Terrifying Facebook Omniscience

[Tin Pot]

It is indeed terrifying.

Thank God no one is regularly publishing their opinions on politics, terrorism, religion, nationality and ethnicity online in a pseudo anonymous forum.

That would be even more terrifying than Facebook.

 

[Drago]

Indeed, a good thing no one knows my true identity as a vegetarian pacifist called Mildred.

 

[Tin Pot]

Indeed, a good thing no one knows my true identity as a vegetarian pacifist called Mildred.

Except Clickfinity and The Positive Internet Company Ltd of course.

 

[CopperCyclist]

Are you friends with anyone else on here?

If they were then friends with that other person, and Facebook saw you had more than one friend in common, they can sometimes use that to make the suggestion.

 

[winjim]

Are you friends with anyone else on here?

If they were then friends with that other person, and Facebook saw you had more than one friend in common, they can sometimes use that to make the suggestion.

No friends in common. I think what's happened is that FB somehow knows that I've clicked the link in this person's sig, which leads to information including their real name.

 

[luckyfox]

You mean... be friends in real life?!? Pffftt!

 

[winjim]

It is indeed terrifying.

Thank God no one is regularly publishing their opinions on politics, terrorism, religion, nationality and ethnicity online in a pseudo anonymous forum.

That would be even more terrifying than Facebook.

I've got a mate who's always posting on Facebook conspiracy theories about the New World Order, Illuminati, 9/11, control of mainstream media etc. I just think that if he's right, does he really think that "they" are not monitoring facebook? Surely they must be on to him?

 

[classic33]

I listened to a programme on R4 about internet security and at the end of the programme they asked a government security specialist what advice he would give to anybody thinking of putting their details on Facebook or any other social media. His advice? "Don't. Just don't. Once that information is out there, it's out there and we have no idea how it will be abused or misused in the future".

To my shame I used, when I was less cautious, to post on a Land Rover forum under my own name and now, ten years later, the posts still come up if I Google my own name. I'm hoping they will disappear eventually. I heard somebody from the Police talking about tracing a suspect and they said: "Unfortunately he's not active on the internet so he's proving hard to trace". It is really amazing what internet savvy people can find out about other people, for example when a commuter films them being abusive; within hours their personal details are all over the web.

You'd be suprised at just how easy it is to get that information though.
How come you dropped five places on the leader board though?

 

[classic33]

I've got a mate who's always posting on Facebook conspiracy theories about the New World Order, Illuminati, 9/11, control of mainstream media etc. I just think that if he's right, does he really think that "they" are not monitoring facebook? Surely they must be on to him?

Depends on what wording he's using in his posts though.

 

[Dave the Smeghead]

I was talking to a friend who is a SENCO in a school who takes great pleasure in showing people that 10 minutes with their Facebook profile and she can build up a dossier of facts very easily that can be used by predators. Her area of concern is child protection but it works equally for all predators of personal details be they after your bank account or home address.
I am so pleased to have never succumbed to the Faceplant, Twatter, or other such site and had an account.
And knowing what I do now I am so surprised that anyone does.
Cyclechat and LinkedIn are the only ones I use - and only LinkedIn because it helps professionally sometimes.

 

[Tin Pot]

I was talking to a friend who is a SENCO in a school who takes great pleasure in showing people that 10 minutes with their Facebook profile and she can build up a dossier of facts very easily that can be used by predators. Her area of concern is child protection but it works equally for all predators of personal details be they after your bank account or home address.
I am so pleased to have never succumbed to the Faceplant, Twatter, or other such site and had an account.
And knowing what I do now I am so surprised that anyone does.
Cyclechat and LinkedIn are the only ones I use - and only LinkedIn because it helps professionally sometimes.

It's been true for some time, and it freaks people out. But.

This is social engineering, it can happen through any medium and the threat/control is best learned and applied rather than hoping it will never happen to you because you don't use Facebook.

 

[yello]

I used to work for a credit referencing agency, on the IT side. We effectively 'data mined' from data provided to us from a variety of sources. It was amazing even then how much info about individuals could be gleened/derived where said individuals didn't even realise that that info was 'out there'. And there's more of it these days. People just take it for granted. Not that that is a bad thing necessarily, but it is something to be aware of.

 

[classic33]

I used to work for a credit referencing agency, on the IT side. We effectively 'data mined' from data provided to us from a variety of sources. It was amazing even then how much info about individuals could be gleened/derived where said individuals didn't even realise that that info was 'out there'. And there's more of it these days. People just take it for granted. Not that that is a bad thing necessarily, but it is something to be aware of.

Your bank uses similar methods, though I doubt they'll admit to it.

 

[Sandra6]

Is it a bad thing if people know who you are in real life?
I've never tried to hide who I am, on here fb,or any other forum I've used.
I've been recognised more than once, and I'm not at all phased by it, so stop lurking behind the inner tubes and just say hi ;-)

 

[yello]

Your bank uses similar methods, though I doubt they'll admit to it.

We used to provide (some) banks with data, along with our own in-house derived credit score, for the purposes of credit rating. The data scoring model itself was hush-hush, black box stuff.

I used to think I was in league with the devil tbh. I really didn't like the what the company did BUT I liked the job itself (most of the time), it paid very well and I could walk to work.... that's my excuse!