Awful Apps

(This is in Websites because of reasons. Could have been in Games, but not all aps are games)

Do you have a vagina, use facebook and have lax privacy settings? The world must know about it!

I recommend reading the whole article.... and also changing your social networking settings.
Basically the app uses facebook, foursquare and google maps to allow you to not only see girls (or guys if you choose) in your immediate vicinity, but their personal info, photos, etc based on their privacy settings. It's an instant stalking tool.

Quote :

“Wait… what? Are these girls prostitutes?” one of my friends asked, which given the Matrix-like silhouettes posing on the splash screen was a pretty good question.

“Oh, no,” I replied. “These are just regular girls. See this girl? Her name’s Zoe. She lives on the same street as me and Brittany. She works at a coffee shop, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t moonlight picking up tricks.”

“How does it know where these girls are? Do you know all these girls? Is it plucking data from your address book or something?” another friend asked.

“Not at all. These are all girls with publicly visible Facebook profiles who have checked into these locations recently using Foursquare. Girls Around Me then shows you a map where all the girls in your area trackable by Foursquare area. If there’s more than one girl at a location, you see the number of girls there in a red bubble. Click on that, and you can see pictures of all the girls who are at that location at any given time. The pictures you are seeing are their social network profile pictures.”

“Okay, so they know that their data can be used like this for anyone to see? They’re okay with it? ”

“Probably not, actually. The settings determining how visible your Facebook and Foursquare data is are complicated, and tend to be meaningless to people who don’t really understand issues about privacy,” I explained. “Most privacy settings on social networks default to share everything with everyone, and since most people never change those… well, they end up getting sucked up into apps like this.”

What's Foursquare? I did immediately go and check all of my privacy settings on my Facebook after reading the article.

Foursquare is a social networking thing where members note their physical locations online, and friends can see where they are. Facebook has the same things with tagging people at locations.

Eeew, apps that track your location have always creeped me the fuck out. One of the reasons I keep my phone and my gps seperate.

Sakurelf wrote:

Foursquare is a social networking thing where members note their physical locations online, and friends can see where they are. Facebook has the same things with tagging people at locations.

Which is a pretty awful app all its own, honestly.

No wonder I hadn't heard of it; thank you for informing me.

The article, by pointing out that strangers could see this information and use it to physically or sexually assault someone, was it insinutating that people you already know on facebook wouldn't use that information to do the same?

People post way too much personal shit on their Facebook accounts, and then add people as friends without actually knowing them at all. I don't think it is totally the apps that are the problem, though I agree they are very terrible.

knightwithoutacause wrote:

No wonder I hadn't heard of it; thank you for informing me.

The article, by pointing out that strangers could see this information and use it to physically or sexually assault someone, was it insinutating that people you already know on facebook wouldn't use that information to do the same?

People post way too much personal shit on their Facebook accounts, and then add people as friends without actually knowing them at all. I don't think it is totally the apps that are the problem, though I agree they are very terrible.

One of the problems, as the article states, is that social networking sites are dishonest about how much information they share. They don't inform the public that their settings are usually defaulted to share everything with everyone, rather than keep them private. People think/ they are only charing certain things with certain friends, but if they're not savvy about privacy settings, 3rd party applications or cookies, they could be at a risk for identity theft or stalking.

Whose fault is it that the companies choose not to educate the public about their choices in privacy management? I mean, they profit from such changes and from such ignorance because of target marketing and advertising. There is an individual component here, but a big part of it is also corporate greed.

Around here there were some high-profile cases of people who were kidnapped or had their houses burgled by criminals who were using their social networking profiles to track their victims' address and schedule.

See this is why I lie about what town I live in on Facebook (along with other things). Anyone else recall the good old days when you just didn't need to post all your info on a chat room?

bleachedblackcat wrote:

See this is why I lie about what town I live in on Facebook (along with other things). Anyone else recall the good old days when you just didn't need to post all your info on a chat room?

A/S/L, baby?

You are not obligated to post where you live on fb. I mean, it will help you connect with people you might know, which is sort of the point of the whole website, but you do not have to tell fb much of anything about yourself, really, most of the stuff on your profile can stay blank.

Sakurelf wrote:

bleachedblackcat wrote:

See this is why I lie about what town I live in on Facebook (along with other things). Anyone else recall the good old days when you just didn't need to post all your info on a chat room?

A/S/L, baby?

2834/hermaphrodite/Mars, good looking

Reepicheep-chan wrote:

You are not obligated to post where you live on fb. I mean, it will help you connect with people you might know, which is sort of the point of the whole website, but you do not have to tell fb much of anything about yourself, really, most of the stuff on your profile can stay blank.

