6 ms·

Just make a burner Facebook account. You can do so with a burner email. Annoying, but not horrifying.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Alupis 6y ago
Sometimes Facebook requires a photo ID to be submitted before "approving" a new account. Seems to happen when they suspect the person isn't real (fake name, or whatever).
- emerongi 6y ago
  My grandpa accidentally used a phone number to register when he was trying to log in. His original account got promptly locked and for months they would periodically lock it. He had to provide ID proof every time. I don't use Facebook, but I totally recognize how valuable it is for my grandpa. Sadly, Facebook does not allow any mistakes to be made on its site, which is what older people tend to do when faced with new tech.
- klyrs 6y ago
  FWIW it's quite simple to make fake IDs that pass FB verification. Not that I support making FB accounts, even fraudulent ones. I'd like to see a class action privacy suit, because in conjunction with their real names policy, FB is forcing identity disclosure simply to use hardware.
  - shazow 6y ago
    I just tried and failed: https://twitter.com/shazow/status/1295835462360338436 https://twitter.com/shazow/status/1295835462360338436 I used a realistic sounding name, I tried several email addresses that were rejected as blocked, eventually I landed on an email that worked and my account got immediately disabled. I'm sure I could eventually succeed, but I don't believe that it's fair to brush this off as something that anybody could do easily.
    - klyrs 6y ago
      Your tweet indicates that you were stopped by the "government ID required" hoop. I've been there. I'm no graphics design wizard, but I foiled this by (1) taking a photograph of my actual government ID, (2) copying letters around to spell the name I'm known by, (3) applying some noise and blur filters (4) downsampling, and (5) redacting all PII except name & face. Compared to making an actual fake ID, I call this quite simple. I imagine that you could use a plausible but fake name and a plausible but fake "random person" image, but I'm not interested in actually interacting with that website enough to try. You might try a clean OS & browser install, to avoid trackers, and maybe if you've been banned a bunch already, use a VPN (or stop using a VPN) or use Starbucks wifi or something.
      - Alupis 6y ago
        That is, admittedly, a lot of work, even if it does bypass this absurd requirement.
        klyrs 6y ago
        I don't recommend or use that shit website anymore, so the simple solution is stop doing the thing that's hurting you... but if you really need it for some reason then putting ~30min into making a fake id might be worthwhile.
verbatim 6y ago
You can make a burner email account that doesn't track you around the web, and other places. Is it possible to do that with a Facebook account?
- ilogik 6y ago
  if you're not logged into it in the browser, it can't follow you around
  - Alupis 6y ago
    Not entirely true. If you've logged in at all, and didn't purge your cookies and local storage, they might still be tracking you everywhere you visit.
  - stjohnswarts 6y ago
    third party cookies allowed means they can follow you around logged in or out. They can also follow you around by your fingerprint (IP+various browser info bits that uniquely identify you)
vmception 6y ago
When you make a facebook account disconnected from a social graph (new email, or unused phone number) facebook shuts down the account. Their position is clear. They’re fucking creeps masquerading any user experience they create as anti-spam.
- spike021 6y ago
  Is this confirmed? I made a second account at one point with a new email and have had zero issues with both. Although I rarely log into the first one, maybe once a month or so.
  - aspaceman 6y ago
    It's still connected to the graph if you have another account accessed from the same IP. They know there's a connection from that account to yours. Don't create a burner account. Facebook's TOS is to lock burners and require an ID to unlock, so you'd be locking all your games out of access.
    - Arnavion 6y ago
      They're going to lose their games if they don't make any account anyway. So if they feel strongly about not making a proper account, they might as well try with a burner one and see how long it lasts?
    - spike021 6y ago
      Again, I've had and technically logged into both accounts concurrently for at least the past 3-5 years. So unless this only applies to new accounts, I have yet to have either one locked out. That's why I was wondering if it's officially confirmed somewhere.
      - vmception 6y ago
        This isn’t a 3-5 year old phenomenon. I don’t think there are many people that are cognizant in how to break their social graph. I’ve seen a few other hackernews comments corroborating it over the past year. But it isn't a common case so Facebook gets away with it.
em-bee 6y ago
not good enough. maybe if you only play solo games, but once you play with others facebook will get enough data to get an idea, if not identify who you really are. you may get tagged by your friends or family, connected to a location, etc, many ways to leak personal information. the only way to stay safe is to not log in to facebook
encom 6y ago
Not possible. I tried doing that once, and Facebook demanded I give them my phone number, which I obviously denied.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
soulofmischief 6y ago
No. I'm not going to give them what they want. There needs to be a lawsuit.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

