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Meanwhile in the parallel universe, in Russia, VKontakte provides full API access to anyone who clicks the button to create an API app. You only need manual rev

Meanwhile in the parallel universe, in Russia, VKontakte provides full API access to anyone who clicks the button to create an API app. You only need manual review if you want access to messaging from user tokens, and that's a relatively recent change. Somehow, this hasn't turned into a privacy nightmare in more than 10 years the API was available. I'm not defending VK — it does some increasingly user-hostile stuff too after having been acquired by Mail.Ru Group — but you can still integrate it into whatever the hell you want with ease.

gumby 6y ago
> Somehow, this hasn't turned into a privacy nightmare in more than 10 years the API was available. How would you know?
- grishka 6y ago
  Most of the data you can access through the API is public anyway. You could as well scrape it off the website, API just provides it in a more convenient format. For example, you're able to get profiles and friend lists and posts of arbitrary people, as long as they're publicly visible, without real authentication (but you do need a "service token" you get on the app settings page). The worst thing to ever happen with that open data was that some debt collection agencies used it to threaten people and their friends, and I believe that's why those service tokens were introduced. And that story was rather widely publicized: https://www.the-village.ru/business/finance/217569-banki-pishut-dolzhnikam https://www.the-village.ru/business/finance/217569-banki-pis... for example.
  - alisonkisk 6y ago
    That's a pretty quick backpedal from your previous post.
- musicale 6y ago
  Federal Security Service assures us there is no privacy problem.
Catsandkites 6y ago
Isn't there an app that lets you take/provide a photo of somebody's face and get their VK profile?
- grishka 6y ago
  FindFace? It shut down its user-facing service several years ago and focused on selling its technology. There are rumors it has some government contracts.
  - sorenjan 6y ago
    Now there's FindClone instead. And I would consider finding somebody's identity by matching a photo of them with a database of VK profile pictures a privacy nightmare. I don't know If they got the pictures via an API or scraping, but it shows what can be done with easy access to this kind of data. People used FindFace to deanonymize porn actresses and out them to family for instance. https://towardsdatascience.com/steeling-faces-for-investigative-journalism-a-double-edged-sword-8d7d3719ad5 https://towardsdatascience.com/steeling-faces-for-investigat... https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/05/02/facial-recognition-used-to-strip-sex-workers-of-anonymity/ https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/05/02/facial-recogniti...

gumby 6y ago

> Somehow, this hasn't turned into a privacy nightmare in more than 10 years the API was available. How would you know?

grishka 6y ago
Most of the data you can access through the API is public anyway. You could as well scrape it off the website, API just provides it in a more convenient format. For example, you're able to get profiles and friend lists and posts of arbitrary people, as long as they're publicly visible, without real authentication (but you do need a "service token" you get on the app settings page). The worst thing to ever happen with that open data was that some debt collection agencies used it to threaten people and their friends, and I believe that's why those service tokens were introduced. And that story was rather widely publicized: https://www.the-village.ru/business/finance/217569-banki-pishut-dolzhnikam https://www.the-village.ru/business/finance/217569-banki-pis... for example.
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  That's a pretty quick backpedal from your previous post.
musicale 6y ago
Federal Security Service assures us there is no privacy problem.

Catsandkites 6y ago

Isn't there an app that lets you take/provide a photo of somebody's face and get their VK profile?

grishka 6y ago
FindFace? It shut down its user-facing service several years ago and focused on selling its technology. There are rumors it has some government contracts.
- sorenjan 6y ago
  Now there's FindClone instead. And I would consider finding somebody's identity by matching a photo of them with a database of VK profile pictures a privacy nightmare. I don't know If they got the pictures via an API or scraping, but it shows what can be done with easy access to this kind of data. People used FindFace to deanonymize porn actresses and out them to family for instance. https://towardsdatascience.com/steeling-faces-for-investigative-journalism-a-double-edged-sword-8d7d3719ad5 https://towardsdatascience.com/steeling-faces-for-investigat... https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/05/02/facial-recognition-used-to-strip-sex-workers-of-anonymity/ https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/05/02/facial-recogniti...