14 ms·
TakeThisLollipop - really clever/creepy use of the Facebook API
- kennywinker 15y agoOooh! Well played. I really want the candy, but I know they're going to do something bad with the information they take from me... I'm still tempted. Ok, so I did it and now I'm never sleeping again.
- Pfiffer 15y agoCare to explain for those without Facebook accounts?
- wesleyzhao 15y agoIndeed. So basically someone made a very high quality video of a creepy dude in a dark room creeping on Facebook and getting really mad. Then (with some special effects they used) they make it look like (almost perfectly) the guy is viewing your profile page, looking through your photos, and creeping on your friends. Then he maps your last known location on Google Maps, looks right at you, and drives over to your house. It's eerily realistic. Disclaimer: not my project, found it on the web.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- ricefield 15y agonot to mention that, in the car, he has a print out of your profile picture, and a screwdriver (or is it a box cutter) in his hand as he exits the car.
- zaphar 15y agoI'm betting its a lollipop in his hand. The video doesn't make it clear but the ending title screen shows a lollipop taped to something so I feel like that was a hint.
- splish 15y ago" ... Just upload lots of pictures of cats, then it's LOL funny." -Jason Zada
- morsch 15y agoI guess this is a teaser trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xBA0mpWuuo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xBA0mpWuuo
- henrikschroder 15y agoIt's an example of how much personal data you actually leak through Facebook illustrated through a movie of a crazy serial killer browsing Facebook, with nicely done overlays of your actual personal data that the app pulled from you.
- ricefield 15y agono, not really, considering you have to explicitly allow the app to access all that data...
- chrischen 15y agoYes but I'm sure many people did... And it wasn't hard to do.
- henrikschroder 15y agoExactly, and you did allow it to do that on nothing more than an image of a lollipop and endorsement from this community.
- Radim 15y agomovie of a crazy serial killer browsing Facebook Serial killer? That's just your assumption, based on video editing. Remember the scene in Men in Black, where Will Smith is asked to shoot cardboard aliens and shoots a little girl instead? HN Against Prejudice! :-) (showed TakeThisLollipop to my gf, who freaked out and immediately deleted all fb apps... so prejudiced!)
- zrgiu_ 15y agoCan someone make a video of this thing ?
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- user24 15y agohttp://www.takethislollipop.com/assets/takethislollipopv4.mp4 http://www.takethislollipop.com/assets/takethislollipopv4.mp...
- hiraki9 15y agoThat was very, very well done. How did they do video compositing on top of an embedded browser window in Flash? Perhaps they pre-rendered the webpages server-side using WebKit or some such and sent a screenshot to Flash....
- egiva 15y agoFlash has the capability of incorporating dynamic content in flash-driven movies. See how to do it (easy example), here: UPDATE: better link here: http://flashexplained.com/actionscript/loading-external-jpgs-into-your-main-swf-movie/ http://flashexplained.com/actionscript/loading-external-jpgs...
- tomasienrbc 15y agoThis is a pretty disruptive use of the Facebook API. Personalized entertainment content, I love it!
- Hitchhiker 15y agoBrilliant.. could help people think more clearly. Another play on these issues, http://youropenbook.org http://youropenbook.org
- toast76 15y agoThis could be exactly what I need to finally get my wife off Facebook....
- bteitelb 15y agoThe production value is very high. FB Open Graph Protocol meta tag found in source: <meta property="og:type" content="tv_show"/> Perhaps it's a viral media stunt to promo a new TV show.
- wesleyzhao 15y agoI'm not sure that it is, but now that you mention it I feel like this could actually be a REALLY effective viral media stunt for a new TV Show/Movie...
- mikeburrelljr 15y agoAmazingly well done... Now, I'm going to cry myself to sleep.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- skeletonjelly 15y agoIn the same position. Had the new Walking Dead season playing on the TV in the background. Great, great combination.
- Axsuul 15y agoDoesn't work for me? Do I not have enough info?
- sebastianhoitz 15y agoThere was something similar with "Notruf Deutschland": http://www.notruf-deutschland.com/teaser/ http://www.notruf-deutschland.com/teaser/ They had a similar "approach" :) Still, very nicely done!
- runn1ng 15y agoWhat exactly happens after the one hour on the end? Can't afford to wait right now
- wesleyzhao 15y agohe knocks on your door
- robinduckett 15y agoYeah, good luck to him finding "X5, Cardiff". There isn't an "X5" postcode here, nor is it anywhere near where I was last time I did a location based update. The inaccurate google map thing is what made me lul.
