Facebook in Privacy Breach Top-Ranked Applications Transmit Personal IDs...

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Many of the most popular applications, or "apps," on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook's strictest privacy settings. The practice breaks Facebook's rules, and renews questions about its ability to keep identifiable information about its users' activities secure.

The problem has ties to the growing field of companies that build detailed databases on people in order to track them online—a practice the Journal has been examining in its What They Know series. It's unclear how long the breach was in place. On Sunday, a Facebook spokesman said it is taking steps to "dramatically limit" the exposure of users' personal information.

"A Facebook user ID may be inadvertently shared by a user's Internet browser or by an application," the spokesman said. Knowledge of an ID "does not permit access to anyone's private information on Facebook," he said, adding that the company would introduce new technology to contain the problem identified by the Journal.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772804575558484075236968.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEADNewsCollection

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Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the F8 developer conference this spring.

[Journeyman]

1. From the start, I've told people - which will prove more important, your privacy or their profit?...

Surprise, surprise . . .

[DJ13]

2. When all the MSM started promoting these social networking sites a few years back

I figured they had ulterior motives.

There had to be something in it for the corporations beyond direct advertising.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. I have family members whinng about me not signing up.

To which I reply, now:

See????

[Quantess]

4. Yeah, I already knew that.

I registered my date of birth as 1922, but I keep my year hidden from everyone, so I when I'm on facebook I get ads for Silver Fox Senior Dating.

Most people gave their real birthdate, and some display it for everyone to see. I guess those people shared more than they intended to...

[cliffordu]

6. Yep - I'm a woman born in 1970 named after a sitcom character from

the '50's

[Newsjock]

5. Murdoch owns MySpace, the (fading) competitor to Facebook

Worth noting.

[NoodleyAppendage]

17. Very good point. WSJ don't print anything without an angle...that benefits Moloch. n/t

J

[NoodleyAppendage]

18. Very good point. WSJ don't print anything without an angle...that benefits Moloch. n/t

J

[brewens]

7. I've been really careful about what I post. That didn't stop one

of my "friends", from posting a picture of me about 25 years ago, wearing my penis nose, funny nose and glasses. It was Halloween and there was alcohol involved:)

[HuckleB]

10. You couldn't stop that, even if you weren't on facebook.

[Dawson Leery]

8. Which is why I do not use social networking sites.

I would not save Zuckerberg if he were hanging over a cliff.

[HuckleB]

9. Duh.

[Bette Noir]

11. Yeah, I got off Facebook after some of their advertisers phoned me at home,

and a con artist I dated (and dumped) 30+ years ago tried to "friend" me.

[mackerel]

12. I have to admit it was fun when I first started FB a couple of

years back. Then I started getting adverts for things I had already bought on line. The clincher, being found by my daughter's biological family and one of them actually starting to stalk me.

I still use myspace for music.

[Quantess]

13. People are too generous with personal info when they sign up for an account.

All you need to give is a name (it can even be spelled slightly wrong, if you want) and a valid email address. Why anyone would offer their telephone number, their address, or list family members is puzzling to me, and it just shows that people are too trusting. None of that information is required.

I signed up with the bare minimum, a fake birth year (hidden), yet people still can tell who I am because I have a blandly nice photo of myself that people can recognize. Nobody demands you list your school, your employer, your interests or hobbies, your religion, or your political leaning, and in fact, it is wiser not to. This is not rocket science, people. (I admit, though, a savvy 25 year old helped me set up my account).

And another thing, set your profile to private, silly!

[joeglow3]

16. EXACTLY.

Sadly, most people lack common sense. Now I see "friends" using applications that post everytime they go somewhere. These are the same idiots who will end up on the news dumbfounded on how someone knew they weren't at home and robbed them.

[jberryhill]

14. Information that people submit to a website is being shared?

I'm shocked, shocked!

[bemildred]

15. Lie. Lie about everything. Especially email addresses.

You have no privacy on the Internet, that's the deal, so fake it if you want to be left alone.