual message in the database, there's likely a number of methods…

Plenty of people post things that they shouldn't have and regret. It could be plainly incriminating, like when people ill-advisedly make a post essentially admitting to a crime, threatening someone, or discussing events related to a lawsuit in public. It's possible deleting or obscuring such a post could even be construed to be destruction of evidence.

http://www.wassom.com/delete-at-your-own-risk-spoliation-of-...

As far as the rest of your post, i believe that is exactly what I was asserting originally.

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#268

Post by edmundsauto »

IanCal wrote: post #195
skinnymuch wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t that all to sell you ads?

For the general "you" yes, but not the specific "you". It would be possible to use your data to sell someone else ads.

Do you know what the legal status is of models derived from someone else's data? EG, can I train an AI from every Marvel movie, then use that to produce other movies?

That's not a great analogy because I would be violating other people's IP, whereas FB generally has rights to the data they collect.

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#269

Post by Haga »

xs83 wrote: post #111
saddlerustle wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people in this thread are claiming that it doesn't based on gut feeling, but consider: - Facebook publicly claims it does [1] - Mark Zuckerberg testified in-front of congress and stated they do [2] - Multiple government regulators have specifically checked that it does in their privacy audits. [3] They might be lying and actively conspiring to not delete it, but they'd have to have a very good reason to take…

Facebook don't need to keep your past posts, their algorithms have already run the data. The real question is whether you can reset the "personas" they assign to you....

There are ways to be reclassified as a undesirable persona

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#270

Post by tripzilch »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #6

I don't trust the "delete" button to scrub it from FB's database. I'd be slightly more confident ( slightly ) that editing the post might cause the core data in the db to be updated, however. In which case, I think the more effective script would be one that goes through all of your FB posts and scrambles them, or replaces the text with gibberish.

You'd have to scramble your friend connections and your location data and likes and all the other things that aren't text, too.
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