Creepy Facebook surprise

petite

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The article mentions the tracking cookie only works on sites that run the facebok plug-ins. The 'like' button and things.
This is most of the websites on the net including popular porn sites and things.
This site is one of the few sites I go on that doesn't have the annoying like button popping up everywhere. Thankfully Rob is apparently on the side of more rather than less privacy.

The tracking cookie idea doesn't really make sense as far as the friend suggestion list that Facebook generates. After all, how many people do you think visit any given website that you visit? All of them combined? Millions of people if you count up all the people at every website you have also visited just in one day. The friend suggestion list is generated from a closer relationship between two people than just whether you've been to the same website.
 

Countryguy63

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I guess I have a hard time figuring out the "creepiness" factor :confused:

From just my avatar, if anyone who knows me were to come here, they'd know right away it was me. Don't get me wrong, I don't flaunt my membership here, but not too concerned about anybody knowing it.

As far as facebook, I have a few friends from here, that are also friends on FB, so I see others from here every so often. I rarely submit Friends Requests either here or there, so unless they recognize, or friend request me, they probably won't know it :smile:
 

Calboner

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Just keep it set to private and don't accept "friends" that aren't friends
All of which I have done. This does not address the problem at all.
Not to alarm anyone, but I've identified a few people from here via the friends suggestions on Facebook.
This is exactly what I am concerned about.

I have taken the most effective solution: I just deactivated my Facebook account. I shall miss the communications with a lot of people, but I know several people who have never had Facebook accounts at all, and I can remember when I reluctantly joined, so I should be able to get along without it. I can always reactivate my account later if I wish.
 

petite

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I guess I have a hard time figuring out the "creepiness" factor :confused:

From just my avatar, if anyone who knows me were to come here, they'd know right away it was me. Don't get me wrong, I don't flaunt my membership here, but not too concerned about anybody knowing it.

As far as facebook, I have a few friends from here, that are also friends on FB, so I see others from here every so often. I rarely submit Friends Requests either here or there, so unless they recognize, or friend request me, they probably won't know it :smile:

Well, I wouldn't want just anyone to know my real name, so I think that's where the "creepiness" factor comes in. I trust you, but I might not trust someone else. For example, if you recognized me as a suggested friend, which also appears next to the news feed sometimes, then it wouldn't be the idea that YOU had recognized me because I trust you, but the idea that someone else that I don't trust for good reasons might recognize me.

Oh, I forgot that I did tell someone else whose face popped up as a suggested friend next to my news feed, but he was gracious and nice about it because he's just an awesome person.
 

petite

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I have taken the most effective solution: I just deactivated my Facebook account. I shall miss the communications with a lot of people, but I know several people who have never had Facebook accounts at all, and I can remember when I reluctantly joined, so I should be able to get along without it. I can always reactivate my account later if I wish.

It's not necessary. No one can identify you if you change your profile pic on Facebook to a photo of a Nietzche, for example, and you make all your Facebook photos and videos and your wall private. Then even if your name comes up in the list of another LPSG member, that person won't be able to connect you with "Calboner" from LPSG.

Since Facebook tells you which friends you have in common, I suppose one of your LPSG friends who is friends with you on Facebook could reveal your identity if asked, so if it's a concern, I suppose then it becomes super important that you feel that those LPSG Facebook friends can be trusted. I've been asked, but I refuse to reveal anyone's identity and said so. It doesn't matter how much of an asshole someone has been to me. :yup:
 
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bobg4400

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It's not necessary. No one can identify you if you change your profile pic on Facebook to a photo of a Nietzche, for example, and you make all your Facebook photos and videos and your wall private. Then even if your name comes up in the list, that person won't be able to connect you with "Calboner" from LPSG and won't know why Facebook suggested you.

Yeah, I agree that deactivating it is a bit much. As long as people who you don't wan't to identify you can't make a visual connection between your profile here and facebook then you're safe. The most obvious way to stop them doing that is to ensure you only allow trusted people to view face photos here or not upload any at all. Facebook doesn't allow you to post dick photos or anything so there isn't any chance of someone matching those up.

The other thing to do is not use your facebook username as the username for this site since there's an obvious connection there.
 

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It's not necessary. No one can identify you if you change your profile pic on Facebook to a photo of a Nietzche, for example, and you make all your Facebook photos and videos and your wall private. Then even if your name comes up in the list of another LPSG member, that person won't be able to connect you with "Calboner" from LPSG.
Perhaps. The fact is that I don't know exactly how much Facebook can find out about me, to whom it can pass on the information (not necessarily for commercial purposes, but even, e.g., in the accidental way that it identified someone on this site for me), or what the consequences may be. I think it is just as well that I take some time away from the site, if only to think about the purposes that it serves for me.
 

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All of which I have done. This does not address the problem at all.

This is exactly what I am concerned about.

