Earlier quoted context omitted.
As if personal messages are private!
In what way are they not private?
Have you heard of the NSA? I think it's pretty safe to say at this point that NOTHING online is private.
Facebook reveals friends list even when it’s set to private
41–50 of 63 posts
Re: Facebook reveals friends list even when it’s set to private
#42The friend list issue seems to be an always "won't fix". I'm pretty sure every few or so security researchers, testers reach this "vulnerability" in one method or another. I've gotten a similar response from the Security Team for trying to dig up friend lists. Maybe it helps maybe it doesn't. I've learned to accept the stance and move on with other security holes. "A friend connection is two-way - you friend someone,…
Obviously there will be a contention when you have an asset that is shared and they flag it in a different way... and on a certain level it makes sense that "public" wins when you have 1 public and 1 private because if one person chooses to share anything else then it's public, so why should connections be different? But on another level, no. If a person has decided their connections are private information, then the…
This works the way secrets work in real life. You may want to keep something secret, but if your friend is indescreet, the secret is out. You can't force someone else to keep a secret on your behalf.
Re: Facebook reveals friends list even when it’s set to private
#43The friend list issue seems to be an always "won't fix". I'm pretty sure every few or so security researchers, testers reach this "vulnerability" in one method or another. I've gotten a similar response from the Security Team for trying to dig up friend lists. Maybe it helps maybe it doesn't. I've learned to accept the stance and move on with other security holes. "A friend connection is two-way - you friend someone,…
At this point, I guess we have to assume that Facebook's mission is to organize the world's personal connections and make it universally accessible.
Re: Facebook reveals friends list even when it’s set to private
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Obviously there will be a contention when you have an asset that is shared and they flag it in a different way... and on a certain level it makes sense that "public" wins when you have 1 public and 1 private because if one person chooses to share anything else then it's public, so why should connections be different? But on another level, no. If a person has decided their connections are private information, then the…
Right, when preferences are in conflict do you protect the person who cares or the person who doesn't? Also privacy is like a thermodynamic arrow. You can't unspread a secret or make public information private. So you shouldn't treat the decision to go public lightly.
> Also privacy is like a thermodynamic arrow.
Running off on a tangent, that's a really interesting analogy. I wonder how much could be done with the notion that privacy is the opposite of entropy: that is, privacy is about minimizing the arrangements of how your information is formed, and there's a universal, inevitable trend towards maximizing those arrangements. Differently, privacy as the predictability of how a piece of information moves: as entropy, or publicity, increases the predictability of the information becomes less as its possibility space increases.
Re: Facebook reveals friends list even when it’s set to private
#45The friend list issue seems to be an always "won't fix". I'm pretty sure every few or so security researchers, testers reach this "vulnerability" in one method or another. I've gotten a similar response from the Security Team for trying to dig up friend lists. Maybe it helps maybe it doesn't. I've learned to accept the stance and move on with other security holes. "A friend connection is two-way - you friend someone,…
Facebook's logic is utter BS. Not even G+ is that bad. They could publicize the list of Friend Requests, not confirmed Friends.
The same logic means that all of Mark's posts should be public, if his friends check a box saying "publicize my news feed".
Re: Facebook reveals friends list even when it’s set to private
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
In what way are they not private?
Have you heard of the NSA? I think it's pretty safe to say at this point that NOTHING online is private.
Accidentally upvoted. NSA getting everything is not the same as everyone getting everything. NSA doesn't share with my mom.
Re: Facebook reveals friends list even when it’s set to private
#47They trust me.
Re: Facebook reveals friends list even when it’s set to private
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
In what way are they not private?
There was the case when someone was denied entry at a US border and a printout of her private FB messages was shown. http://usahitman.com/ggtaubpfm/ (Best page I could find with the story - I have no idea if that's a credible site or not.)
Uh... the real story is that she gave them the printout.
"Why are you coming to the US?"
"I'm going to be an au pair. See..." [hands over printout]
"You did not apply for a work visa. Goodbye."
Re: Facebook reveals friends list even when it’s set to private
#49man this privacy thing is a one nasty can of worms. they should've either kept it completely private or just public.
frankly if you are an extremely private person you shouldn't be using 'the facebook' but use email instead. few of my friends do just that.
regardless i think this is non-news-worthy article, facebook had this thing for a while and everyone here knows about that IMO.
my 2c
Re: Facebook reveals friends list even when it’s set to private
#50The same is true for the profile picture which is always public even if you set the privacy settings to 'only me'. Opening the thumbnail in the browser and changing the image size in the URL lets you view a full size image. Wonder why they even give you the privacy option there.