What Facebook Quizzes Know About You
The Northern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has put together a campaign to raise awareness of privacy issues surrounding Facebook applications, in particular quizzes. According to this group, the millions of Facebook users taking quizzes are revealing far more personal information to application developers than they are aware of. This is mostly due to the fact that Facebook's default privacy settings allow access to all your profile information whether or not your profile is set to "private." Even worse, the ACLU reports that even if you shun quizzes yourself, your profile info is revealed when one of your friends takes a quiz. Want to see how bad the problem is? Just take the ACLU's Facebook Quiz and prepare to be shocked.
As any regular Facebook user knows, quizzes are some of the most popular applications in use on the social network. Every day, our News Feeds are filled with everything from the latest variation on the "5 Things" theme to the "What (insert popular movie title) character are you?" and more. But these seemingly innocuous time wasters could have dangerous privacy implications if they ended up being distributed by malicious app developers who want access to Facebook's treasure trove of personal data.
The Danger of Quizzes
With each question in the ACLU's Privacy Quiz, you're not only told what information a quiz author can see - you're shown it. For example, after answering the first question, you learn that almost everything on your profile, even if you use privacy settings to limit access, is available to the quiz. Then, a graphic is shown which reveals selected information retrieved from your profile including hometown, groups you belong to, events attended, favorite books, and more.
The second question is even more disturbing. It informs you that everything on your profile is made available to the developers when your friends take a quiz. To drive this point home, the ACLU's Quiz loads up information pulled from your friends' profiles and displays that data below the answer for your perusal. Here, information on your friends is shown including hometowns, favorite books, political views, networks, birthdays, number of wall posts, and even personal photos. Thanks to the quiz, all that info which you can see on your friends' profiles is now available to the quiz author, too.
Lest you think your info is safe because somewhere, somehow Facebook is looking out for you, the third question shatters any illusions you may have about that, too. According to the answer to this quiz question, not only do Facebook's default privacy settings do nothing to prevent application developers from scouring your information, Facebook also doesn't screen developers for trustworthiness, nor do they require the developer to comply with a privacy policy (something we've mentioned before). It's also noted that Facebook does not use any technical measures to limit how developers can collect and use personal information. Says Chris Conley, a technology fellow with the ACLU, it's difficult to know how developers use this data, which could, in theory, be collected and sold for marketing and advertising campaigns.
Finally, the last question prompts you to take action. When the quiz asks you what you should do, the correct answer is: "demand the right to control my information without sacrificing the right to use new technology." To get the word out there, the ACLU suggests you update your privacy settings, share their quiz on Facebook, and sign their online petition.
Is This True?
The nature of the quiz makes it sound a bit like fear-mongering, especially with statements like this: "Once details about your personal life are collected by a quiz developer, who knows where they could end up or how they could be used. Shared? Sold? Turned over to the government?" However, outside of these overly dramatic tactics, the claims made by the ACLU are true. According to CNET, Facebook doesn't even deny that quiz developers have access to this sort of information. The company does point out that users can limit how much information applications (including friends' applications) can see by tweaking their privacy settings.
Note: To do this yourself, go to Settings -> Privacy Settings -> Applications. From there, you can uncheck the boxes next to the items which you don't want apps to have access to.
Still, the ACLU suggests that access to personal information such as this be opt-in rather than opt-out, as it is now. Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt says the company "generally agrees" with the ACLU's recommendations and notes that the social network recently disabled hundreds of applications that were inconsistent with Facebook Platform policies. He also mentions the company has been working with the Canadian Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, to improve user data controls on Platform.
This is just one of the concerns that will be addressed later today when Stoddart announces the agreement that has been reached between her country and the social network in terms of privacy protocols. Stoddart ruled last month that Facebook had 30 days to come up with a plan to comply with Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act or face court action.
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Correction: Settings -> Privacy Settings -> Applications only applies to apps your friends install that you have not also installed.
Its really disturbing to know that such big social networking sites are hampering our privacy..
This is very disturbing! But Thanks to new agreements with Canada, Facebook will be changing its privacy policy to stop such activities by 3rd party apps.
Here are two articles that talk about this new agreement released today:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8225338.stm
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/08/new-privacy-policies-at-facebook-will-have-a-significant-impact-on-platform-applications/
I'm getting this message when trying to select total opt out. Anyone know how to deal with that?
You are unable to fully opt out of sharing information through Facebook Platform because you are currently using applications built on Platform. To enable this option, you need to remove any applications you have added, and remove your permissions to all external applications that you may have used.
Hopefully the changes announced today will tighten things up.
Honestly though, I really don't understand the popularity of Facebook quizzes. It's as ugly as Live Journal.
Finally the ACLU does something I agree with.
Then don't go to facebook asshats.
Facebook's General Counsel, Ted Ullyot, was Chief of Staff for Alberto Gonzales during his time at the White House and at the Department of Justice. That, really, should tell you all you need to know about Facebook's view of your privacy rights.
http://valleywag.gawker.com/5056365/facebook-hires-alberto-gonzaless-former-chief-of-staff
@giorgos: You need to remove all authorized applications before you can opt-out.
