You Might Have an Invisible Facebook Account Even if You Never Signed Up

Post by skeletonjelly » Tue, Aug 13, 2013, 10:42 PM UTC

reginaldjcooper wrote: post #174

skeletonjelly wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all or nothing, that's correct. Either you install it and accept it's access conditions or don't install it. A popular mod for Android (CyanogenMod) has an extension to the OS that has a toggle button to block any elected app from accessing personally identifiable information, this includes sending the app (say Facebook) an empty address book when asked, and fake details like IMEI, GPS location etc. It should be…

I love that feature the most. Every phone and computer should have a feature like that. And permissions should be fine-grained and it should be possible to turn them off.

Yeah I wish desktop OS' had this feature. I suppose we'll be heading there. The ability to not deny but send a blank list is better than the former too. Do you know if CM is doing fine grained? I suppose it would be better of AOSP themselves did it.

Post by coreyja » Wed, Aug 14, 2013, 11:52 PM UTC

TheCowboy wrote: post #62

coreyja wrote: post #35

Ok so maybe I'm alone here, but this doesn't bother me at all. How is this an invasion on anyone's privacy? They are just using the info a user already gave them access to. Why does it matter if Facebook has information about you you can't see? Is it really surprising that they do? It's not like FB just shows us the DB tables so that we know what info they are storing on us. As programmers we should all understand th…

Why wouldn't you consider it a violation of privacy simply because another person provided information about you? If you had friends and family who intentionally shared any information you provided in private, you would have no problem with that, and think it should be a generally acceptable societal norm? The idea that any information you share beyond your own mindspace is up for grabs by any method seems bizarre to…

A few days late in my reply, sorry.

The distinction I make is that it isn't Facebook that is violating your privacy. Facebook. If anyone is violating your privacy it is your friend/family that is giving the information to Facebook, and I think that in providing this information to Facebook they are violating your privacy, but you shouldn't blame Facebook.

My best analogy is the 'guns don't kill people, people kill people' argument. It isn't the gun makers fault if you murder someone, just like it isn't Facebook's fault if someone gives them info about you, you didn't want shared.

Re: You Might Have an Invisible Facebook Account Even if You Never Signed Up

Re: You Might Have an Invisible Facebook Account Even if You Never Signed Up