1) People don't know even that. They see a form, they fill it out

2) People assume that simply filling it out is harmless, or not seen / screened by people / bots / advertisers. Many people who aren't web-savvy think that interaction on the web is like a face-to-face conversation. That once the information has been submitted, it sort of dissipates, instead of staying around forever.

I don't see what the paranoia is about people using facebook. I mean, aside from stupid shit like checking into everywhere so someone can know where you are or when you aren't home, just a few settings tweaks and it's not as visible.

And tech-savvy? I wouldn't say so much as it's possibly common sense. Social networking and the internet in general gives the impression that people can all be your friends when in reality you don't know shit about them. It's not some sort of anti-retardation model. People tend to want to be friends with people and most people have a facebook, and a lot of internet forumgoers tend to be weird basketcases about weird people somehow finding their houses.

Disco Stu wrote:

I don't see what the paranoia is about people using facebook. I mean, aside from stupid shit like checking into everywhere so someone can know where you are or when you aren't home, just a few settings tweaks and it's not as visible.

And tech-savvy? I wouldn't say so much as it's possibly common sense. Social networking and the internet in general gives the impression that people can all be your friends when in reality you don't know shit about them. It's not some sort of anti-retardation model. People tend to want to be friends with people and most people have a facebook, and a lot of internet forumgoers tend to be weird basketcases about weird people somehow finding their houses.

Common sense? No. At least, not by any definition of the term I've ever encountered. Even if most people thought about it, they would probably assume that Facebook wasn't going to leak their information to pretty much anyone who cares to look by default. Even if they didn't, there's this "the innocent have nothing to hide" mentality that means many of them wouldn't see why it mattered.

Realising that people can use services like Facebook to target you for stalking, robbery etc actually requires a certain level of understanding of Facebook, the internet, and for that matter, privacy issues. What's more, those "few settings tweaks"?

1. You have to keep checking they haven't been reset
   
2. You have to go in and make more of them every time Facebook updates its services.

Keeping your data private on Facebook is actually quite a bit of work and the easiest way to deal with it is my solution - don't use Facebook.

Sakurelf wrote:

1) People don't know even that. They see a form, they fill it out

2) People assume that simply filling it out is harmless, or not seen / screened by people / bots / advertisers. Many people who aren't web-savvy think that interaction on the web is like a face-to-face conversation. That once the information has been submitted, it sort of dissipates, instead of staying around forever.

I was mostly talking to BBC; not sure why s/he feels the need to lie when s/he could just leave that field blank is all.

Some employers are now demanding access to your Facebook page before they'll consider hiring you.

Lady Anne wrote:

Some employers are now demanding access to your Facebook page before they'll consider hiring you.

I did hear about it on the radio. The talking heads also said that employers demand your password to your facebook. Is that legal? (I also wonder if said talking heads just made it up for morning commute gossip)

Sakurelf wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

Some employers are now demanding access to your Facebook page before they'll consider hiring you.

I did hear about it on the radio. The talking heads also said that employers demand your password to your facebook. Is that legal? (I also wonder if said talking heads just made it up for morning commute gossip)

It's true. Some job seekers I know have experienced this.

Lady Anne wrote:

Sakurelf wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

Some employers are now demanding access to your Facebook page before they'll consider hiring you.

I did hear about it on the radio. The talking heads also said that employers demand your password to your facebook. Is that legal? (I also wonder if said talking heads just made it up for morning commute gossip)

It's true. Some job seekers I know have experienced this.

I guess it's a bad age to be someone who distrusts Facebook enough to never want to be on it...

Sakurelf wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

Some employers are now demanding access to your Facebook page before they'll consider hiring you.

I did hear about it on the radio. The talking heads also said that employers demand your password to your facebook. Is that legal? (I also wonder if said talking heads just made it up for morning commute gossip)

I know some woman got fired because she refused to give up her password to employers.

Anon wrote:

Disco Stu wrote:

I don't see what the paranoia is about people using facebook. I mean, aside from stupid shit like checking into everywhere so someone can know where you are or when you aren't home, just a few settings tweaks and it's not as visible.

And tech-savvy? I wouldn't say so much as it's possibly common sense. Social networking and the internet in general gives the impression that people can all be your friends when in reality you don't know shit about them. It's not some sort of anti-retardation model. People tend to want to be friends with people and most people have a facebook, and a lot of internet forumgoers tend to be weird basketcases about weird people somehow finding their houses.

Common sense? No. At least, not by any definition of the term I've ever encountered. Even if most people thought about it, they would probably assume that Facebook wasn't going to leak their information to pretty much anyone who cares to look by default. Even if they didn't, there's this "the innocent have nothing to hide" mentality that means many of them wouldn't see why it mattered.