- runn1ng 15y agoyeah, according to him, I study and work at undefined, undefined.
- estel 15y agoI /do/ share location with Facebook, but I sent the guy off looking for " , (null)". I doubt he'll get there soon.
- radu_floricica 15y agoYeap, they should limit themselves to a higher zoom level. I'm guessing they used geoip, and it barely close.
- auston 15y agonothing, the clock simply runs out... will report back tomorrow with a follow up comment ;)
- snaveint 15y agoThat is impressively creepy. Wow. Anyone know the background?
- hermannj314 15y agoIt killed the mood when he searched for ,(null) in Google Maps, but otherwise pretty freaky.
- robinduckett 15y agoIt's nice that you can disallow the permissions granularly, for example, I didn't mind it accessing all my data, but posting AS me on facebook? No. Disabled. Happy days.
- polemic 15y agoKeeps cutting out part way through, but VERY well done.
- flexd 15y agoThis actually just freezes for me/nothing happens after I click "Connect with Facebook". Chromium 12.0.742.112 (90304) Ubuntu 10.10.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- ma2rten 15y agoI had the same. I looked at it in chrome inspector and it turned out the reason was that I didn't allow the 2nd set of access rights, because it said it was optitional.
- Fliko 15y agoI didn't allow them and it still worked for me.
- captn3m0 15y agoFlashblock?
- flexd 15y agoI use both Adblock Plus and Better Popup Blocker. But both disabled/site allowed. :-/
- suivix 15y agoLinux end-user issue #988823422
- kikibobo69 15y agoSame for me on Chrome + MacOS. I opened it in incognito mode and it worked.
- steilpass 15y agoRevoked access to tons of applications.
- itsnotvalid 15y agoIf you don't want sites like this to view your stuff, please also set the privacy setting for applications your friends use to a better one. Or else you would be next. P.S. Since you connect to that application by yourself, that is pretty clear that they can read your friends list, your feed and post as you.
- rane 15y agoI gave the guy all those details and pics while authorizing the app! There's no way too see those things without being my friend.
- georgemcbay 15y agoThere's at least one other way... make a creepy viral lollipop site, get it on the front page of hacker news, et al.
- Wilya 15y agoWell, how many other seemingly innocent (or not) apps did you give the same permissions to ?
- powrtoch 15y agoThis. It's very well done and all, but what is the point? That if you explicitly allow access to one specific application, that application will have access? Or is the creepy guy supposed to be the app developer? A better idea (maybe not possible, I dunno) might have been to have different things happen based on your privacy settings. That would actually call people's attention to something they should care about, instead of just fear-mongering to everyone regardless.
- darklajid 15y agoIf you care about your privacy settings and lock them down. you are (probably) not the target audience. And part of a minority anyway. Speaking of which, how many of your FB friends would grant ~impersonation~ rights to an app without lots of thoughts? And - could that app then, using your _friend_ as proxy, play this particular game of fear with you?
- slapshot 15y agoLooks like it's connected with the ad agency Evolution Bureau ("EVB") (clients: [1]), the same people who did the Office Depot-braded "Elf Yourself" sensation [2]. Why do I think it's EVB? This is the only other site on the same IP as manipulation.com, and manipulation.com is registered clearly to EVB. The agency's creative work is consistent with this project too. [1] http://evb.com/work/ http://evb.com/work/ [2] http://elf.evb-archive.com/ http://elf.evb-archive.com/
- andrewcooke 15y agoany idea who the client is? i searched for "evb google" but didn't come up with anything...
- jdp23 15y agoOn Twitter, EVB's CEO said they didn't do the site. http://twitter.com/#!/danielstein/status/126322020152651776 http://twitter.com/#!/danielstein/status/126322020152651776
- caryme 15y agoIt's at least the same director as Elf Yourself, according to the actor in it (https://twitter.com/#!/billoberstjr/status/126111325670748160 https://twitter.com/#!/billoberstjr/status/12611132567074816...).
- missing_cipher 15y agoSame guy from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAihDAJX8Ow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAihDAJX8Ow ? EDIT: Yup: http://www.fearnet.com/news/b23933_mastodon_premiere_twisted_horror-themed.html?utm_source=fearnet&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_imdb http://www.fearnet.com/news/b23933_mastodon_premiere_twisted...
- mikeryan 15y agoIt's not Evolution Bureau. It was Jason Zada (http://jasonzada.com/ http://jasonzada.com/) a Commercial and Music Video director who may have one point been at EVB (and was the one who registered manipulation.com) but apparently he's now at Tool of North America. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/mysterious-site-creates-a-horror-movie-starring-you/ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/mysterious-site-cre...
