Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 524 posts

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#211

Post by krrrh »

rpastuszak wrote: post #190
anonymouse008 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do know how this happened right? Wifi SSIDs with similar strengths reveal if people are in the same area, then just correlate timestamps and viola! I wouldn't throw the elder person under the bus on this one, the tactics are sophisticated, and honestly, just a precursor to what will happen with AR. To give a bit more of how it's implemented (at least how I would propose it in iOS), Insta/FB/Whats queries availabl…

haha, that's a good point, but in this case I think it's more trivial than that: she probably shared her contact book with FB or Insta (still, not her fault imho). But, at the same time I've worked with FB SDK which was just one big shit show. It's hard even to describe it without turning a comment into an essay, so I'll pick the two I found somewhat amusing: sending data to FB before the developer could pass user co…

It’s almost certainly just the phone number. Recently Instagram told me that a former business partner of mine had joined and I was surprised to learn that his account was an hair braiding service in Atlanta for women with African lineage (we’re both Canadian men with European ancestors). We figured out that years ago we had taken a business trip there and picked up temporary SIM cards back when Canadian cell phone plans charged injurious roaming fees. I still had that phone number in my contacts for him when I joined Instagram, and it had finally been recycled and used to create an account.

It’s a cool thought experiment for nerds and paranoiacs to imagine how you might use relative wi-fi strengths, bluetooth beacons and complex interaction patterns, but it’s less sophisticated than that.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#212

Post by therein »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #186
anonymouse008 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do know how this happened right? Wifi SSIDs with similar strengths reveal if people are in the same area, then just correlate timestamps and viola! I wouldn't throw the elder person under the bus on this one, the tactics are sophisticated, and honestly, just a precursor to what will happen with AR. To give a bit more of how it's implemented (at least how I would propose it in iOS), Insta/FB/Whats queries availabl…

> and viola I love this typo.

> Then they query the adjacent SSIDs and their signal strength in a background thread, and bam, Viola is your aunt, all your privacy is violated!

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#213

Post by tyingq »

neogodless wrote: post #197
tyingq wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Is there a trustworthy phone number version of https://haveibeenpwned.com ?" An "exact" google search excluding adjacent phone numbers seems to work well for my numbers, and culls a lot (not all) of the autogen pages. So if your number was 212-555-1239, search Google with these strings: "(212)555-1239" -1240 -1238 "212-555-1239" -1240 -1238

Dear god, fastpeoplesearch.com is a horribly obnoxious treasure trove of information.

Tried it, you're right. Got 6 of my past addresses, 9 past phone numbers, 8 relatives, all correct. Some incorrect info, but not much as a percentage.

If you reverse search the PO Box address listed on the site contact page, you'll find an Amateur Radio license listed to a person that is probably the owner of the site, based on his past experience.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#214

Post by rpastuszak »

badjeans wrote: post #184
rpastuszak wrote: post #119

I don’t have FB or or WhatsApp but my Insta account (using a separate email address and no personal details) keeps recommending my therapist to me. How are we still ok with this shit? The sooner we get rid of the cancer that FB is, the better. I didn’t share my contact book with FB apps either. It was probably her—a person in her 70s, not necessarily experienced with tech. The main reason this company exists, or that…

> I don’t have FB or or WhatsApp but my Insta account (using a separate email address and no personal details) keeps recommending my therapist to me. So what? What's the harm? People sure like to write emotionally charged posts arguing for privacy, but they're always suspiciously low on details on what bad things (actually) happened. Even in this case with phone numbers and other data leaked, so what? What harm do da…

> People sure like to write emotionally charged posts arguing for privacy, but they're always suspiciously low on details on what bad things (actually) happened.

Two bad things (random selection, because the comments below already make some really good points):

1. targeted behavioural advertising is proven to increase polarisation, literally turning people against each other.

A single instance of violating someone's privacy doesn't matter as much as your single vote won't shift the result of elections. But a single vote does matter, because is a part of a bigger whole.

2. My family member suffers from PTSD acquired because of living in an abusive relationship for 2 decades. That person started a new life, but ads targeted at her and her partner more than once triggered actual panic attacks. I know this might sound ridiculous without the context. This is because that person didn't understand how clever the tech behind targeting was and assumed that the ads were related to their partner cheating on them. It's irrational, I know, but we're talking about someone who is psychologically vulnerable.