This is done by going to Settings -> Application Settings, choosing "Show: Authorized" and removing every removeable application in the list. (note: native FB apps cannot be removed)
@Alfons: the problem being that there are an awful lot of legit and useful applications that are authorised in that list (about 20 for me and that's only because I did a cull recently). For most people, removing them all would be crippling FB.
What I would like to see is: the ability to specify that you don't allow access to any information for apps that you haven't explicitly authorised (at the moment, at the very minimum you give access to your name, list of networks and list of friends as soon as you have a single app); and the ability to change those settings on a per-application basis.
It would also be nice if FB were to introduce some sort of vetting scheme where they do simple checks on the identity of the developers and ask them to comply with a privacy policy.
Anyway, even if they did all that, you'd need to be careful. I always consider any information I post on FB as public. It doesn't matter what privacy settings you have, you just need to have one friend who has loose privacy settings and re-shares some of the stuff you've posted for it to become public.
For those of us who use and play on facebook this article on privacy invasion is disturbing. I was very surprised how much the ACLU new about my facebook self and my facebook friends. Yes, the ACLU has a facebook site with a short two minute quiz that shows everything. If the ACLU can show these intimate individual facebook items and pictures in two minutes what can a bad person do mining this information about us all day, everyday? The ACLU relates they enforce their privacy standards. The ACLU claims facebook does not enforce their privacy standards even when you click private. This quiz sure shows facebock does not protect our privacy!!! Very, very interesting. Take care. fk
Sorry, but I really don't see what the big deal here is. It may be a little unnerving at first, but if you think about it, several hundred people (your friends) also have access to everything on your profile, and who knows what they are doing with it or who they are sharing it with. As far as advertising goes, I don't mind ads a bit, but I HATE irrelevant ads. The more relevant they are to me, the more I will look at them, click on them, and live with them being on whatever website I am on. Just my opinion...
I agree. I don't mind ads either. If I was anal about privacy, I wouldn't join a social network site. So go moan about something more worthwhile like world povert and war.
facebook has announced, they don't givegrantee about user privacy and they own what ever is uploaded to it's server.
This is really a bogus "privacy" issue. It's sort of like complaining about surveillance cameras in public places. If you don't want to be seen doing certain things in public, don't do them in public. Facebook is a commercial site that makes it's money from advertisers. Unless you want a membership site that charges a monthly fee, you can't really complain about them selling your info to advertisers.
This is really a bogus "privacy" issue. It's sort of like complaining about surveillance cameras in public places. If you don't want to be seen doing certain things in public, don't do them in public. Facebook is a commercial site that makes its money from advertisers. Unless you want a membership site that charges a monthly fee, you can't really complain about them selling your info to advertisers.
I made some changes to my Facebook settings and now none of the videos I post show up on my homepage. Anyone know how to fix this?
Ok, so every time you take a quiz, including the ACLU's quiz, you have to "opt-in" by agreeing to allow that quiz to pull from your information, your friends information, etc. Since people don't read what they sign, physically or virtually, people just click yes. If you don't want advertisers to get your information, don't take quizzes that allow advertisers to get your information. And better yet, don't put information on your Facebook profile that would be detrimental to your actual life. If it's not there, it can't be found. Raising awareness about internet safety is better than fearmongering.
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I always remember the good lesson my parents taught me at a very young age. Pay attention now, and repeat this to yourself, all of your friends, and life will be much easier...Here it is, are you ready:
"Never ever put anything in print that you wouldn't want repeated on national television"
I have applied this to my everyday life, including facebook, and think of facebook as if it were one big "cocktail party".
This is a little scary. I know that most people don't bother to read any of the small print when it comes to things like this. They just click through everything and give away whatever information is asked for.
pba 2009
in these days there are a lot of news about the facebook´s privacy problems... like this.
Great post.
If this app ever sees the light of day, Facebook apps will soon know who everyone has ever slept with. Freaky!
#Durex #Facebook app - Sex Tree - (2009) 1:40 (The Netherlands) http://adland.tv/node/148156
Despite repeated complaints on the flimsiness of their security and confidentiality settings, why has Facebook not taken any measures to improve on this count yet?
Wow facebook to me is lame it screws up my computer and boots me off the explorer..
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Can I use this article on my website?
http://www.iffizarticles.com
Facebook really needs to handle its users privacy problem seriously...More important is that people should be more aware of these problems as there are loads of information stored on facebook. It's impossible for facebook to stop all these problems and users should realize that they actually need to think before they access something with facebook, just like thinking if a link is secure before they open it with the browser.
And you thought that quizzes were just for fun, guess again!
prekast cephe kaplama , söve cephe
Just use your common sense like you would in real life - then no problems.
I almost took a quiz once. Security wasn't my turn off though. It was the "stuuuupppiiiiiiddd" factor that made me change my mind. I just can't stand that stuff I guess.
If you're going to put it on Facebook, treat it as public.
Fool you, if you don't.
I think people know very well what data they are sharing, they just dont care as much as the powers that be think they do!
I have photos of my children on FB and worry what weirdos my be looking at them. Glad something will be done about this soon!!!
