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Find a person's profile across 350 social media sites

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Re: Find a person's profile across 350 social media sites

#31

Post by bigodbiel »

f38zf5vdt wrote: post #14
A12-B wrote: post #11

I am really glad i don't have public social media

There is no 21st century option to refuse public social media. As observed with Clearview AI, if you end up in someone's photo on a social media website you will be inadvertently added to a social and location-based graph. I believe Facebook does this internally, so if you have any friends or relatives using Facebook who uploads a picture of you, no matter how old, your social graph is present there. And try as you m…

the infamous shadow profiles that Zuckerberg tried to "deny" during congressional hearing

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16813659

Re: Find a person's profile across 350 social media sites

#32

Post by VRay »

uh_uh wrote: post #22
pca006132 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is not a problem with the tool, this is a problem with those platforms. Even if this tool is not published, bad actors can still make their own tools. I think we should rather demand the platforms to enforce better measures against this kind of usage, rather than blaming this tool.

Maybe we should do both. I take an issue with the argument that bad actors can make their own tools. Bad actors can also build their own nuclear weapons, genetically engineer their own deadly diseases but there's certainly value in not making this any easier. If you take the time, money and effort away from bad actors by forcing them to reinvent the wheel, that's a good thing. Granted, this logic can't be viably appl…

Bad actors can't make nuclear or biological weapons unless they have incredible amounts of resources

Bad actors with a $150 laptop out of a dumpster and a free wifi connection CAN make cyberstalking tools in their spare time

Re: Find a person's profile across 350 social media sites

#34

Post by laurent92 »

f38zf5vdt wrote: post #9

I think that anyone developing a social media app for the 2020s will need to make a conscious decision to not let users pick their own unique identifiers. You can't expect users to protect themselves, because you don't know what dangers might exist in the future for them that do not exist today. The other thing you can do is not allow your API to iterate over the set of all users by user-set identifier. It's an extre…

All photos of the same mobile phone certainly have a unique fingerprint. Not only the EXIF, also the dead pixels and the unique pattern of low intensity pixels.

If you want to protect user privacy, a unique identifier is not enough. If they posted a gay profile somewhere, a professional profile somewhere else, they will be forever linked.

Re: Find a person's profile across 350 social media sites

#35

Post by pruski »

vmception wrote: post #27
pruski wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Storing contact list by any service should be illegal. You might try to not share your data, but if anyone has you on their contact list, it’s out of your hands

Which is why you also dont tell the service your phone number or reuse an email address

New email per every service you want to use? It shouldn’t be this complicated

Re: Find a person's profile across 350 social media sites

#36

Post by ttt0 »

cirno wrote: post #18

> API, CLI & Web App for analyzing & finding a person's profile across +300 social media websites > could help in investigating profiles related to suspicious or malicious activities such as cyberbullying, cybergrooming, cyberstalking, and spreading misinformation. It will much more likely be used to aid cyberbullying and cyberstalking. Those types love digging for more information by finding their targets' profiles…

Lol, exactly. This is a doxxing tool, who do you think is going to use that?

Re: Find a person's profile across 350 social media sites

#37

Post by volume »

woutr_be wrote: post #13
A12-B wrote: post #11

I am really glad i don't have public social media

Ironically, this tool also includes HN. "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id={username}",

wait, that would be coincidence. It would be ironic if it were a social media site for privacy experts.

Re: Find a person's profile across 350 social media sites

#39

Post by reaperducer »

pca006132 wrote: post #15
alex_young wrote: post #5

> This project is "currently used by some law enforcement agencies in countries where resources are limited". Pretty troubling statement. Does this tool help repressive governments track people across accounts? That’s sure what it looks like.

But this is not a problem with the tool, this is a problem with those platforms. Even if this tool is not published, bad actors can still make their own tools. I think we should rather demand the platforms to enforce better measures against this kind of usage, rather than blaming this tool.

this is not a problem with the tool, this is a problem with those platforms.

It's not the missile that's the problem, it's the guy who launches the missile.

Why not both?

Re: Find a person's profile across 350 social media sites

#40

Post by laurent92 »

vmception wrote: post #27
pruski wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Storing contact list by any service should be illegal. You might try to not share your data, but if anyone has you on their contact list, it’s out of your hands

Which is why you also dont tell the service your phone number or reuse an email address

I wonder if Google has a backdoor API which lets group people by backup email. If one always creates an account with the previous email as a backup, the link is east to make.

That would be especially useful for censorship services across competitors: Although Google Facebook and Twitter compete, sharing the flagged accounts would allow recognizing the same user coming back with a different email address.

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