TakeThisLollipop - really clever/creepy use of the Facebook API • Hacker News Board

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

#141

Post by rufibarbatus » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 1:49 PM UTC

arnorhs wrote: post #134

mindstab wrote: post #105

One interesting thing about how this was designed, it for some reason doesn't get your location from your facebook profile. It uses your IP address, which led to hilarious results because while my facebook rightly says where I am, I was using a SOCKS proxy to access this in a different city and when it showed him looking at a map it showed the route to my SOCKS proxy instead of me. I guess I'm safe and the crazy guy…

Not by IP, FWIW. I'm in Mountain View but the guy seemed to want to find me in Reykjavik, Iceland, where I'm from. (I moved to the Bay Area a month ago, but haven't update my FB)

This guy over here [1] claims the video tracked his last foursquare check-in. I'm guessing the location algorithm tries to find a best guess of where you might be — hence the inconsistent results.

[1] http://www.jenders.com/2011/10/18/take-this-lollipop-and-the...

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

#142

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 1:52 PM UTC

driverdan wrote: post #56

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.

[deleted]

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

#143

Post by jtheory » Fri, Oct 21, 2011, 11:12 PM UTC

Peroni wrote: post #87

lukejduncan wrote: post #85

I don't have facebook. Anyone mind writing a tldr?

It's a facebook app. It asks your permission to access pretty much everything on your profile and when you finally accept it cuts to a fullscreen, high production video of an incredibly creepy actor on a computer in a really dingy room. It then cuts to the computer screen and shows the creepy guy scrolling through your profile page in a very realistic manner as well as clicking through some of your photo's and friend…

It's extremely creepy -- I watched a video on YouTube rather than sharing my own data, but I can imagine it.

They should consider adding a "trigger" warning, though, so rape survivors and so on can realize they're signing up for something that may be extremely upsetting and has nothing to do with lollipops.

Dunno if they thought about it and don't want to ruin the surprise for people who'll have more expected responses; but it's unfortunately one of those things that's going to be passed around with no more description than "hey check this out it's very educational".