I'd still say that 1. is a more important argument here, 2. just follows the line of thinking presented in your comment. (the main problem behind 2. is that person's mental state and the actions of their abuser, yet the amount of suffering that could've been removed is not negligible.)

> Even in this case with phone numbers and other data leaked, so what? What harm do data leaks cause?

Cambridge Analytica, voter manipulation, bias in behavioural targeting, increased polarisation in media--please Google these queries and educate yourself. There's a tonne of resources on the subject, including peer reviewed academic papers.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#215

Post by emayljames »

gpm wrote: post #101

Is it possible to download this without giving money to criminals? (The article says free, but my 2 minutes of googling hasn't found it, somewhat unsurprisingly). Is doing so legal? If the answer to both of those questions are yes... I'd like to take a peak. Mostly to check whether or not some numbers I know haven't been directly give to fb are there.

https://t.me/freedomf0x/12553 Is the download link in the channel. Has all files by country, zipped in .txt files.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#216

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

mmaunder wrote: post #206
rpastuszak wrote: post #119

I don’t have FB or or WhatsApp but my Insta account (using a separate email address and no personal details) keeps recommending my therapist to me. How are we still ok with this shit? The sooner we get rid of the cancer that FB is, the better. I didn’t share my contact book with FB apps either. It was probably her—a person in her 70s, not necessarily experienced with tech. The main reason this company exists, or that…

The metastasis is companies and organizations that have FB groups and insist that’s the only way to get data or collaborate with them and their members or customers.

Because it's so easy to set up a page, and get people to follow it. People run businesses on FB because it works, and everyone is there.

If the web had made things easier, this would have happened less, but web developers didn't care enough, and FB ate their lunch.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#217

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

rpastuszak wrote: post #193
thatcat wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many other ways this could happen, did you google her address on your phone browser or something like that? IG always seems to give recommendations based on what I've watched on youtube recently or looked up somehow.

I'm using DDG and a browser with 3p cookie blocking so this is less likely, but something might've slipped through cracks.

Honestly, it's almost certainly either her uploading her contacts, or location. I know that I normally get FB friend suggestions for people I've been at parties with.

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#218

Post by scalableUnicon »

rhizome wrote: post #204
anonymouse008 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do know how this happened right? Wifi SSIDs with similar strengths reveal if people are in the same area, then just correlate timestamps and viola! I wouldn't throw the elder person under the bus on this one, the tactics are sophisticated, and honestly, just a precursor to what will happen with AR. To give a bit more of how it's implemented (at least how I would propose it in iOS), Insta/FB/Whats queries availabl…

> You do know how this happened right? Wifi SSIDs with similar strengths reveal if people are in the same area, then just correlate timestamps and viola! The problem is that someone decided to correlate them, not to mention without asking.

It is possible to opt-out of Google's Wi-Fi network location mapping by appending "_nomap" to SSID[1], I'm not sure if it works with other providers. Although I think this should have been opt-in instead of opt-out, the least we deserve is a standard, guaranteed way to universally opt-out.

[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/news/Google-Maps-Wi-Fi-Location...

Re: 533M Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

#219

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

rpastuszak wrote: post #214
badjeans wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t have FB or or WhatsApp but my Insta account (using a separate email address and no personal details) keeps recommending my therapist to me. So what? What's the harm? People sure like to write emotionally charged posts arguing for privacy, but they're always suspiciously low on details on what bad things (actually) happened. Even in this case with phone numbers and other data leaked, so what? What harm do da…

> People sure like to write emotionally charged posts arguing for privacy, but they're always suspiciously low on details on what bad things (actually) happened. Two bad things (random selection, because the comments below already make some really good points): 1. targeted behavioural advertising is proven to increase polarisation, literally turning people against each other. A single instance of violating someone's…

> targeted behavioural advertising is proven to increase polarisation, literally turning people against each other.

Can you provide some evidence for this please? Certainly, filter bubbles make it easier for people to radicalise themselves, but I've not seen very much evidence that it's specifically the advertising.

And polarisation in (US) media has been underway since long before Mark Zuckerberg left elementary school.

Post reply on HN