- technogeek00 15y agoQuality is fantastic, I too am curious as to how they are generating the pages into the movie.
- paul9290 15y agoHere's a similar thing from summer 2010. You and your friends inserted into a horror movie trailer. http://www2.lost-in-val-sinestra.com http://www2.lost-in-val-sinestra.com
- gurraman 15y agoA little video that gives you the feeling of this, without the personalization: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xBA0mpWuuo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xBA0mpWuuo
- ben_hall 15y agoWhat happens when the countdown gets to zero?
- neoveller 15y agoI tested this out for you. It just stops at 00:00:00 and nothing happens at all!
- mahen23 15y agoGood luck finding me in the middle of the Indian Ocean dork
- 0x12 15y agoFunny, my hosts file seems to interrupt the flow of this prank slightly. We'll see how my s.o. reacts to it, but on my machine it does absolutely nothing. In case you're wondering what is in my hosts file: 127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com 127.0.0.1 facebook.com 127.0.0.1 connect.facebook.net 127.0.0.1 facebook.net 127.0.0.1 fbcdn.net 127.0.0.1 www.fbcdn.net 0.0.0.0 badge.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 blog.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 en-gb.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 developers.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 touch.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 de-de.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 stories.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 it-it.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 hu-hu.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 peace.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 et-ee.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 az-az.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 0.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 apps.facebook.com A nice side-effect of this seems to be that the web has become a lot more responsive. No more 'like' buttons popping up all over the place. edit: regarding my s.o. it's been an interesting morning, this app seems to have opened her eyes to facebook in a different way. No more apps.
- JonnieCache 15y agoYou can achieve a similar thing with the ghostery extension. http://www.ghostery.com/ http://www.ghostery.com/
- RyanKearney 15y agoActually no one really cares what your host file looks like.
- driverdan 15y agoWhy would anyone authorize Facebook access for a random site like this? No privacy policy, no about page, no terms. You have no idea what they're actually doing with your data.
- pabloPXL 15y agocreate a fake one-time account? :)
- yangyang 15y agoMaybe that's the point of it - most people won't think twice about authorizing, but might realise what they've opted into once they see it.
- mrgoldenbrown 15y agoSorry, but seeing a privacy policy and about page is not a valid way to judge if an app is malicious or not.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- VonLipwig 15y agoThat was amazing. You know its a joke.. but the production value is so high your can't help but be really creeped out by it. I have removed every app which I have signed up to from accessing my Facebook account. I have also bolted my front door. shivers
- ltamake 15y agoI know, it's effing creepy. I wasn't planning on sleeping tonight anyway!
- SecretofMana 15y agoFor me, this was rendered hilarious by some of the images people have tagged me in on Facebook that don't actually have me in them. Seeing the serial killer erotically stroke a picture of a T-Pain coffee mug is rather amusing. That being said, is there any way I can be sure besides the disclaimer that this isn't actually saving/using my personal data outside of the video? I guess that's part of the point, that I really can't, though.
- cubix 15y agoI saw a Second City improve last winter, and one of the better sketches exploited Facebook similarly, albeit in a more lighthearted and humorous way. Prior to the performance they would find an audience member's Facebook page using their credit card or mailing address (presumably), and write a sketch based on the details extracted from his or her page. They incorporated the lucky patron's inevitable reaction into the sketch under the pretense of reprimanding him for disrupting the show. After letting him squirm a bit under the spotlight, the punchline was projecting his Facebook page on the screen across the stage.
- strickjb9 15y agoThis is a genius idea. I'm sure it will go viral and everyone (including their mother) will give this site a test drive. I can only assume that it is designed to do one thing - data mine.
- dolphenstein 15y agoIt has the power to post on your wall as well. Removed the app before they pull that one....
- stef25 15y agoI wonder if it would be possible to for the app to send you an sms (or even call you!) with some creepy "I'm outside, baby" message at the end of the movie.
- omid 15y agoMy 64bit flash player 11 on Linux crashes right away!
- Cushman 15y agoMobile Safari: "You need at least Flash Player 10 to view this page." Apple saves the day again!
- klausjensen 15y agoWould seem like the viral success has overloaded the site... I can't get it to play any longer, and it worked an hour ago.
- clistctrl 15y agoThis is a really cool example of privacy concerns, but also highlights a possible future for media! Imagine movies with a more personal touch. This video did such an amazing job at integrating dynamic material, it was completely seamless.
