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I was annoyed with sites asking for too many Facebook privileges and made this

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Re: I was annoyed with sites asking for too many Facebook privileges and made this

#131

Post by mmphosis »

Here are some entries in my /etc/hosts file...

  127.0.0.1	www.facebook.com
  127.0.0.1	facebook.net
  127.0.0.1	plusone.google.com
  127.0.0.1	gooleapis.com
  127.0.0.1	clients6.google.com
  127.0.0.1	gstatic.com
Anyone know how to filter out discussions containing "Facebook" in the title, on Hacker News?

Re: I was annoyed with sites asking for too many Facebook privileges and made this

#132

Post by notahacker »

bigiain wrote: post #78
psawaya wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe. I think the idea of "blocking" a program makes a lot less sense to the novice user compared to choosing if a program can e-mail you or post on your wall. I agree that they could easily become a nuisance and lead to the user reflexively clicking "accept", though.

Maybe there needs to be a reverse version of this - all of your _friends_ who get spammed by the app writing in your stream ought to be able to vote [] continue receiving updates from this user using foo-app [] block updates from this user's instance of foo-app [] block all automated updates from this user's stream ([] unfriend this clearly unhinged "install every shiney-thing" user) Then any user with more than a ce…

You missed "block all updates from any instance of foo-app".

My Facebook stream looks so much less cluttered since I blocked Zynga apps.

Re: I was annoyed with sites asking for too many Facebook privileges and made this

#133

Post by dspillett »

mmphosis wrote: post #131

Here are some entries in my /etc/hosts file... 127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com 127.0.0.1 facebook.net 127.0.0.1 plusone.google.com 127.0.0.1 gooleapis.com 127.0.0.1 clients6.google.com 127.0.0.1 gstatic.com Anyone know how to filter out discussions containing "Facebook" in the title, on Hacker News?

I'm sure a GreaseMonkey script or Chrom{e|ium} equivelant (I'm told many GM scripts work as-is in Chrome, simpler ones any way, though sometimes a bit of tweaking is needed between environments) to do this should be easy to construct.

Re: I was annoyed with sites asking for too many Facebook privileges and made this

#134

Post by cubik »

Hi. You mentioned in the GH desciption that you'd like some help with a name and logo. Logo-wise, how about something that resembles a door-chain? The concept is that while it allows you to talk to the person on the other side, it restricts their complete access to your property. With this in mind, you could call the plugin something like Book-chain (or something better ;) ).

Either way, I'd be happy to help with the design.

Re: I was annoyed with sites asking for too many Facebook privileges and made this

#137

Post by Jgrubb »

sshumaker wrote: post #29

I hate the security model where all the permissions are requested up front, and you have to approve them all (e.g. Android and Facebook without this plugin). All permissions should be off by default, and the user should be asked the first time a permission is needed to perform an action (a'la GPS on iphone) - at least that way you know what it wants the permission for, and the app can gracefully handle rejection.

I wrote this a couple months ago in frustration at the exact same thing.

http://ignoredbydinosaurs.com/2011/09/permissions-abuse-or-f...

Re: I was annoyed with sites asking for too many Facebook privileges and made this

#139

Post by psawaya »

mweibel wrote: post #126
psawaya wrote: post #25

This is a fantastic idea. I have a really simple Firefox port running. You can see the code and download it (.xpi) here: https://github.com/psawaya/OOptOut-Extension-Firefox/tree/ma... I only tested it out on one website, so let me know how well it works (or doesn't) for you. I'd like to keep working on this and tighten up the interface. I think a lot of people will find this useful!

Thanks mate. I tried it on vimeo.com (as author suggests) and it doesn't seem to work. One point is: The UI is somehow broken (no styling, and "application settings", "update" and the checkboxes each are on their own line). Second point: When removing the ticks from the checkboxes and click on update, I'm redirected to: " https://www.facebook.com/dialog/undefined/dialog/permissions... so "dialog/undefined" needs to b…

Good call. I added issues, so file away. :)

Re: I was annoyed with sites asking for too many Facebook privileges and made this

#140

Post by phillmv »

dtsingletary wrote: post #122
phillmv wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I signed up for airbnb using my facebook account and I noticed that they give away your DOB. I immediately changed my DOB on facebook and vowed to avoid authenticating with apps. I generally avoid putting in real information on facebook but the amount of stuff they give away is frightening. It's a heaven for social engineering and spear phishing.

Frankly, I'd wonder why you want to be a customer of AirBNB, then. Not because they're asking for this, but because it seems like a pretty valid piece of information for a company that banks on authenticity and trust between its buyers and sellers. I understand this for less reputable apps and companies, but if you're willing to circumvent the information they've requested through an authenticator (and data provider)…

>Why are you authing with Facebook?

Because it's easy and there are network advantages - it slurps down a profile picture automatically and fills in a bunch of otherwise useful fields.

At no point in time does anyone need to know what my DOB is. It's not a valid piece of information. You can already track me down using my credit card.

The reason why I'm prickly about my DOB is because it's used as a "relatively unique identifier". It's the first question my bank asks me because… it's meant to be semi private in the first place.

I can't change the security practices of banks, but I can lower the odds of being seriously screwed by managing my disclosure of "relatively unique identifiers".

> Do you distrust the site you're using to find someone to share some housing with?

Of course! There are almost no organizations worthy of your trust. I'm forced to trust Google, but that's about it.

In regards to AirBNB, while I'm sure their current management is a-OK this says nothing about what will happen with the data if they go bankrupt in a couple of years.

I had a client who shall go unnamed turn around and sell a dump of their database to marketers. I was pretty surprised when I saw random test accounts suddenly get spammed.

>Would any solution for authentically sharing data be acceptable?

Yeah. The problem currently is that it's far too permissive by default, and you can't arbitrarily untick permissions.

Just because your application wants the ability to tweet using my account doesn't mean I think you should have that right. When you want to escalate the permission, you can ask me beforehand and I will then judge whether you're worthwhile.

The current state of affairs, where by default everyone gets everything and we're pushing this on users who don't know any better is totally fucking atrocious.

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