Live data from Hacker News

TakeThisLollipop - really clever/creepy use of the Facebook API

takethislollipop.com

51–60 of 143 posts

Re: TakeThisLollipop - really clever/creepy use of the Facebook API

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an example of how much personal data you actually leak through Facebook illustrated through a movie of a crazy serial killer browsing Facebook, with nicely done overlays of your actual personal data that the app pulled from you.

no, not really, considering you have to explicitly allow the app to access all that data...

Exactly, and you did allow it to do that on nothing more than an image of a lollipop and endorsement from this community.

Re: TakeThisLollipop - really clever/creepy use of the Facebook API

#55
Funny, my hosts file seems to interrupt the flow of this prank slightly.

We'll see how my s.o. reacts to it, but on my machine it does absolutely nothing.

In case you're wondering what is in my hosts file:

  127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com
  127.0.0.1 facebook.com
  127.0.0.1 connect.facebook.net
  127.0.0.1 facebook.net
  127.0.0.1 fbcdn.net
  127.0.0.1 www.fbcdn.net
  0.0.0.0 badge.facebook.com
  0.0.0.0 blog.facebook.com
  0.0.0.0 en-gb.facebook.com
  0.0.0.0 developers.facebook.com
  0.0.0.0 touch.facebook.com
  0.0.0.0 de-de.facebook.com
  0.0.0.0 stories.facebook.com
  0.0.0.0 it-it.facebook.com
  0.0.0.0 hu-hu.facebook.com
  0.0.0.0 peace.facebook.com
  0.0.0.0 et-ee.facebook.com
  0.0.0.0 az-az.facebook.com
  0.0.0.0 0.facebook.com
  0.0.0.0 apps.facebook.com
A nice side-effect of this seems to be that the web has become a lot more responsive. No more 'like' buttons popping up all over the place.

edit: regarding my s.o. it's been an interesting morning, this app seems to have opened her eyes to facebook in a different way. No more apps.

Re: TakeThisLollipop - really clever/creepy use of the Facebook API

#57

Why would anyone authorize Facebook access for a random site like this? No privacy policy, no about page, no terms. You have no idea what they're actually doing with your data.

Maybe that's the point of it - most people won't think twice about authorizing, but might realise what they've opted into once they see it.

Re: TakeThisLollipop - really clever/creepy use of the Facebook API

#58
post #55

Funny, my hosts file seems to interrupt the flow of this prank slightly. We'll see how my s.o. reacts to it, but on my machine it does absolutely nothing. In case you're wondering what is in my hosts file: 127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com 127.0.0.1 facebook.com 127.0.0.1 connect.facebook.net 127.0.0.1 facebook.net 127.0.0.1 fbcdn.net 127.0.0.1 www.fbcdn.net 0.0.0.0 badge.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 blog.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 en-gb…

You can achieve a similar thing with the ghostery extension.

http://www.ghostery.com/

Re: TakeThisLollipop - really clever/creepy use of the Facebook API

#59
post #35
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone make a video of this thing ?

http://www.takethislollipop.com/assets/takethislollipopv4.mp...

I imagine that is the video that gets overlayed with the info gathered with the FB api

Re: TakeThisLollipop - really clever/creepy use of the Facebook API

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, not really, considering you have to explicitly allow the app to access all that data...

Exactly, and you did allow it to do that on nothing more than an image of a lollipop and endorsement from this community.

Except I didn't. The confirmation page was enough for me to drive home the point.
Post reply on HN