- jmilloy 15y agoI don't think I get it... when I let a facebook app access my facebook, it can... access my facebook and look at my pictures? anyone can look at my pictures, anyways. i'm missing something here
- darklajid 15y agoI seriously hope you're not serious. 1) Of course, you _can_ allow everyone to see your pictures. That's not necessary though and one of the (many) privacy concerns this site seems to focus on. If you share your pictures, you share a HUGE amount of data. Ignore the passed out/joking stuff, you might tell me a lot about your place (expensive stuff in the background? pictures that show a street name?) and your habits (always going to his parents on weekends. currently on vacation). This is, in theory, very easily exploitable, for someone with a criminal mind and the balls to pull of a stunt. 2) Regarding Facebook apps: Well, don't allow those to access your data? You saw what this app did (and automatically, without a human involved). It can exploit the date your coughing up every day in ways that you probably didn't think about before. Bottom line: If you're the 'share with everything and play any FB game' type this might not shock you, but others might wake up and stop being very careless with their own private data.
- pessimizer 15y agoI think it's that you're giving them access based on a picture of a lollipop, while having absolutely no idea who you're giving that access to. Never take candy from strangers.
- lukejduncan 15y agoI don't have facebook. Anyone mind writing a tldr?
- Peroni 15y agoIt's a facebook app. It asks your permission to access pretty much everything on your profile and when you finally accept it cuts to a fullscreen, high production video of an incredibly creepy actor on a computer in a really dingy room. It then cuts to the computer screen and shows the creepy guy scrolling through your profile page in a very realistic manner as well as clicking through some of your photo's and friends. The guy looks more and more irritated and angry and he goes and looks up your location on google maps (with mixed results, mine was relatively close). It then cuts to him driving with a picture of your profile pic stuck to his dashboard, the whole time you get the feeling this guy is tracking you down with the intention of hurting you. Really creepy and incredibly well done and surprisingly not obvious in terms of what they are promoting.
- mvzink 15y agoWhat are they promoting?
- Peroni 15y agoNo idea to tell you the truth. This is probably one of those 'build the hype, keep people guessing' campaigns and eventually it will all come out. There really was nothing in the clip that indicated any form of a product or brand. It could be a movie teaser or a teaser for a TV show and if it is, I for one will watch it.
- 0x12 15y agoWhatever it was they should have anticipated the popularity a bit better, they seem to be down/very slow for hours now.
- thomasfl 15y agoGoogle+?
- chippy 15y agocrashes flash
- caryme 15y agoIt looks like this was made by Jason Zada (https://twitter.com/#!/jasonzada https://twitter.com/#!/jasonzada) according to a tweet by the actor (https://twitter.com/#!/billoberstjr/status/126140800944963586 https://twitter.com/#!/billoberstjr/status/12614080094496358...).
- mindstab 15y agoOne interesting thing about how this was designed, it for some reason doesn't get your location from your facebook profile. It uses your IP address, which led to hilarious results because while my facebook rightly says where I am, I was using a SOCKS proxy to access this in a different city and when it showed him looking at a map it showed the route to my SOCKS proxy instead of me. I guess I'm safe and the crazy guy won't kill me :)
- arnorhs 15y agoNot by IP, FWIW. I'm in Mountain View but the guy seemed to want to find me in Reykjavik, Iceland, where I'm from. (I moved to the Bay Area a month ago, but haven't update my FB)
- rufibarbatus 15y agoThis guy over here [1] claims the video tracked his last foursquare check-in. I'm guessing the location algorithm tries to find a best guess of where you might be — hence the inconsistent results. [1] http://www.jenders.com/2011/10/18/take-this-lollipop-and-the-importance-of-facebook-privacy/ http://www.jenders.com/2011/10/18/take-this-lollipop-and-the...
- freedompeace 15y agoI don't think the Facebook API allows you to find your location (although it is possible to retrieve your Facebook location by scraping the Security page for your current login session (which displays your location)). Also, the location data that is displayed on that page is kind of inaccurate (it says I'm in another state).
- codezero 15y agoMy guess is that this is an advertisement for LCD monitors... the guy went crazy because he's still using a CRT... poor fella.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- alanh 15y agoHilarious that the content & domain name could lend this to being classified, in some filters, as a “shock site” ;)
- lzell 15y agoGoogle street view would have been a nice addition too, depending on the accuracy of the geo lookup.
- sfgfdhgfdshdhhd 15y agoI don't have Facebook, so I looked on Youtube... am I understanding correctly that all it takes to give this app access to all this personal info is a single click on this "connect" button?
- oscardelben 15y agoGeoffrey Grosenbach is next. Oops