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Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting

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Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting

#171

Post by smnrchrds »

Tor3 wrote: post #92
gumby wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My GF uses a google voice number (and separate gmail accounts) for job search purposes both for this reason and because she can nuke the phone number later, cutting off headhunters once she'd found something she likes.

Sounds useful. It's unfortunate that google voice still isn't available outside North America. I don't know if that is for technical reasons or for (European/Asian) political reasons. But it sure would have been nice to keep separate numbers the same way it's sometimes necessary to keep separate google accounts.

It's only available in US, not even Canada.

Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting

#172

Post by dwild »

breatheoften wrote: post #139
ascorbic wrote: post #74

This is surely a breach of GDRP. One of the principles is that data must only be used for the purpose for which it was collected. Taking a number provided explicitly for 2FA and using it for search certainly sounds like a breach.

What does GDPR say about using data about other people provided by a user (eg a Facebook user who shares their contact info — thus providing Facebook info on all their contacts). What is the “intended purpose” of sharing all your contact’s details ...?

> What is the “intended purpose” of sharing all your contact’s details ...?

That's Facebook job to make it clear when it happens.

I don't know the actual text of law, but I guess even if you are friends with someone, you doesn't have any right over any of it personnal data, thus they wouldn't be able to use it except if you previously accepted that usage (being matched with someone you know using that phone number).

Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting

#173

Post by plopz »

dpacmittal wrote: post #134
kpcyrd wrote: post #5

I've designed an OSINT system with this specific feature in mind (it's on github since a few months). Basically being able to go from phonenumber->accounts is very powerful and works even more efficiently to identify a person than an email address or even a real name. The abuse potential of this is far greater than some people assume.

Can you post the link to your project?

My guess is https://github.com/kpcyrd/sn0int

Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting

#174

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #169

I'm a bit confused at the alarmist title. I just checked my FB settings, and the article is correct, the best you can restrict your phone number is to just friends. Why then are the top comments about the inescapablility of employers looking you up by phone number? Unless you have your employer as a friend on Facebook, just change the setting to friends only. My understanding is that on this setting, Facebook only al…

This setting restricts the visibility on your profile page. The article claims that someone who already knows the number can type it into the search box and your profile will pop up.

(No idea whether this is true either way and I'm no longer on Facebook to be able to check; just trying to clarify).

Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting

#175

Post by cmg »

dpacmittal wrote: post #134
kpcyrd wrote: post #5

I've designed an OSINT system with this specific feature in mind (it's on github since a few months). Basically being able to go from phonenumber->accounts is very powerful and works even more efficiently to identify a person than an email address or even a real name. The abuse potential of this is far greater than some people assume.

Can you post the link to your project?

It appears to be this: https://github.com/kpcyrd/sn0int

Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting

#176

Post by [deleted] »

paul7986 wrote: post #87
potatofarmer45 wrote: post #14

This will make keeping your social media private during recruiting much much harder because rather than trying to search for your name on FB or your email, an interviewer can just search your listed contact number. Names are often not unique but phone numbers are. This matters because creating a new email account for recruiting is trivial, yet creating a new phone number for recruiting is not. Most phones are not dua…

Why would you ever use your real number vs. a throwaway google voice number designated for spam?

[deleted]

Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting

#177

Post by def_true_false »

assblaster wrote: post #157
jplayer01 wrote: post #153

They own WhatsApp, which is integral to having a social life in Germany. So they already have my phone number.

You don't need WhatsApp to have a social life anywhere, even in Germany. There's something seriously wrong with society if an app owned by a malicious tech company is considered fundamental to the human experience.

It's only a problem when there is large enough majority of people that use the same network. It becomes easier to just not bother with reaching out to people on other networks, so then everyone has to use that one or be left out. In most countries it's Facebook (still), in a few it's Whatsapp or Telegram.

Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting

#178

Post by tcd »

ascorbic wrote: post #74

This is surely a breach of GDRP. One of the principles is that data must only be used for the purpose for which it was collected. Taking a number provided explicitly for 2FA and using it for search certainly sounds like a breach.

Facebook is above regulations, just like the POTUS.

Source: Number articles over many years of laws being broken, Facebook.com still works and the POTUS is still the POTUS.

Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting

#179

Post by GrinningFool »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #106
bwann wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally get people want a "only me" option here, but really how bad is "friends-only" here? If I'm "friends" with you, you probably already know my phone number in real life.

Because a "facebook friend" isn't an actual friend, and having these "friends" have my phone number is like everyone in a bar being able to look up my number. Or perhaps like going to a work conference and everyone being able to call me. The random "How are you are you single wanna talk about sex with me?!!???" messages are bad enough. I certainly don't want those as phone calls. Those on the list that are actual Fri…

Can't you limit your FB friends to actual friends?

Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting

#180

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

dpacmittal wrote: post #134
kpcyrd wrote: post #5

I've designed an OSINT system with this specific feature in mind (it's on github since a few months). Basically being able to go from phonenumber->accounts is very powerful and works even more efficiently to identify a person than an email address or even a real name. The abuse potential of this is far greater than some people assume.

Can you post the link to your project?

It's probably https://github.com/kpcyrd/sn0int
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