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faceboo7k

epix

Banned
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Joined
Dec 14, 2009
Messages
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You can't become a member of a social network or even a member of a forum without filling in your e-mail address. But the Facebook wizards have come up with a "handy" feature: upon disclosing your e-mail address, Facebook automatically suggests you email contacts as your Facebook friends. How the heck they know who are my pen pals?

Someone mentioned this to me, and I had doubts that this is possible without a go-ahead from the e-mail provider. So I tested it, and yes, indeed: Adolf Hitler and Swine Flu appeared as my suggested friends on my initial Facebook page. That confirms my strong suspicion that the FBI can raid any e-mail folder whenever the agency pleases to do so.
 
epix said:
You can't become a member of a social network or even a member of a forum without filling in your e-mail address. But the Facebook wizards have come up with a "handy" feature: upon disclosing your e-mail address, Facebook automatically suggests you email contacts as your Facebook friends. How the heck they know who are my pen pals?

Someone mentioned this to me, and I had doubts that this is possible without a go-ahead from the e-mail provider. So I tested it, and yes, indeed: Adolf Hitler and Swine Flu appeared as my suggested friends on my initial Facebook page. That confirms my strong suspicion that the FBI can raid any e-mail folder whenever the agency pleases to do so.
Click to expand...

Do you use your web browser as your email client? I don't and FB had no insight into my addy book.
 
epix said:
You can't become a member of a social network or even a member of a forum without filling in your e-mail address. But the Facebook wizards have come up with a "handy" feature: upon disclosing your e-mail address, Facebook automatically suggests you email contacts as your Facebook friends. How the heck they know who are my pen pals?

Someone mentioned this to me, and I had doubts that this is possible without a go-ahead from the e-mail provider. So I tested it, and yes, indeed: Adolf Hitler and Swine Flu appeared as my suggested friends on my initial Facebook page. That confirms my strong suspicion that the FBI can raid any e-mail folder whenever the agency pleases to do so.
Click to expand...

I'd imagine that the information stored in the address book and the e-mails are two different things entirely. I'd argue logically about this, but it's past nine here and I can't structure a coherent argument that isn't beyond the reach of the use of a little common sense.
 
epix said:
You can't become a member of a social network or even a member of a forum without filling in your e-mail address. But the Facebook wizards have come up with a "handy" feature: upon disclosing your e-mail address, Facebook automatically suggests you email contacts as your Facebook friends. How the heck they know who are my pen pals?

Someone mentioned this to me, and I had doubts that this is possible without a go-ahead from the e-mail provider. So I tested it, and yes, indeed: Adolf Hitler and Swine Flu appeared as my suggested friends on my initial Facebook page. That confirms my strong suspicion that the FBI can raid any e-mail folder whenever the agency pleases to do so.
Click to expand...

I read an article (which I can't find now for the life of me) that stated that Facebook is running scripts in the background which are reading your browser.

Anecdote: My Facebook account had suggested friends for me that happened to match the names of users in a restricted-access software development forum that I am frequently on. There is nowhere else it could have matched those names to me.
 
Mirrorglass said:
So.. you think Facebook is a subdivision of the FBI?
Click to expand...
Well, there are apparently two sniffing agencies acronymmed FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation and FaceBookIntruders. ;)

Apart from that, I really don't know how the Facebook folks could access the address book in my e-mail account adjusted for the occasion to test the claim that this was possible. There have been millions of folks signing up with the Facebook and had to see their e-mail contacts as suggested friends. I guess it is something others wouldn't lose sleep over.
 
I recently signed up for facebook. I believe they asked for permission to scan my address book which I declined. Maybe you accepted without realizing it? Or maybe some people you e-mail allowed it so facebook has your e-mail connected to them.
One of the suggested friends for me was a woman that recently married one of my best friends. I thought that she may have searched for me on facebook at some point and facebook keeps track of that.
 
Zax63 said:
I recently signed up for facebook. I believe they asked for permission to scan my address book which I declined. Maybe you accepted without realizing it? Or maybe some people you e-mail allowed it so facebook has your e-mail connected to them.
Click to expand...
The former is a possibility, but I don't really remember any permission request from Facebook. But even if you decline and Facebook would grow curious about your address book content, the company then has the means to access it and retrieve the info without you knowing. I did a little bit experimenting and found out that Facebook matches your e-mail address book list with its membership list and suggests as your friends those who have already account with Facebook.

If you extrapolate a bit, it's not really impossible for the FBI to hack into any e-mail folder to scan it for suspicious content - especially into those folders labeled "from Osama" and the like.
 
Am I the only person in the world who closed a Facebook account not out of paranoia, and not to cut the addiction, but because it was no fun?

I signed onto Facebook some time last fall. Two weeks later I quit because it felt like a chore -- too much work responding to everyone who wanted to contact me, and no appreciable benefit. Everything I could get from Facebook I already get from social networks such as JREF, and unlike Facebook there is no pressure to "keep up". So I quit.
 
I never signed up to Facebook, mainly because of the people that kept trying to get me to sign up. It seems that the number of 'friends' that link to your account (is that the right terminology?) determines your value as a person. Just like high school, except these people are now 30-Somethings, apparently re-living the glory days of trying to see who could become the most popular.

And their recruitment methods were (are) pathetic; "You could be more popular!" and "Don't you want people to like you?" seem to be the recurrent themes. Heck, if I wanted a lot of people to like me, I could just as easily drag a twenty-dollar bill through a trailer park and become the most popular person around!

