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Actual Facebook Graph Searches

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171–180 of 251 posts

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#171

Short term this may be a problem, but long term it's probably a good thing. Hopefully once people become aware of what they're exposing they'll become more cautious. Complaining about News Feed and Graph Search is basically saying you're ok with "security through obscurity". If I understand correctly, all of this information is already available to those who want to dig deep enough.

> is basically saying you're ok with "security through obscurity".

You already said you were ok with "security through obscurity" when you logged in with a password.

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#172
post #141
post #19

> “Islamic men interested in men who live in Tehran, Iran“ This is funny, in Iran people don't quite understand what "interested in" means. In sign up process when they see "interested in" options, they think that means "are you interested in finding friends who are male?" (same for females). This is because: 1. People use VPN to access Facebook and Facebook can not localize/internationalize their experience. 2. Usin…

Iranians perfectly know what is homosexuality and some practice it in secret , they are not dumb , they just dont talk about it for obvious reasons.

Knowing what homosexuality is =/= assuming the purpose of an innocuous-sounding phrase like "Interested in" is intended as a declaration of homosexuality, especially if you're living in an environment where you can't see why anyone would conceivably want to publicly declare it.

I suspect those least likely to select "interested in: men" are homosexually-inclined Iranians who know exactly what it's for and wish they lived in an environment where they could tick it.

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#174
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't like it, then quit. Assuming you're socially allowed to quit Facebook.

Quitting Facebook is really not that big of a deal. You won't become a social pariah, an outcast or loose all your friends because you cancel a website account.

There, of course, people whose circumstances mean that Facebook is a (/the) major source of human interaction in their lives. I really wish those people, and the rest of us, could move to something less ethically troubling.

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#175
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iranians perfectly know what is homosexuality and some practice it in secret , they are not dumb , they just dont talk about it for obvious reasons.

Knowing what homosexuality is =/= assuming the purpose of an innocuous-sounding phrase like "Interested in" is intended as a declaration of homosexuality, especially if you're living in an environment where you can't see why anyone would conceivably want to publicly declare it. I suspect those least likely to select "interested in: men" are homosexually-inclined Iranians who know exactly what it's for and wish they l…

you are insulting them saying they cant even understand plain english, you dont have to live in USA to understand what "interested in" mean in that context , there is nothing innocent sounding in that expresssion, and i'm not english nor have an english culture. Dont take aliens for fools.

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#176

The searches depicted are more telling about the person making the search rather than the supposed "victims". Nothing to see here, unless you buy into stereotypical fearmongering or are "shocked" that humans are human.

You don't seem to understand the power information has over people's lives. Have you ever disclosed information to some of your friends that you wouldn't disclose to the general public? What about information that could get you arrested or executed? This is real.

A real dangerous person cannot be so dumb, by definition. This is just sensationalism.

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing good can come out of applying dumb algorithms (that is, any algorithm) to a sufficiently rich "social graph"; it will always lead to situations like that which are, at best, embarrassing, and at worst, dangerous, for whoever is in the system. What does this even mean? The "dumb algorithm" here will (a) take a user's query and (b) search that user's friends and public profiles for hits on that query. What's ne…

If you fail to see the danger that a tool with the ability to search a network for such things as "Islamic men interested in other men, living in Tehran," a tool that can then display their place of work or other contact details (that they may have willingly ((yet unwittingly)) entered), in the hands of bullies, bigots or oppressive regimes then personally I feel you are similarly limited in your world experience to…

Here's a thought: If you live in a country where people are summarily executed for being gay, don't put "I'm gay" on a public website with your name on it.

YES people should be allowed to be gay in Tehran, and YES Facebook should help them with that - and they do: By not requiring you to enter your sexuality.

I don't live in Tehran, so I am privileged here - but if I put "I did tax fraud, I win!" on my public Facebook profile, and the tax authorities decided to investigate me, anyone suggesting that I didn't bring that upon myself, frankly required supervision. Even if I did it on my closed Facebook profile and a "friend" decided to report me, it's still not Facebook's fault.

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that's hardly Amazon's fault, it is?

Never mind that one account used for shopping for a family is a fairly common use case...

Do you want them to start reading your mind, or stop suggesting stuff altogether?

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing good can come out of applying dumb algorithms (that is, any algorithm) to a sufficiently rich "social graph"; it will always lead to situations like that which are, at best, embarrassing, and at worst, dangerous, for whoever is in the system. What does this even mean? The "dumb algorithm" here will (a) take a user's query and (b) search that user's friends and public profiles for hits on that query. What's ne…

If you fail to see the danger that a tool with the ability to search a network for such things as "Islamic men interested in other men, living in Tehran," a tool that can then display their place of work or other contact details (that they may have willingly ((yet unwittingly)) entered), in the hands of bullies, bigots or oppressive regimes then personally I feel you are similarly limited in your world experience to…

What is your opinion on the following scenario:

An "Islamic gay man living in Tehran" in 1997 creates a web page and populates it with exactly the same personal information you are describing. Sometime later Google comes of age and indexes his site for the world to easily discover.

Do you feel that Google and Facebook are acting differently in this scenario, and if so, why?

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you fail to see the danger that a tool with the ability to search a network for such things as "Islamic men interested in other men, living in Tehran," a tool that can then display their place of work or other contact details (that they may have willingly ((yet unwittingly)) entered), in the hands of bullies, bigots or oppressive regimes then personally I feel you are similarly limited in your world experience to…

Here's a thought: If you live in a country where people are summarily executed for being gay, don't put "I'm gay" on a public website with your name on it. YES people should be allowed to be gay in Tehran, and YES Facebook should help them with that - and they do: By not requiring you to enter your sexuality. I don't live in Tehran, so I am privileged here - but if I put "I did tax fraud, I win!" on my public Faceboo…

> YES people should be allowed to be gay in Tehran, and YES Facebook should help them with that - and they do: By not requiring you to enter your sexuality.

Forget about being gay in Tehran. How about being gay in cyberspace?

It strikes me that you are of the belief that cyberspace ought to mimic life in meatspace directly. That one fixed identity should be all a person is entitled to.

What a waste of so many wonderful possibilities!

Cyberspace and the promise of a digital space in which to express abstract selves is something precious that is to be protected.

I believe this and I believe that exposing innocents to those running at a deficit of scruple for personal enrichment is evil.

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