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Actual Facebook Graph Searches

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Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#201

Post by Dirlewanger »

flyinRyan wrote: post #170
corporalagumbo wrote: post #24

Maybe this seems horrible right now, but Facebook didn't create these problems and contradictions, it just exposed them uncomfortably. I expect that the eventual abuses springing from this exposure will spur a counterreaction, hopefully with net-positive results. After all, what's the most meaningful take-away from this? Is it that Facebook is endangering individuals? Not really. Powerful, global social search tools…

> Is it that Facebook is endangering individuals? Not really. They most certainly are! Facebook keeps changing the rules of the game. There is a reason why so many countries have Ex post facto law. Facebook, by contract, ends up focusing on Ex post facto exploitation. Would people have put in these likes on the same account had they known that FB would create a search that would let anyone, anywhere do a simple query…

>Would people have put in these likes on the same account had they known that FB would create a search that would let anyone, anywhere do a simple query that exposes them in some way?

I doubt they'd have given a shit, let's be honest.

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#202

Post by oh_sigh »

derleth wrote: post #166
ghshephard wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Assuming you're socially allowed to quit Facebook." I don't even know what that means. How is it that all of the rest of us managed to quite Facebook and continue to have a relatively vibrant social life. Is it the case that WhatsApp/Viber/SMS/Email are no longer considered effective means of communication to get together?

> How is it that all of the rest of us managed to quite Facebook and continue to have a relatively vibrant social life. Because some people have different lives than you.

Please provide a little story of the type of person who cannot quit facebook, and why he cannot quit facebook. Until you do, you're just making up boogie men.

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#203

Post by oh_sigh »

notahacker wrote: post #181
camus wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'll give you a relevant example: Back in ~2006 it was possible to do similar searches within your college. A disproportionately large number of people declaring their interest in both men and women were from China. Now it's possible that Chinese students were much more likely to be [openly] bisexual than British and European ones, but every shred of evidence I've ever seen (at college, in the media and living in a r…

This is a problem of terminology. "Interested in" doesn't necessarily imply "sexually attracted to".

Some people read "interested in" and put men and women, because they are interested in being friends with men and women.

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#204

Post by oh_sigh »

mark_integerdsv wrote: post #146
achompas wrote: post #40

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…

> such things as "Islamic men interested in other men, living in Tehran,"

Do you know what this search will return? "0 results". Because nobody who is gay in Iran is going to put the fact that they are interested in other men on their facebook.

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#205

Post by tlrobinson »

flyinRyan wrote: post #171
tlrobinson wrote: post #18

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 .

Huh? Passwords aren't considered "security through obscurity".

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4486171/isnt-a-password-a...

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#206

Post by axusgrad »

oh_sigh wrote: post #204
mark_integerdsv wrote: post #146

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…

> such things as "Islamic men interested in other men, living in Tehran," Do you know what this search will return? "0 results". Because nobody who is gay in Iran is going to put the fact that they are interested in other men on their facebook.

If you scroll down the link, it's right there.

http://actualfacebookgraphsearches.tumblr.com/post/412333061...

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#207

Post by tlrobinson »

troymc wrote: post #85
tlrobinson wrote: post #18

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.

While it's (probably) true that the information is already available, it's not easily available. If it's going to take me 25 days of tedious profile reading to find people who I seek (e.g. "Lesbian women from Greece who like Doritos"), I'm not going to do it. It's not practically available. Graph Search changes that. Obscurity vanishes, along with any security it provided.

You might not do it, but the organizations with resources and power to actually harm you certainly could.

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#209

Post by amirmc »

onedev wrote: post #121
crowhack wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just did the same. I've had enough of being used.

You realize graph search only utilizes information that YOU make available. Why did you make that data available? Do you not want others to see it? If you didn't, then why did you put it out there for others to see? Also, you know that privacy controls are taken into account right? So if you don't make certain data available to certain people, you don't show up in searches for those people.... I think you're being a…

".. why did you put it out there for others to see?"

I've noticed this argument more often w.r.t FB and other such privacy issues. I think it's flawed.

I joined FB back when it was closed. In my mind I wasn't putting anything 'out there' for the world. The first time they made things public and started messing with the default privacy settings I was worried but gave them the benefit of the doubt. Then the cycle repeated with new features and settings, which were altered from their previous states. From that point on I realised they didn't actually care about privacy the way I understand the term and they've gone on to 'open-up' more and more (rather aggressively in my view). What used to be hidden (or at least you thought it was) essentially becomes public at some point in the future.

Had I known this was the direction FB was taking I would have treated it as a public site from the very beginning. Twitter on the other hand was public from the beginning, so my interactions there have been different. I think it's unreasonable to expect that Joe Bloggs out there can get his head around what's public/private on FB. Even if they do there's no telling what might change in the future.

Of course, I could leave FB but then I'd lose touch with people. So now I leave my profile alone, hardly ever 'like' anything and generally try and limit what I do there. I'm sure FB still gleans plenty of info about me from whatever my friends do (i.e tagging photos, connecting address books etc).

Re: Actual Facebook Graph Searches

#210

Post by Mahn »

crowhack wrote: post #158
onedev wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize graph search only utilizes information that YOU make available. Why did you make that data available? Do you not want others to see it? If you didn't, then why did you put it out there for others to see? Also, you know that privacy controls are taken into account right? So if you don't make certain data available to certain people, you don't show up in searches for those people.... I think you're being a…

Yes I do but when I joined facebook I didn't realize they would create a super search engine to easily sort and categorize all of their users' data for more efficient targeted advertising. They sell likes, they have my friends sponsor ads they've never sponsored, they used 5 of my friends pictures to try to manipulate me into not deleting my account. We aren't their main customer but are there just to be targeted. So…

So you are arguing that you made something public on facebook, but you didn't expect it to be that public? It looks like people who reject/don't use facebook due to privacy concerns do so because they don't understand the implications of what they put there. Personally, if I were to be concerned about privacy, I'd just make some research to understand what is and isn't public and how to use the product overall, but I suppose one could be pissed off at facebook for not being clearer about who can or could see what you put in there (even though they constantly try to improve this). Either way, the argument "I don't use facebook because I'm concerned about the data they extract from me" is flawed and irrational, because facebook won't know anything you don't explicitly tell to it. I still hear that argument from some people every now and then and I can't help but think that they just don't understand and did not want to make an effort in understanding facebook.
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