Now, if everyone who wanted to 'friend' me were to pay me a dollar, and then everyone that wanted to 'friend' them paid them a dollar and I got 10%, and the people that 'friended' the people that 'friended' the people that 'friended' me...

... you'd have a virtual MLM, selling only the privilege of calling someone else their 'friend'.
 
Solution: Start your Facebook account with a brand new e-mail account that has no addresses in it.
 
Fnord, I was suckered into it and then left. You have it pegged correctly. The most annoying thing to deal with are the constant, pointless updates of people snapping photos of themselves folding laundry; having dinner; cleaning the bathroom; just generally being all around perfect and all should envy their awesome lives. It's a narcissist breeding ground.
I think the brief snapshot-style glimpses into other "friend's" lives give some individuals way to much license to judge other people based on what little they share.
Once, for giggles, I figured out how long it would take to walk the distance of the light jet coming out of the core of the galaxy M87 and posted it on my update. I was told that I need to get a hobby because I had too much time on my hands. A few months later, that same person was demoted from her manager's position at work because she spent more than half of her day playing Mafia Wars on FB.
 
Mark6 said:
Am I the only person in the world who closed a Facebook account not out of paranoia, and not to cut the addiction, but because it was no fun?

I signed onto Facebook some time last fall. Two weeks later I quit because it felt like a chore -- too much work responding to everyone who wanted to contact me, and no appreciable benefit. Everything I could get from Facebook I already get from social networks such as JREF, and unlike Facebook there is no pressure to "keep up". So I quit.
Click to expand...

I signed up so that I could hopefully get in touch with old freinds that I had lost touch with. It worked.

I don't feel particularly compelled to keep up with it, though. I check it out a couple times a week, presumably missing all sorts of status updates in the meantime. I block most applications, and "hide" some peoples' updates if their signal-to-noise ratio is too low. If someone posts something specifically to/for me, I get an email notification and can check it out. I don't generally "friend" people that I don't already know (either IRL or from another forum such as this one).
 
sgtbaker said:
Once, for giggles, I figured out how long it would take to walk the distance of the light jet coming out of the core of the galaxy M87 and posted it on my update. I was told that I need to get a hobby because I had too much time on my hands. A few months later, that same person was demoted from her manager's position at work because she spent more than half of her day playing Mafia Wars on FB.
Click to expand...

Don't leave me in suspense! How long would it take?

I was thinking of going to M87 this summer but I only have two weeks worth of vacation...am I really going to be able to see the sights?
 
elipse said:
Don't leave me in suspense! How long would it take?

I was thinking of going to M87 this summer but I only have two weeks worth of vacation...am I really going to be able to see the sights?
Click to expand...

Well the jet of light stretches roughly about 5k lightyears across, which equates to roughly 29,393,150,000,000,000 miles. The average human walks about three miles an hour so I figured it to be roughly 9,797,716,666,666,667 (rounded to 7 or I can just punch in .666666 etc.); or you can just say roughly ten quadrillion hours. It's a stupid thing I like to do with ginormous numbers. I am not very good at math but I like to try and get a grasp of astronomical measurements. A mile is the largest measurement I can visualize. I would have to go through my journals but I've also figure out how long it would take to walk a megaparsec :o.
 
Fnord said:
I never signed up to Facebook, mainly because of the people that kept trying to get me to sign up. It seems that the number of 'friends' that link to your account (is that the right terminology?) determines your value as a person. Just like high school, except these people are now 30-Somethings, apparently re-living the glory days of trying to see who could become the most popular.

And their recruitment methods were (are) pathetic; "You could be more popular!" and "Don't you want people to like you?" seem to be the recurrent themes. Heck, if I wanted a lot of people to like me, I could just as easily drag a twenty-dollar bill through a trailer park and become the most popular person around!

Now, if everyone who wanted to 'friend' me were to pay me a dollar, and then everyone that wanted to 'friend' them paid them a dollar and I got 10%, and the people that 'friended' the people that 'friended' the people that 'friended' me...

... you'd have a virtual MLM, selling only the privilege of calling someone else their 'friend'.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I never signed up either, and I never will. The analogy to high school is particularly apt, IMO. Furthermore, publishing details of my life online seems stupid and pointless to me. No one has ever asked me to sign up, because everyone with whom I am acquainted knows damned well that I would meet their request with derisive laughter.
 
Mark6 said:
Am I the only person in the world who closed a Facebook account not out of paranoia, ...
Click to expand...
I have the opposite problem regarding Facebook and paranoia. My new goal in life is to be the last person in the world not (and never been) on Facebook. I now worry that it will one day be compulsory, and I have this vision of encountering people with cold, blank, soulless eyes suddenly turning toward me and pointing at the person who is not yet on Facebook.


But I don't want to play Farmville . . . :(
 
epix said:
Well, there are apparently two sniffing agencies acronymmed FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation and FaceBookIntruders. ;)

Apart from that, I really don't know how the Facebook folks could access the address book in my e-mail account adjusted for the occasion to test the claim that this was possible. There have been millions of folks signing up with the Facebook and had to see their e-mail contacts as suggested friends. I guess it is something others wouldn't lose sleep over.
Click to expand...

Um,

Be sure to log out of any password area when you leave it, do not leave your Yahoo mail logged in, do not leave yourself logged in to Facebook, do not leave yourself logged onto the JREF. Log off when you are done.

With open cookies it is much easier to read the information in those cookies. Especially things like the JREF vbulletin cookie.
 
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