nsane.forums Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 Social site hit by yet another privacy breach Facebook has admitted that some of the most popular applications on its site have been passing on user data, in the latest privacy breach to hit the social networking site. Popular apps such as FarmVille, Texas HoldEm Poker and FrontierVille have been providing users' details to advertising and internet tracking sites, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Facebook User ID is a public part of any Facebook profile, and anyone can use an ID number to look up a person's name using a standard web browser, even if that person has set all of their Facebook information to be private. All of the 10 most popular apps were found to be transmitting User IDs, while the top three, including FarmVille, are also making personal information about a user's friends available to outside companies. The apps reviewed by The Wall Street Journal had sent Facebook User ID numbers to at least 25 advertising and data firms, several of which build profiles of internet users by tracking their online activities. Facebook acknowledged the breach in a blog post, but still maintained that it takes privacy seriously. "Recently, it has come to our attention that several applications built on Facebook Platform were passing the User ID, an identifier that we use within our APIs, in a manner that violated this policy," the post said. "In most cases, developers did not intend to pass this information, but did so because of the technical details of how browsers work." The post also claimed that reports have been exaggerated, and that " knowledge of a User ID does not enable private information to be accessed without explicit user consent". Facebook plans to introduce technical systems that will dramatically limit the sharing of User IDs, according to a further statement sent to V3.co.uk. "This is an even more complicated technical challenge than the similar issue we successfully addressed last Spring, but one that we are committed to addressing, "the statement read. "It is important to note that there is no evidence that any personal information was misused or even collected as a result of this issue. "In fact, all of the companies questioned about this issue said publicly that they did not use the User IDs or did not use them to obtain personal information." FarmVille developer Zynga, which has 59 million users, stated that it will work with Facebook to refine how web technologies work to keep people in control of their information. Facebook has had a busy year with regards to privacy. The recently launched Places feature caused widespread privacy concerns before its launch, and a security analyst exposed the details of 100 million users in July, demonstrating the privacy weaknesses of social networks a month after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was forced to defend the site's policy. BT security chief Bruce Schneier argued last week that companies like Facebook deliberately erode the privacy of their users in order to further their business goals. View: Original Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HATE9X Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 no 5h1t sherlock :glare: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HX1 Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 You know there is always some sort of leakiness.. another reason I like PeerBlock.. LOL.. though sometimes it blocks legitimate apps and connections.. on rare occasion.. but usually one of the leakiest type.. What has been killing me is getting music on my profile.. I have tried a thousand times.. my progress sets at about 20% which I cannot figure out either... and nothing will add to the tabs or in the left column... all of this for three days and like five apps I have tried.. after I finally decided to set it up.. it would seem as though the whole things is aimed at nothing more than advertising.. seeing what your into and not.. then having people comment on it.. I used my real name as well.. on this one.. the only one.. LOL I haven't any friends yet.. but I am wondering what the whole point is.. it seems like a 'yuppy' site or something..or nothing more than demographic study.. I dunno maybe its just me.. But its not really seeming very social ATM.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henz Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 LOL I haven't any friends yet. :frusty::frusty::frusty: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HX1 Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 LOL.. I read and found out that Facebook changed some sort of AJAX API or something.. has worked on removing some of the sidebar apps.. and its the reason nothing is working right now.. and it is going to up to the developers of the apps to repair and fix them... Reason its impossible to add most Tabs and apps.. while they will add only for your use on the Home Page.. or load off site.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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