PLZ DON'T READ THIS YOU WILL GET KISSED ON THE NEAREST FRIDAY BY THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE. TOMMOROW WILL BE THE BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE. HOWEVER IF YOU DON'T RE-POST THIS COMMENT YOU WILL DIE WITHIN 2 DAYS. NOW UV STARTED READING DIS DON'T STOP THIS IS SO SCARY. SEND THIS OVER TO 5 QUIZES IN 143 MINUTES WHEN UR DONE PRESS F6 AND UR CRUSHES NAME WILL APPEAR ON THE SCREEN IN BIG LETTERS. THIS IS SO SCARY CAUSE IT ACTUALLY WORKS
..if Your friends see it (most who are not close friends) then why the fuss...Maximum Security pertaining to your personal information is in your own hands.
PLEASE DON'T READ THIS. PLEASE DON'T READ THIS.PLEASE DON'T READ THIS. YOU WILL BE KISSED ON THE NEAREST POSSIBLE FRIDAY BY THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE. TOMOROW WILL BE THE BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE. HOWEVER IF YOU DON'T POST THIS COMMENT TO AT LEAST FIVE QUIZZES YOU WILL DIE IN 2 DAYS.NOW UV STARTED READING TH SI DON'T STOP THIS IS SO SCARY TRY THIS its weird.
1. say your name 10 times.
2. say your moms name 5 times.
3. say your crushes name 3 times.
4. then paste this to 4 other quizzes, if you do this your crush will kiss you on the nearest friday! but if you read this and did not paste this then you will have very bad luck. SEND THIS TO FIVE QUIZZES IN 143 MINUTES WHEN UR DONE PRESS F6 AND UR CRUSHES NAME WILL APPEAR IN BIG LETTERS
I don't think we've seen anything yet.... Google Wave will be to Facebook what Father is to Big Brother.
Test video post ... a-serious-attack-on-your-personal-privacy-of-people-county-iasi-to-Cages-anyone /
Facebook won't seem like such a hot "cocktail party" when the round ups start, and they know who to make invisible, so people can vanish without a whimper or a trace.
I think that you are dumb if you put something online that you don't want revealed. Seriously, if you think it could potentially embarrass you, don't be so much of a dumbass to put it on the web. Seriously, I've seen people put their HOME ADDRESS online...There are too many stupid people on the earth.
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The only real solution is to quit facebook, which is what I did. It's rather naive to think that they're not in the business of gathering information. And it's actually quite realistic that they are or will be selling it to the government, just like search engines and telecoms do.
PLEASE DONT READ THIS. YOU WILL BE KISSED ON THE NEAREST POSSIBLE FRIDAY BY THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE. TOMMOROW WILL BE THE BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE. HOWEVER IF YOU DONT POST THIS COMMENT TO AT LEST FIVE QUIZZES YOU WILL DIE IN 2 DAYS. NOW UV STARTED READIN THIS DONT STOP THIS IS SO SCARY.xSEND THIS TO FIVE QUIZZES IN 143 MINUTES WHEN UR DONE PRESS F6 AND UR CRUSHES NAME WILL APPEAR IN BIG LETTERS ON THE SCREEN. THIS IS SO SCARY COZ IT ACTUALLY WORKS
PLEASE DON'T READ THIS.YOU WILL BE KISSED ON THE
NEAREST FRIDAY BY THE LOVER OF YOUR LIFE.NOW YOU'VE
STARTED READING THIS.DON'T STOP. THIS IS FREAKY
1)say your name 10 times
2)say your moms name 5 times
3)say your crush's name 3 times
4)PASTE THIS TO FOUR OTHER QUIZZES.IF YOU DO THIS
YOUR CRUSH WILL KISS YOU ON THE NEAREST.............................. FRIDAY.BUT
IF YOU READ THIS AND DONT PASTE IT YOU WILL HAVE BAD
LUCK THEN YOU WILL HAVE VERY BAD LUCK. SEND THIS TO FIVE
QUIZES IN 143 MINUTES. WHEN YOU'RE DONE PRESS F6
AND YOU CRUSH'S NAME WILL APPEAR IN BIG LETTERS ON
THE SCREEN. THIS IS SO FREAKY BECAUSE IT ACTUALLY
I wonder how many users realize that simple javascript command can reveal their photo albums to virtually any visitor.
Posted by: http://openid.anonymity.com/6ysY4eRa
|
January 29, 2010 3:40 AM
There is an update on Facebook's privacy. I think it safer now
I can't live without Facebook
PLEASE DONT READ THIS. YOU WILL BE KISSED ON THE NEAREST POSSIBLE FRIDAY BY THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE. TOMMOROW WILL BE THE BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE. HOWEVER IF YOU DONT POST THIS COMMENT TO AT LEST FIVE QUIZZES YOU WILL DIE IN 2 DAYS. NOW UV STARTED READIN THIS DONT STOP THIS IS SO SCARY.xSEND THIS TO FIVE QUIZZES IN 143 MINUTES WHEN UR DONE PRESS F6 AND UR CRUSHES NAME WILL APPEAR IN BIG LETTERS ON THE SCREEN. THIS IS SO SCARY COZ IT ACTUALLY WORKS