Realising that people can use services like Facebook to target you for stalking, robbery etc actually requires a certain level of understanding of Facebook, the internet, and for that matter, privacy issues. What's more, those "few settings tweaks"?

1. You have to keep checking they haven't been reset
   
2. You have to go in and make more of them every time Facebook updates its services.

Keeping your data private on Facebook is actually quite a bit of work and the easiest way to deal with it is my solution - don't use Facebook.

I figured it was just still common sense. Don't put anything that you'd be ashamed to tie to your real name to anyone you friend because everyone will know your business anyway. Like sure if I put that I live in San Jose, CA random people aren't going to be able to immediately locate my house and murder me just based on that information. But if I post my street address, there might be an off-chance, despite me changing my settings, that someone I might not want to share my address with might show up at my house to remove my toes and rape my dog or me or something. That shit's best shared someplace else I always thought. I know people can get utterly ridiculous about sharing information to everyone but at the same time it's like, whatever, there's more risk in walking down the street getting mugged by someone high on PCP who probably doesn't have working knowledge of the internet.

Disco Stu wrote:

Anon wrote:

Disco Stu wrote:

I don't see what the paranoia is about people using facebook. I mean, aside from stupid shit like checking into everywhere so someone can know where you are or when you aren't home, just a few settings tweaks and it's not as visible.

And tech-savvy? I wouldn't say so much as it's possibly common sense. Social networking and the internet in general gives the impression that people can all be your friends when in reality you don't know shit about them. It's not some sort of anti-retardation model. People tend to want to be friends with people and most people have a facebook, and a lot of internet forumgoers tend to be weird basketcases about weird people somehow finding their houses.

Common sense? No. At least, not by any definition of the term I've ever encountered. Even if most people thought about it, they would probably assume that Facebook wasn't going to leak their information to pretty much anyone who cares to look by default. Even if they didn't, there's this "the innocent have nothing to hide" mentality that means many of them wouldn't see why it mattered.

Realising that people can use services like Facebook to target you for stalking, robbery etc actually requires a certain level of understanding of Facebook, the internet, and for that matter, privacy issues. What's more, those "few settings tweaks"?

1. You have to keep checking they haven't been reset
   
2. You have to go in and make more of them every time Facebook updates its services.

Keeping your data private on Facebook is actually quite a bit of work and the easiest way to deal with it is my solution - don't use Facebook.

I figured it was just still common sense. Don't put anything that you'd be ashamed to tie to your real name to anyone you friend because everyone will know your business anyway. Like sure if I put that I live in San Jose, CA random people aren't going to be able to immediately locate my house and murder me just based on that information. But if I post my street address, there might be an off-chance, despite me changing my settings, that someone I might not want to share my address with might show up at my house to remove my toes and rape my dog or me or something. That shit's best shared someplace else I always thought. I know people can get utterly ridiculous about sharing information to everyone but at the same time it's like, whatever, there's more risk in walking down the street getting mugged by someone high on PCP who probably doesn't have working knowledge of the internet.

But in your example, you're only considering physical violence. What about identity theft and hacking? A decent hacker can get into your email, your bank account, chane your personal info, and generally fuck your life up from the comfort of their own home.

Now, hacking requires illegal techniques, but things like targeted advertising doesn't. Companies buy your information through clicks, then target you for their shit.
This is how Target found out that a girl was pregnant before her father did. It tracked her purchasing habits and compared them to pregnant women, then started advertising diapers and vitamins and shit.

It's not illegal, and it's not dangerous along the lines of mugging like you said, but it's still creepy that businesses can seek you out and know that much about you.

Not to mention that people not paying attention may mistake 'deactivation' for deletion of their account when they decide that they've had enough of the site. Your account will be deactivated and it can be reactivated by simply putting in the email account and password originally used for the account. So someone else can hack your email, reactivate your facebook, get on it, and create havoc without you ever knowing it was happening. After all, the average person, especially one unfamiliar with things like Facebook, could easily mistakenly think they had completely deleted it instead!

In order to permanently delete your account, you have to look it up in the help manual.
It isn't an option available to you where it used to be on your account settings menu. Plus, it takes two weeks before they delete the account after you submit the form to do so.

Speaking of my account, I noticed on my own account setting that it actually logged the cities and locations I logged in to Facebook and kept them even after I had changed my privacy settings.

I came into this thread quite skeptical of it all being applications and not human error, but I am not above admitting when I'm wrong as I just realized I am. You're right, even being intelligent about how much you fill in doesn't protect you. It noted how many different places I have used my computer to log on to that website. Also, they are under fire for the tracking cookies that follow you even after you've signed out of the site.