I have taken the most effective solution: I just deactivated my Facebook account. I shall miss the communications with a lot of people, but I know several people who have never had Facebook accounts at all, and I can remember when I reluctantly joined, so I should be able to get along without it. I can always reactivate my account later if I wish.



the manager at my last job (who is an it person) said he would never have a facebook page. need to check my security settings.
 

petite

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Perhaps. The fact is that I don't know exactly how much Facebook can find out about me, to whom it can pass on the information (not necessarily for commercial purposes, but even, e.g., in the accidental way that it identified someone on this site for me), or what the consequences may be. I think it is just as well that I take some time away from the site, if only to think about the purposes that it serves for me.

I can't disagree with that. I actually use a pseudonym for the two that I use the most, so count me in as a skeptic. I'm one of those people who still can't believe that Facebook actually convinced people to use their real names on the internet... :redface:

It's too bad that Facebook is so awful about privacy. I really enjoy interacting with my friends on Facebook, especially the ones who live too far away to see in person.

You could also try that. You could reappear on Facebook as Hotpants McGee, or some other name, and just tell the people that you like interacting with that you feel better using a pseudonym. Don't put in your phone number or any other info like where you work or your education. That way you stay private and you get to talk to the people you like to talk to on Facebook.
 
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Sklar

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Lpsg.org has a web page on Facebook. Did you go to it before? I'm guessing and it's only a guess, that if you both went to that page in the past Facebook would pop up and say:

"Hey, you both went to this page. Do you know each other?"

Sklar
 

luka82

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Dear Cal,
it`s about time we became FB friends.
I promise not to stalk you or mention your huge dick.
Luka.
:biggrin1:
 

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Welcome to the world of web beacons and your digital dossier.

Facebook uses an interesting and barely-legal algorithm for networking 'friends'. They look at your Likes and friends and infer commonalities.

Digital dossiers contain so much information that government agencies are subpoenaing them for criminal investigations.


Lpsg.org has a web page on Facebook. Did you go to it before? I'm guessing and it's only a guess, that if you both went to that page in the past Facebook would pop up and say:

"Hey, you both went to this page. Do you know each other?"

Sklar


Google "HTTP_REFERER" (with one 'r'). :smile:
 
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Calboner

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Lpsg.org has a web page on Facebook. Did you go to it before? I'm guessing and it's only a guess, that if you both went to that page in the past Facebook would pop up and say:

"Hey, you both went to this page. Do you know each other?"

Sklar
It is certainly possible that I looked at that page at some point, but I don't think that my LPSG friend would have done so, as said friend has told me that he/she rarely uses Facebook.
Dear Cal,
it`s about time we became FB friends.
I promise not to stalk you or mention your huge dick.
Luka.
:biggrin1:
That would be like me not saying anything about your being a panda. What would be the point?
Google "HTTP_REFERER" (with one 'r'). :smile:
Ah-hah! HTTP referer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The referrer, or HTTP referrer — also known by the common misspelling referer that occurs as an HTTP header field — identifies, from the point of view of an Internet webpage or resource, the address of the webpage (commonly the Uniform Resource Locator (URL); the more-generic Uniform Resource Identifier (URI); or the internationalization and localization (i18n)-updated Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI)) of the resource which links to it. By checking the referrer, the new webpage can see where the request originated.

In the most common situation this means that when a user clicks a link in a web browser, the browser sends a request to the server holding the destination webpage. The request includes the referrer field, which says the last page the user was on (the one where he/she clicked the link).
If I understand this correctly, all that has to happen for Facebook to know that I visit this site is for me to click on a link on this site to a page on Facebook--which I have most likely done at some point. If my LPSG friend has done the same thing, Facebook may eventually put us together under "People You May Know."
 

Fuzzy_

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If I understand this correctly, all that has to happen for Facebook to know that I visit this site is for me to click on a link on this site to a page on Facebook--which I have most likely done at some point. If my LPSG friend has done the same thing, Facebook may eventually put us together under "People You May Know."

Bingo.

Some anti-virus software blocks HTTP referrers while still allowing cookies and other HTTP header information. Blocking referrals can screw up some pages, however, especially when the host wants to ensure that you're not visiting the page from outside of the site.

To retain some anonymity, the best ways to visit a social network like Facebook are: from a bookmark,a search engine, or to type it into the address field manually. This won't prevent web beacons or expansion of your digital dossier, but it would prevent Facebook from hooking you up with others who have clicked links from LPSG to Facebook. It just takes ONE click.

Another method they use to validate their networking is proximity. All IP addresses have geographic information in them--right down to the part of the city you live in (or where your ISP is based).

As for Facebook, Liking is Linking. This is yet another, less implicit, way in which FB connects you with others.

Don't get Fuzzy started on web beacons!
 
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bobg4400

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What about if I click the little arrow next to the address field and click the facebook address that drops down among others?

Do they know where I come from then?
 

petite

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That is correct. Also, I don't have any Internet connection through my mobile phone.

Well if your friend did then the fact that you don't wouldn't matter if you included your phone number on your Facebook page. Then Facebook could connect her phone call through her phone to your page. But you haven't spoken on the phone, so that's not it.

I'm skeptical about the website link because it's too broad to connect two individuals. Two people visiting a page most certainly doesn't mean that two people know each other because it's the internet.

That is mysterious.