Facebook phone app attempts to seize ALL YOUR MAIL Facebook has found an innovative way to encourage use of its email service: reach into users' mobile phone address books and change the email addresses stored against each contact to their Facebook email account. It has emerged that Facebook's war on competing services now extends beyond the manipulated Timeline and into …
I live in hope for the backlash against social networking, and that one day everyone will wake up and realize what they did by giving Google/Facebook/LinkedIn/etc access to their personal data.
I fear that when that realization dawns it will be too late.
The stupidity of the average Internet user knows no bounds.
With the new features of google calendar / google + doing events happily (must test that), I think I will be scrapping my facebook account altogether. Or at the very least minimising it, never, ever logging in, and using "email me" feature for messages / invites. That'd be that. And recommending others do the same.
See you on Google +!
or 2 subjects that seem to inflame people to downvote me - no matter what I say, but what the hell.
When FB started, I thought it was a cute concept - sort of FriendsReunited plus - but I didn't see the need for it. It struck me as the online equivalent of people who include 4 sides of A4 in their Christmas card about what they've been up to in the year. And then mass mail it to everyone. And I seem to have survived thus far without need to "go on Facebook". Meanwhile, all I hear are disater stories about people going to prison (when they signed up to FB and it emailed all their contacts - including an ex-wife with a restraining order). Numerous data leakages. Incessant tweaks to FBs "privacy policy" (too late for the Sister in Law who was shocked to discover that our lad was able to see posts her friends had made which were rather risque), uploaded images being assimilated into the FB conciousness. Creepy companies setting up profiles and stalking you. The rather sinister undead account surviving deletion nature of FB....
No thank you very much.
The upsetting thing, is now I have become a target for FB. As my email address is hoovered up more and more, as people I know sign up, it appears to have become aware of an FB refusenik. *I* may not be an FB member. But FB can work out from the people I know who *are* enought to be of value to marketing agencies. In fact, that is the hidden value to FB. Not only can it sell valuable data on it's users. Once it has reached a critical mass, it can start to harvest useful data on people who aren't users, proving that the measure of a man is the company he keeps. And unlike flat forums, or usenet, it's not use trying to create a shadow identity with Facebook. Once your name is there, your friends will find you, and helpfully correct any attempt you make to disguise yourself.
All that said, it probably fits that I don't like the X factor, Britains Got Talent, Big Brother, Strictly etc etc ...
I got my lad to work out how many of his 300+ FB "friends" would lend him a fiver. For a brief moment, he actually got my point.
Given that Facebook is free (for now) I would it's fair to say it's certainly value for money.
On a more serious note, I would be curious to know on a commercial level (peoples personal use doesn't really bother me) has Facebook actually delivered any revenue to anyone *other* than Zuckerberg ? Once you factor in the time people spend on FB when they are supposed to be working.
If I understand it correctly, it's the Facebook App (i.e. the slow, unstable unreliable pile of shite that is prompted to be installed everytime you go to the facebook page on a mobile) that is doing this. Adding facebook sync to the Android contact manager does not overwrite email addresses as each contact source's data is maintained separately and only shown together in the user interface - which is how it should be.
I uninstalled the crappy FB app a while ago and just used a browser to access facebook - the experience was far better, especially when prohibiting the asshat "mobile" web version and forcing the use of the normal desktop web version. For example, while the app took 3 minutes to not show a list of status updates or messages, the web page would display them pretty much instantly. I've yet to understand just how or why they managed to make the app so useless.
So, the author of the source article is an idiot. The "separate contacts" thing in iOS is an iOS 6 BETA thing (I can tell by his screenshots); FB is just one more source of contact info, and the iPhone seamlessly combines them where it can, but where there's not a matching email address it cannot, and leaves them separate. Of course you can't delete them, can you imagine what users would say if you could unfriend someone accidentally from your phonebook?!
I wonder if the email addresses thing is similar, too. What if you didn't enter those emails yourself, but they were linked from the person's Facebook account? Once they're made private (as Facebook recently did), they disappear.
Basically, Facebook can't win. They usually get stung for not respecting privacy, but this time we tell them they've made things inconvenient and shouldn't have done it? I loathe FB and suspect their motives as much as the next man, but that source is unfair, uninformed tosh.
