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From: siljaline on 5 Jan 2010 18:16
<preamble>
Got an e-mail list of customers or readers and want to know more about each - such as their full name, friends, gender, age, interests, location, job and education level?
Facebook has just the free feature you're looking for, thanks to its recent privacy changes.
The hack, first publicized by blogger Max Klein, repurposes a Facebook feature that lets people find their friends on Facebook by scanning through e-mail addresses in their contact list.
But as Klein points out, a marketer could take a list of 1,000 e-mail addresses, either legally or illegally collected - and upload those through a dummy account - which then lets the user see all the profiles created using those addresses. Given Facebook's ubiquity and most people's reliance on a single e-email address, the harvest could be quite rich.</preamble>

<http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/01/facebook-email/>

Silj

--
"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game
because they almost always turn out to be -- or to be indistinguishable from
-- self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time."
- Neil Stephenson, _Cryptonomicon_

From: Cronos on 5 Jan 2010 23:24
siljaline wrote:
> <preamble>
> Got an e-mail list of customers or readers and want to know more about each - such as their full name, friends, gender, age, interests, location, job and education level?
> Facebook has just the free feature you're looking for, thanks to its recent privacy changes.
> The hack, first publicized by blogger Max Klein, repurposes a Facebook feature that lets people find their friends on Facebook by scanning through e-mail addresses in their contact list.
> But as Klein points out, a marketer could take a list of 1,000 e-mail addresses, either legally or illegally collected - and upload those through a dummy account - which then lets the user see all the profiles created using those addresses. Given Facebook's ubiquity and most people's reliance on a single e-email address, the harvest could be quite rich.</preamble>
>
> <http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/01/facebook-email/>
>
> Silj
>

Yes, well, people who post their personal info on Facebook are stupid so
it is their fault if they get compromised.
From: siljaline on 6 Jan 2010 00:39
Cronos wrote:
> Yes, well, people who post their personal info on Facebook are stupid so
> it is their fault if they get compromised.

No, the onus is on Facebook to take some responsibility for the data of 250 Million plus
users -

<http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/12/facebook-privacy-backlash/>

<http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/12/zuckerberg-facebook-privacy/>

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/29/facebook_escaped_con_fan_page/>

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/16/noughties_review/>

Silj

--
"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game
because they almost always turn out to be -- or to be indistinguishable from
-- self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time."
- Neil Stephenson, _Cryptonomicon_

From: Cronos on 6 Jan 2010 05:23
siljaline wrote:

> No, the onus is on Facebook to take some responsibility for the data of 250 Million plus
> users -
>
> <http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/12/facebook-privacy-backlash/>
>
> <http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/12/zuckerberg-facebook-privacy/>
>
> <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/29/facebook_escaped_con_fan_page/>
>
> <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/16/noughties_review/>
>
> Silj
>

To a degree but the onus is also on the user to protect their info and
not sign up to places like Facebook in the first place. People have lost
their jobs and wife/husband over that kind of idiocy. I joined Facebook
one day just to scope it out, all the info I gave was fake, as it is at
any such web site. I haven't been back since either because I didn't
even find it interesting.
From: James Morrow on 7 Jan 2010 17:20
In article <hi0h7c$i9l$1(a)news.eternal-september.org>, spam(a)uce.gov
says...

<snip>

> But as Klein points out, a marketer could take a list of 1,000 e-mail addresses, either legally or illegally collected - and upload those through a dummy account - which then lets the user see all the profiles created using those addresses. Given Facebook's ubiquity and most people's reliance on a
single e-email address, the harvest could be quite rich.</preamble>
>
> <http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/01/facebook-email/>
>

Thank you for pointing this out. The potential of social networking
sites for data mining is enormous. This morning I received from a young
distant relative of mine an email inviting me to join Facebook. I
have no intention of taking her up on this offer. I do email,
newsgroups and even IRC. I'm just old fashion that way. But I do not
use Twitter or Facebook. People who do have no real understanding of
what risks they are taking. Once information is out of your hands and
on the Internet you no longer have control of it. I've posted under my
own name on Usenet for over a decade now with no problem at all, but
Facebook is a quantum leap in lost privacy. I'm not going there.

--
James E. Morrow
Email to: jamesemorrow(a)email.com
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