Sometimes Facebook requires a photo ID to be submitted before "approving" a new account. Seems to happen when they suspect the person isn't real (fake name, or whatever).

emerongi 6y ago
My grandpa accidentally used a phone number to register when he was trying to log in. His original account got promptly locked and for months they would periodically lock it. He had to provide ID proof every time. I don't use Facebook, but I totally recognize how valuable it is for my grandpa. Sadly, Facebook does not allow any mistakes to be made on its site, which is what older people tend to do when faced with new tech.
klyrs 6y ago
FWIW it's quite simple to make fake IDs that pass FB verification. Not that I support making FB accounts, even fraudulent ones. I'd like to see a class action privacy suit, because in conjunction with their real names policy, FB is forcing identity disclosure simply to use hardware.
- shazow 6y ago
  I just tried and failed: https://twitter.com/shazow/status/1295835462360338436 https://twitter.com/shazow/status/1295835462360338436 I used a realistic sounding name, I tried several email addresses that were rejected as blocked, eventually I landed on an email that worked and my account got immediately disabled. I'm sure I could eventually succeed, but I don't believe that it's fair to brush this off as something that anybody could do easily.
  - klyrs 6y ago
    Your tweet indicates that you were stopped by the "government ID required" hoop. I've been there. I'm no graphics design wizard, but I foiled this by (1) taking a photograph of my actual government ID, (2) copying letters around to spell the name I'm known by, (3) applying some noise and blur filters (4) downsampling, and (5) redacting all PII except name & face. Compared to making an actual fake ID, I call this quite simple. I imagine that you could use a plausible but fake name and a plausible but fake "random person" image, but I'm not interested in actually interacting with that website enough to try. You might try a clean OS & browser install, to avoid trackers, and maybe if you've been banned a bunch already, use a VPN (or stop using a VPN) or use Starbucks wifi or something.
    - Alupis 6y ago
      That is, admittedly, a lot of work, even if it does bypass this absurd requirement.
      - klyrs 6y ago
        I don't recommend or use that shit website anymore, so the simple solution is stop doing the thing that's hurting you... but if you really need it for some reason then putting ~30min into making a fake id might be worthwhile.

verbatim 6y ago

You can make a burner email account that doesn't track you around the web, and other places. Is it possible to do that with a Facebook account?

ilogik 6y ago
if you're not logged into it in the browser, it can't follow you around
- Alupis 6y ago
  Not entirely true. If you've logged in at all, and didn't purge your cookies and local storage, they might still be tracking you everywhere you visit.
- stjohnswarts 6y ago
  third party cookies allowed means they can follow you around logged in or out. They can also follow you around by your fingerprint (IP+various browser info bits that uniquely identify you)

vmception 6y ago

When you make a facebook account disconnected from a social graph (new email, or unused phone number) facebook shuts down the account. Their position is clear. They’re fucking creeps masquerading any user experience they create as anti-spam.

spike021 6y ago
Is this confirmed? I made a second account at one point with a new email and have had zero issues with both. Although I rarely log into the first one, maybe once a month or so.
- aspaceman 6y ago
  It's still connected to the graph if you have another account accessed from the same IP. They know there's a connection from that account to yours. Don't create a burner account. Facebook's TOS is to lock burners and require an ID to unlock, so you'd be locking all your games out of access.
  - Arnavion 6y ago
    They're going to lose their games if they don't make any account anyway. So if they feel strongly about not making a proper account, they might as well try with a burner one and see how long it lasts?
  - spike021 6y ago
    Again, I've had and technically logged into both accounts concurrently for at least the past 3-5 years. So unless this only applies to new accounts, I have yet to have either one locked out. That's why I was wondering if it's officially confirmed somewhere.
    - vmception 6y ago
      This isn’t a 3-5 year old phenomenon. I don’t think there are many people that are cognizant in how to break their social graph. I’ve seen a few other hackernews comments corroborating it over the past year. But it isn't a common case so Facebook gets away with it.

em-bee 6y ago

not good enough. maybe if you only play solo games, but once you play with others facebook will get enough data to get an idea, if not identify who you really are. you may get tagged by your friends or family, connected to a location, etc, many ways to leak personal information. the only way to stay safe is to not log in to facebook

encom 6y ago

Not possible. I tried doing that once, and Facebook demanded I give them my phone number, which I obviously denied.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

soulofmischief 6y ago

No. I'm not going to give them what they want. There needs to be a lawsuit.