Is the first aggressive cancer of the networked age.
It needs to have controls placed upon it. Surely making unrequested changes to your data on the phone is covered under the Computer misuse act 1984 and the amended 2000 legislation. If not it must certainly be covered by Data protection regulations. At least here in the UK, I am sure other intelligent* nations have there own applicable regulations
*looking at you USA.
I actually read the linked article, and it seems to me from reading that, that it's only iOS 6 that is affected. Since no-one outside of the dev community is really using that as yet, I don't see how this will affect iOS users.
I checked my contacts today, I run iOS 5.1.1 and the latest FB app, and none of my contacts have been altered, from my sampling of contacts that I interact with on FB.
Of course, I do agree with the sentiment expressed here that this is heinous etc, but also agree that it's probably a mistake rather than deliberate. Also, I'm not so sure about people saying it's illegal. IANAL, but surely agreeing to a *synchronization* of your contacts with FB actually does specifically allow for both export of contacts (and details) from your phone, and import of contacts (and details) from FB.
Now, FB doing the replacement of email addresses in FB with their own email addresses was pathetically stupid and outrageous, but, it happened, and so then it's easy to see that if you've also agreed to sync your contacts with FB, that once there's an update to one of them (in this case, FBs record of the email address has been "updated") then the other (your phones contacts) gets the new details.
Sync is pretty useless as a concept if it doesn't do this after all.
Not approving or excusing, just trying to put it in a more reasonable and less shouty shouty shouty context.
I've killed my facebook account now. Its been building up for a while to the point where I have no faith that facebook wouldn't do anything if they could make a buck out of it and I just don't trust them with any of my data any more. The only reason they get away with s**t like this is because most people just take it rather than stopping using a service and company they don't like. Apathy is the cause of many a problem these days
Stipulating the reports as fact, I suspect Facebook's M.O. on this will be, "oh, we didn't realize people wouldn't like this new feature, so please hang on while we fix it." Meanwhile the damage that has not already been done will continue while it releases an update to correct the behavior, but the update will be user-instantiated or have problems pushing out, etc., during which time the behavior will continue.
Facebook won't have any culpability as the notice of this behavior is buried in an update to the terms and conditions, user license agreement, data usage agreement, or other document hidden in some sub-basement somewhere in a locked filing cabinet with an Ethernet cable handing out of it. (It was meant to be Internet-connected, but obviously the cabinet wasn't jiving with our DHCP server; our bad.)
While Facebook is replacing the email addresses of your contacts matching existing Facebook users, the query to the Facebook API likely includes existing email addresses and is captured at the Facebook system so they now have records -- accidentally, of course -- of everyone in your contacts who isn't a Facebook member. The queries will likely also include birth dates, home addresses, main and alternate phone numbers, amongst other data used as discriminating data to ensure the query from your contacts returns the correct Facebook user. Accidentally captured, of course, and not used to build any temporary or "ghost" profiles. Of course. After all, Facebook wants to ensure that your information maintains its integrity.
Paris, on accident, of course, bitches.
Many brokers and RIAs use mobile phones for email and are required by the SEC to be supervised by an audit company (such as SMARSH, Proofpoint Archive, etc).
This action will reduce consumer protection or will subject Facebook inboxes for legal subpoena to compliance auditors.
Regardless, this has created a huge mess for IT Security, your privacy, and how to separate work and business communication.
.. that FB gets a minuscule fine and gets to come up with another way to steal acquire customer data illegally. They will eventually be caught out, pay a fine, and find a new way..(etc).
Basically, for Google and Facebook alike, paying fines for flat out ignoring the law is probably written into the accounts as the cost of doing business..
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I'm one of the few who frequents facejack, erm, facebook rarely.
Never installed the app and tend to use the web interface to log on when I'm VERY bored and want a laugh at what everyone else I know/used to know/met only once etc is going on about in their lives.
Just wait until the days of the internet connected fridge are upon us as they've been predicting for years now - the status updates about 'joe bloggs has just run out of milk' will fill in the gaps of endless updates about who's gossiping about who and what they've just eaten/drank/regurgitated.
What's next? Reality TV where people are locked up in a house and on camera 24 hours a day???
Bugger, that's already here isn't it? ;)
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