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

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

#71

Post by unclebucknasty »

unreal37 wrote: post #18

What's a shadow profile? Sounds so sinister. It's probably just a line in a database with your email address and phone number. It's not like Facebook is actively keeping tabs on people that don't have accounts.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. We know that FB works with third-party companies to track offline purchasing behavior of its users (data which is supposedly anonymized).

So, I wouldn't think it a far leap that Facebook might correlate non-member invitee e-mail addresses with, say, the activities/interests of the inviter. This could be happening right now for all we know, or it could happen in the future. Once they have the data, it's their choice.

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

#73

Post by [deleted] »

novum wrote: post #60

Is this it? This is our brave new world of pervasive data gathering, social network analysis, and the dying gasp of any shred of privacy? This is the future we've built for ourselves? I haven't had a facebook account for 3 years. I'm certain FB has a shadow profile for me today and there's nothing I can do about it. My friends don't understand (or don't care about) the implications of everything they do online being…

[deleted]

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

#74

Post by novum »

pasiaj wrote: post #70
novum wrote: post #60

Is this it? This is our brave new world of pervasive data gathering, social network analysis, and the dying gasp of any shred of privacy? This is the future we've built for ourselves? I haven't had a facebook account for 3 years. I'm certain FB has a shadow profile for me today and there's nothing I can do about it. My friends don't understand (or don't care about) the implications of everything they do online being…

If 'has your contact info in a database' amounts to a "Shadow Profile", there are quite many shadow profiles of you laying around. It probably has relations to all the people on Facebook who have your contact info added, but overall this is much ado about nothing.

By what measure do you assess "quite many shadow profiles of you laying around" to be "much ado about nothing"? Isn't that exactly the problem?

What of one -- and one is all it takes -- company, disaffected employee, or black hat desiring to analyze, filter, or publicize data about me, even in aggregate? What of user preference or control? What of the right to be left alone?

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

#75

Post by kintamanimatt »

novum wrote: post #60

Is this it? This is our brave new world of pervasive data gathering, social network analysis, and the dying gasp of any shred of privacy? This is the future we've built for ourselves? I haven't had a facebook account for 3 years. I'm certain FB has a shadow profile for me today and there's nothing I can do about it. My friends don't understand (or don't care about) the implications of everything they do online being…

We work with technology and love to see cool new things developed and released in the world, but like anything, it can be used for evil too. There shouldn't be any cognitive dissonance and it's good that you're cognizant of the possible downsides. I wish more people would think of the possible negatives before they lay finger to keyboard and start coding.

What can you do? Keep talking about it; don't give up. Most people have to be exposed to an idea many, many times, and also see social proof (i.e. their peers accepting the idea too) before they will accept it. This is why we as entrepreneurs love early adopters because they give us the social proof we need to pull new, less adventurous customers on board.

What else can you do? Don't code bad shit and compete against those that do. Make the privacy destroyers lose.

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

#76

Post by ddalex »

Oh my god, this is it.

I posted a story a while back saying that I receive messages from a FB account created with my email. I suspected that somebody may have made an account with my email by mistake, but FB keeps on sending messages with "you know this guys?" etc, and it's about people I know.

So I had a FB shadow account created, it inferred my email (probably through looking up some of my friends address books on their email), and now it keeps trying to make me join FB with that account.

This is both creepy and scary. Yet, I'll leave it be because it adds to the noise in the data they have.

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

#77

Post by justinsteele »

xpose2000 wrote: post #13

Let's think of a typical use case where a "shadow profile" is useful. Let's say my friend Jane is on facebook. She has my phone number on her phone with my first name. Facebook notices that this phone number is not linked to any other accounts, therefore I must not be registered. Fast forward two months, and I decide to sign up for facebook. I put my phone number in (as a form of password recovery I believe) and it a…

Why would Jane not be in your contacts? That way you add who you want, and Facebook doesn't keep tabs on your personal info until you want them to.

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

#78

Post by kintamanimatt »

[deleted] wrote: post #73
novum wrote: post #60

Is this it? This is our brave new world of pervasive data gathering, social network analysis, and the dying gasp of any shred of privacy? This is the future we've built for ourselves? I haven't had a facebook account for 3 years. I'm certain FB has a shadow profile for me today and there's nothing I can do about it. My friends don't understand (or don't care about) the implications of everything they do online being…

[deleted]

Facebook has nothing to do medicine, exploration, or improving the human condition. Facebook isn't a business created to fund biomedical research or somehow make the world a better place, Facebook exists to collect personal data and serve advertising.

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

#79

Post by novum »

kintamanimatt wrote: post #75
novum wrote: post #60

Is this it? This is our brave new world of pervasive data gathering, social network analysis, and the dying gasp of any shred of privacy? This is the future we've built for ourselves? I haven't had a facebook account for 3 years. I'm certain FB has a shadow profile for me today and there's nothing I can do about it. My friends don't understand (or don't care about) the implications of everything they do online being…

We work with technology and love to see cool new things developed and released in the world, but like anything, it can be used for evil too. There shouldn't be any cognitive dissonance and it's good that you're cognizant of the possible downsides. I wish more people would think of the possible negatives before they lay finger to keyboard and start coding. What can you do? Keep talking about it; don't give up. Most pe…

I admire your positivity.

However, is it not the case that this:

  Don't code bad shit and compete against those that do. 
  Make the privacy destroyers lose.
...has been disproved by facebook? They are (one of the larger) privacy destroyers. They are not -- at present -- losing.

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

#80

Post by mh- »

myko wrote: post #33
mh- wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

on Android, yes

It no longer asks for these things on iOS?

iOS doesn't allow access to most of the items listed.

Others are prompt-based and can be disabled/prevented by the user in the iOS privacy settings.

http://0.tqn.com/d/ipod/1/0/S/O/-/-/ios-6-privacy.jpg

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